We are sad to announce the passing of Shirley Lillian Flynn of La Cañada Flintridge, California.
She died after an extended illness on October 19, 2023. She passed in the company of her eldest son, and is survived by her five children, Christopher, Paula, Mary, Janice, and Matthew.
A prolific artist, her work is displayed throughout the Southland area, including Pasadena City Hall and the Verdugo Art Association. She was featured eminently in the neighboring art galleries, primarily Tirage Art Gallery, formerly located on Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena. The funeral was a private service attended by her family and close friends.
Shirley is a Yankee with New Bedford “Moby Dick” roots. Her grandfather, Captain Henry Benson, skippered the whaling schooner “Lattie Beard.” The Benson family enjoys a long tradition of those engaged in painting. Many of these artists document 19th century New England sailing days in murals, and some of that work hangs in the Library of Congress.
Shirley’s mother, Lucy E. Benson, tapped her entrepreneurial spirit by running a seamstress shop featuring many of her own fashion designs. With such roots, artistic interests grew in Shirley, and she studied fine art at the Boston School of Design.
Once moving to California, Shirley continued working with oils while raising her family. She excels in the spontaneous transparency of watercolors and works in this medium with oils as well. A longtime resident of the Pasadena area, her work depicts memories of her community’s beautiful landscapes and structures. Her paintings are impressionistic, with an ethereal quality that escapes the feeling of realism, but also captures the impact of the scene and structure. She will be missed.
