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Portulaca flower

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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Portulaca, or Purslane is the subject of this detailed and delicate watercolor by Eliza Allen Starr. During the Victorian period women were looking for socially acceptable ways to express their creativity. While the needle arts such as sewing, embroidering and tatting were always popular, watercolor became more and more appealing to middle class women. Eliza was a talented artist. She opened her own studio at age 21, and began to teach drawing. In her 30's writing also became an avocation and the two arts merged within the covers of the books she wrote.

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