Paint runs through their veins no more than ink did through Moliere's, but it's got to their hearts anyway, and in the end that's all that really matters.

They love it. Painting.

They love it so much it's all they do. And these are people who normally do a lot of things.

Not right now. Right now they paint.

Forty-five finished watercolors and oil paintings lay scattered throughout the once-immaculate and very formal living room. Portraits, still-lifes and abstracts cover the floor and the walls and the furniture. Please have a seat, they politely say, and you say sure, let me just remove this lovely landscape from the ottoman. It is the picture of fecundity.

These are the Lundberg women, whom of course you must know.

They are graceful and elegant and dignified, all without artifice, but they also are tenacious. A dozen years ago, when the grand old Belle Mehus City Auditorium needed rehabilitation, Susan Lundberg led the fight to secure $2.4 million in taxpayer money and grants to ensure the downtown Bismarck landmark became remarkable once again.

The four women have had their delicate hands in 17 arts organizations here and in Minnesota. The Lundberg family, in 1990, earned the Honor Citation Award from the Bismarck Art and Galleries Association.

And now, probably more than ever, the ladies are wearing their art on their sleeves. And their pants and shoes and just about everywhere else paint can splatter.

Across the expansive, snowy front yard of the family house on Avenue E, the dining room lights burn late into the night. Susan Lundberg and her sister, Stephanie Lundberg Delmore, have been painting in a frenzy until 2 or 3 each morning. They've finished 36 pieces since the first of the year.

"Honestly, I think right now everything is in jeopardy of being painted,"Delmore said. "It's got to be a part of our daily lives, so we put the studio in the dining room. Every time we walk by we stop and paint for six or eight hours."

The incredible volume of work and the protracted hours have all been in an effort to fill the walls at BAGA this month.

The sisters, along with their mother and Susan's daughter, will exhibit their work from Feb. 26 to March 21. The collection will be called "Threads of Inheritance: Three Generational Art Exhibit."

If paint isn't in their veins, it's only just barely outside them.

Lundberg and Delmore inherited a love of brushes and paint from the family matriarch, Evelyn Lundberg.

"Mother gave us an eye for what's beautiful,"Susan Lundberg said. "On drives into the country, she would have us look at the clouds or shadows from the fence posts or the sun going down. All these things from everyday life can be so beautiful."

"And it preserved my sanity in the car," Evelyn Lundberg said.

"I learned to paint from my mother,"she continued. "The biggest part of our heritage was you never just sit. You can always be constructively accomplishing something."

That lesson has leaked down to Melissa Lundberg McGowan, Susan's daughter. She is director of the civic theater in Bloomington, Minn., just outside Minneapolis. She's contributing photographs to the BAGA show.

The opening reception will be 5 to 7 p.m. Feb. 29 at the gallery, 422 E. Front Ave.

And, by the way, McGowan is expecting a child in April.

The ball of thread is loosening, about to extend another silky, artistic length to another generation.

(Reach reporter Tony Spilde at 250-8260 or tony.spilde@;bismarcktribune.com.)