Photo Provided This painting of Flicka and her colt is part of a special art exhibit at the Belmont County Victorian Mansion Museum in Barnesville.

BARNESVILLE — During June, Belmont County Victorian Mansion Museum is exhibiting a collection of Estella Armstrong Perkins’ paintings that were donated to the museum.

Perkins was born on Dec. 8, 1870, in Armstrongs Mills in Belmont County. She is the great-granddaughter of Thomas Armstrong, the founder of the small rural community.

As Perkins aged and her family was gone, she lived in a shanty in the woods and painting became her means of support. With almost no eyesight, Perkins used the magazine “Life” as the source of her subject matter.

Perkins became the “Grandma Moses of Eastern Ohio.”

As a young boy, William Miller remembers visiting Perkins and requesting that she paint Flicka — the famous fictional horse from the 1941 novel by Mary O’Hara about Ken McLaughlin, the son of a Wyoming rancher, and his mustang Flicka — and her colt. Although Miller never saw Perkins again, his family maintained a collection of five of her paintings as a memorial to her.

Perkins died on Aug. 8, 1962. She was 91 years old, and she was buried in the Armstrongs Mills Cemetery.

This special art exhibit is included in the regular price of admission to the Belmont County Victorian Mansion Museum.

For additional information, visit belmontcountymuseum.com/visit-the-museum.