T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY An art giveaway featuring the works of Don Plahn, right, pictured with his wife Jan, is set for Sunday at Glenwood Place from 1 to 3 p.m. A pair of Plahn’s paintings are pictured behind him in this photo.

Glenwood Place resident and Marine Corps veteran Don Plahn has a special talent for oil painting, creating countless “wet on wet” works inspired by Bob Ross and William Alexander over a period of about 40 years. On Sunday, his paintings will be shared with the public during a giveaway event from 1 to 3 p.m.

As his wife Jan explained, Don, who worked as an electrical engineer at Fisher Controls from 1970 to 1994, traveled to California in 1982 and took a two-week course with Alexander.

“William was so impressed with how good he was at this process that he said he would be able to be an instructor someday,” she said. “He also took us to his home and showed us beautiful paintings he had done, so we went back out there a couple of years later and saw William Alexander again. He took another two-week course there, and then he came home and he painted and painted.”

Later, he saw an ad for the famed painter Bob Ross, who had also studied under Alexander, and Don eventually traveled to Florida to take another of his two-week courses. Jan fondly recalled their grandsons working up the courage to ask his grandpa for a lesson.

“All three of them were there, and Don set up easels for them. And they all made a beautiful painting,” she said. “They each have a painting that they taught him to do.”

Don, now 92, painted relentlessly beginning in 1982 until his dementia worsened about three years ago, and Jan estimates that approximately 70 of them will be given away on Sunday.

“They told us not to give them (away), but at our age, we’re both 92, what can we do?” she asked.

The works are primarily landscape and scenery paintings. To learn more about the event, email Glenwood Place Life Enrichment Coordinator Melinda Beard at MBeard@glenwoodplaceal.net. Glenwood Place is located at 2907 S. 6th St.