Sylvia Cohen Knopping of Wayland, MA was recognized as one of the region’s outstanding watercolorists mixing multiple techniques to produce paintings in kaleidoscopic pastels and geometrics, all influenced by her life in New England, especially summers at the seashore in both Nantasket and Old Orchard Beach, ME. Mrs. Knopping died suddenly Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013 from heart failure at her home. She was 73.

Mrs. Knopping grew up in Brookline, one street over from her husband of 55 years, Richard. They met, however, in the beachfront community of Nantasket, married at a young age and have thoroughly enjoyed doing almost everything together in retirement.

The Knoppings first settled in the Oak Hill section of Newton raising two children. They moved to Wayland in the 1970s. Mrs. Knopping was at the first meeting of Jews in the community when it was decided to form a Reform temple, now Temple Shir Tikva on Boston Post Road (Rte. 20). Her oldest, her daughter Ilene who has lived in Wayland since 1986, became the first child of a congregant to be wed in the temple.

Supporting Israel and the Woman’s Zionist organization Hadassah were among Mrs. Knopping’s favorite endeavors.

Art, however was her passion. She followed, in part, the footsteps of her mother, the late Judith Satenstein. They often exhibited together throughout the Boston area.

Mrs. Knopping was the devoted mother of Ilene Knopping and her husband Cliff Kolovson of Wayland and Steven Knopping and his wife Marjorie Forman of North Andover; loving grandmother of Samantha Rose Kolovson, Jonah Knopping and Jillian Knopping; and dear sister of Claire Marcus and her husband Ira.

A funeral service was held Sunday at Temple Shir Tikva in Wayland with burial in the family plot in Woburn.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to The Jimmy Fund, 10 Brookline Place West, 6th Floor, Brookline, MA 02445-7295 or to a charity of your choice.