Showing off ‘Betty, Shirley and Gloria’ at the Mathieu Center this week are, from left, Alice Broadbent, Mary Lou Moran, Gloria O’Brien and Shirley Driscoll.

By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — Betty, Shirley and Gloria were lively fixtures in the activities room at the Leon A. Mathieu Senior Center whenever Alice Broadbent gave her weekly painting classes.

Now the three ladies have been captured by Broadbent in a striking watercolor she recently donated to the senior center.
The painting depicts Betty Slater, who has since passed away, Shirley Driscoll and Gloria O’Brien, all wearing hats and doing something they always enjoyed: chatting.
Broadbent, a watercolor artist who has been teaching at the senior center for eight years, said the women never took part in the classes. However, they would always sit nearby, listening to her instructions, and would freely offer their “commentary,” said Broadbent with a smile.
One day, Broadbent decided to use them as her painting subjects, posing them in hats and snapping their photo. The resulting watercolor painting, entitled “Betty, Shirley and Gloria,” turned out so well that it was chosen last year for the prestigious National Watercolor Show sponsored by the Rhode Island Watercolor Society.
Broadbent decided to donate the painting to the Mathieu Senior Center, and on Oct. 6, a small ceremony was held. Shirley Driscoll and Gloria O’Brien were in attendance, along with Broadbent, Mayor James E. Doyle, and staff and members of the senior center.
Center director Mary Lou Moran said Driscoll and O’Brien “were quite honored.” She said the three women were all longtime members of the senior center who visited on an almost daily basis. The painting will hang permanently on the first floor in the activity room, \She added that last fall, when Broadbent’s painting was on display at the Rhode Island Watercolor Society Gallery in Slater Park, the center provided van transportation to the three subjects and others to see it. “They were very happy with it,” Moran said.