Bev Simonson remembers her interest in art dating back to her childhood. Over the decades, she has continued to perfect her technique and try new things.

“I actually started drawing when I was in about the sixth grade,” the Great Bend artist said. “I can remember I had a bedroom all to myself and there was a light that hung on a cord down from the ceiling and I set up a card table under that and I started doing drawings.

“I had a wonderful teacher; in her classroom there was a painting up above her desk and it was called ‘The Avenue of Trees.’ She found me studying that painting rather than paying attention to class.” The teacher loaned her several art books, which young Bev Chaffin took home so she could copy the paintings.

“So that’s how it all started.”

Born in Nevada, Iowa, Bev moved to Great Bend about the same time that she started high school. She graduated from GBHS in 1948.

Her first job was at Duckwalls, which was on Main Street, and her favorite job as a young woman was at the Great Bend Public Library on Williams Street. “We started the Young Adult Collection and I was in charge of that,” she said.

“It was a brand new building,” she recalled. “Duane Johnson was the director and he went on to be the State Librarian of Kansas.”

However, it was a job at Automotive Parts Company, also on Main Street, where she met her future husband, Don Simonson.

Don’s father owned that store as well as stores in Kinsley and Scott City. When Don came back from the Navy, he went to work for his father in Great Bend.

Tall and handsome, Bev recalls all of the girls in the office had a crush on him. She and Don were married in 1948.

“We lived here (in Great Bend) after we were first married,” she said. As the oldest son, Don Simonson and his bride later moved to Kinsley, where he managed the store for several years, and then to Scott City for more of the same. Their first two children were born there.

The Simonsons had four children. Steve lives in Ransom, Debbie and Mike live in Las Vegas, and Kim lives in Radium. Don passed away in 2007.

When the family returned to Great Bend from Scott City, Don was ready for a career change. He went to work in real estate with his friend Bob Richley and continued with a successful career that included building houses to sell.

Although Bev and Don were settled in Great Bend, she loved Colorado after vacationing in Pagosa Springs and making friends there. Missing the mountains, she took a friend up on an invitation to rent a room.

“Don was not particularly happy about this,” she said. Eventually, they both moved to Pagosa Springs, Colo.

They did return to Great Bend eventually and that is where she is today. Over the years in Great Bend, Bev Simonson has worked as a legal secretary for Don Humphreys and Jack Russell. Meanwhile, she continued to study art on her own and with various instructors.

She has worked in pastels, watercolor and oils. She still paints but has had to learn new techniques and experiment with new things such as glass bead gel because her hands tremble.

“I’m relying on texture instead of doing intricate detail work on anything,” she said. “Hoping I’ll get back to the art keeps me going.”

Promoting the arts

During a class at Barton Community College, she developed friendships with Elaine Pugh, Phyllis Schnittker and Barbara Unrein. “Sitting on the floor in the hallway with our lunches, it turned out we were all Aquarians. So we decided we should have a show together.” That was how “The Four Aquarians” artists group began. Later, Esther Maher and Mary Lee Adams would also join the group exhibitions, whether they were born under the sign of Aquarius or not.

Bev was also involved in another group, Art Inc., and finally she started Artists at Large with Nancy Rogers, Karen Shaner and Cynthia Collier/Wilson. Artists at Large meets at 4 p.m. on the first Wednesday of the month in the basement of the Great Bend Public Library.

Simonson continues to see the world through an artist’s eyes. Her home is also her studio, filled with works in progress and finished pieces by herself and other artists.

“Everything relates back to art – to creating something,” she said. “Some people say all artists are crazy. I don’t believe that; I think artists just see things differently.”

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