Ruth Snell MacDonald
Ruth Snell MacDonald, 84, of Pleasantville passed away on Feb. 3 at Yorktown Rehabilitation & Nursing Center.
MacDonald was born June 11, 1936, in the Bronx to the late Howard Engall and Estella Copperthwaite Snell. She was preceded in death by her husband, Ervin Douglas MacDonald II.
Her credentials included a B.A., English/French from Houghton College; an M.A., Teaching English as a Second Language from Teachers College, Columbia University; and a certificate in botanical art and illustration from New York Botanical Garden.
Awards and accomplishments included Beaux Arts Exhibit, Woman’s Club of Pleasantville, first prize in graphics, 1996 and 2005; Beaux Arts Exhibit, Woman’s Club of Pocantico Hills, second prize in graphics, 1997 and 1999; 3rd annual Botanical Illustration Show, Denver Botanic Gardens, honorable mention, 1999; and Westchester County Federation of Woman’s Clubs’ 50th Annual Beaux Art Finale, second prize in graphics, 1996.
MacDonald was an accomplished botanical artist with numerous awards. She discovered her talent as an adult while working among the wildflowers and perennials in what used to be an old colonial road. The flowers were a palette and the intractable roadbed a canvas. She was a very active member of the American Society of Botanical Artists and the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators. One of her quotes was, “…art is a celebration – whether it is the beauty of the human spirit amid the vicissitudes of everyday living, or whether, as in botanical art and illustration, it is the transient beauty of a flower or even a pernicious weed.”
She also had strong ties with Japan through her work as an executive administrator at Nippon Steel, U.S.A., located in New York City, as well as through her love of Japanese art. She said, “While I cannot claim the gifts of an artist like Hokusai, the celebrated Japanese wood-block artist whose favorite name was ‘old man crazy about painting,’ I would not mind being called ‘old woman crazy about drawing.’”
She will be missed greatly by her friend and son, Hiko Watanabe, and his family, Francy, Taiji and Shunji.
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