Welcome to the new website, friends of Marcie and also of her beloved guest author for the last several years, Ilona Cole. Here’s Ilona’s latest story for your enjoyment.
Our Friends, Ruth and Kurt Pieper
We met the Piepers, Ruth and Kurt, through our dear friends, the Kolosars, Marilyn and Richard. Ruth had in their home in Somerset an art gallery. Mostly lithographs and etchings of beautiful German and French cities, and awesome country sites.
My husband, Hal, had to go for his job to meetings on the East Coast, and is often not at home on weekends, like this one. We received an invitation from our dear friends, the Kolosars to join them to visit Ruth’s art gallery, she had in her home in Somerset, Bellevue to see some new art works displayed and she would have a short lecture about the artists. Hal encouraged me to go. Richard and Marilyn picked me up and we looked forward to all the great artwork Ruth Pieper will display. She also showed some beautiful oil paintings, by a German artist, Wilie Bauer. My Hal and I remember seeing these oil paintings at Frederick and Nelson’s Art Gallery “White.” We liked the style, much like Impressionism and the way this artist applied the oil paint. He used his pallet knife instead of brush. Beautiful paintings! A wonderful variety of stone lithographs and some etchings of nudes by “Edna Hibel.”
I enjoyed spending some precious time here. Ruth and her husband Kurt were good hostesses, serving a glass of French champagne or a refreshing German Riesling while Ruth gave the lecture. While I was enjoying a glass of Riesling, I had the opportunity to meet the Host and Hostess. Ruth was a charming lady and very knowledgeable of all the art and artists. Both Piepers came from Germany. Kurt worked for Boeing, Airplane manufacturing Company in Seattle, Washington. After the lecture I talked with them and they told me that their plan was after Kurt retires, they are going back to Germany and they already had purchased a little condo in Karlsruhe, the city they both grew up in and lived in before they went to Canada and then came to the USA.
We had become good friends with Ruth and Kurt Pieper over the years. When my Hal and I were thinking about our retirement (in quite a few more years), we talked of purchasing a little condo in Germany close to my sister and family and stay six months in Europe and six months here in the USA. But as the time moved along, it turned out to be a problem. Where to spend the summers and where to spend the winter months? It came down in the final plan, to four weeks. We so enjoyed our home here, a beautiful condo on the Eastside of Seattle. Our life and our friends are all here, so a few, two to four weeks in Europe would be sufficient. My sister loves to visit us here too. We would not need a condo for such a short time. We will enjoy our friendship with Ruth and Kurt while they are still here and we could always visit them, while at my sister’s. In the meantime, we will visit Ruth here at her home and her gallery. There is so much more to look at, admire and purchase some of her awesome art. Edna Hibel, Wilie Bauer, the Casamires and the Eidenbergers, the last two have an endless selection of stone lithographs and etchings. Edna Hibel is an American artist and Ruth carries some beautiful etchings by her in sepia color, I fell in love with.
We had a great condo here with an awesome art collection, a library with walls of books for my Hal. Who would be so short sighted and leave all that behind here in the US to live in a little condo in Europe? We will make an effort, when we visit my sister, to visit the Piepers in Karlsruhe. In the meantime, we will add to our art collection here at Cougar Hill condos in Bellevue.
So much food for heart and soul right here!
The Write Stuff MLS 