One-Day, Painting/Drawing Give-Away for History Meets the Arts

This past Saturday I had my gallery -- Civil War Fine Art in Gettysburg, PA -- open from 10 until 8, and invited gallery visitors to watch and ask questions as I developed a small (6" x 9") watercolor and colored pencil painting on PastelMat, as well as enter their names in a drawing to win this composition at the end of the day. At 7 pm, I drew the name of a couple from Harrisburg, and will be shipping the finished, matted piece to them today.

The image is of the Stone House, a prominent landmark on the Manassas National Battlefield in Virginia. As part of my Civil War 150 Project, I decided that each year I do this One-Day painting/drawing event, I'll feature a landmark from a major battle of that anniversary year. Since 2011 is the 150th anniversary for the year 1861, and since the First Battle of Manassas (or Bull Run) was a significant event in that year, I chose this site to depict for this event. For reference for this piece, I used a black-and-white 1861 photograph of the house and edited out several of the people, as well as added in the color using modern photographs for reference. I hope the couple who recieves this painting will be pleased!

Days 4 and 5, Gettysburg Plein Air Paint-Out at the Fringe Festival

It's been a busy but productive week! On Monday, June 13, I painted in the morning with Dianne Lorden, Sue Gray and Jonathon Frazier at the Rose Farm off Emmittsburg Rd on the Gettysburg battlefield. Then in the afternoon I painted out at Hauser Winery in Arendstville on a perfectly glorious (albeit a little windy) day.

Tuesday, June 14, found me in the company of Claire Carnell, Linda Young, Paul Gallo and Sue Gray in the Devil's Den/Slaughter Pen area of the battlefield.

Today I was supposed to have painted at Meade's headquarters (Leister farmhouse) on the battlefield, but it was persistently raining/drizzling and not terribly conducive to toting an art set-up a fair distance, as there's no really close parking area to that farm. So I opted to spend my time preparing for this evening's Edible Art Tour, the kick-off to History Meets the Arts, where I'll be "stationed" at Lincoln Into Art (next door to my own gallery) with artist/owner Wendy Allen, gallery director Elaine Henderson, and photographer Dan Mangan. This is a ticketed event which runs from 5 - 9, and is a part of the Gettysburg Festival. Tomorrow and Saturday I'll have my own gallery open from 10 am until 8 pm, where I'll be focusing on my personal "Civil War 150 Project". Looking forward to it and hope you'll come out to visit!

Day 2, Gettysburg Festival/Fringe Festival

I didn't participate in the Paint-Out yesterday, due to needing to open my gallery on a Saturday. But I did attend the Artists' Reception at the BarnArt 2011 exhibit at the GAR hall, where I learned that I'd won First Prize for my entry, Summer Sunset, McPherson Farm, seen above! This small (approx. 6" x 8") painting is done on PastelMat -- a sanded pastel paper that has a very fine grit, feeling almost like velour -- using several underneath washes of watercolor pencil and finished with layers of dry colored pencil for detail and enhancement. All in all, I've had a very exciting start to the Festival!

Today I'll open the gallery at around noon but then will close to join fellow painters Claire Carnell and Linda Young at Beech Springs Farm in Orrtanna, PA, at the Old-Fashioned Sunday Supper paint-out. After my return I'll reopen the gallery, and hopefully this evening or tomorrow morning I'll have a new piece or two to post.

April 1861: War Hits Home

Sometimes written histories can lead us into considering war only in the abstract. But the Civil War, like all wars, was experienced deeply by the individuals of the era. This is the first of several posts of my artwork, meant to illustrate examples of the personal realities of the War.

In April of 1861, as President Lincoln put out his call for 75,000 volunteers after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, James P. Mills, the oldest son of Galen and Elizabeth Mills of Ripley Township in Huron County, Ohio, was a student at Baldwin University (now Baldwin-Wallace College) in Berea. Though nearing the completion of his education, Mills was thoroughly convinced that the proper place for him at this time was in the service of his country. Unlike many other Northern recruits, however, who insisted that theirs was simply a fight to save the union, Mills’ own stated cause was the elimination of “accursed slavery”, and his fervor was fed by his environment, as he writes in his letter to his siblings that “the faculty are for war to a man”.


While this Ohio college student in his early twenties pens a letter brimming with idealism, a letter written at the same time by his mother to her other children bears a slightly different attitude. She is in Berea at the time the call for volunteers is made, and witnesses all of the pageantry and patriotic zeal: rallies to recruit volunteers held every evening, a procession of citizens through the town accompanied by martial music and the firing of cannon, speeches by faculty and students in favor of taking up arms, and a campus flag-raising by her own son and another soon-to-be soldier. She understands the needs of the country, and her convictions tell her that she must not stand in the way of her son doing what he feels is his duty, but her heart is overwhelmed by the sentiments of a mother fearful of losing her child. In fact, on James’ own letter, she has included a sentence hastily scrawled in the margin: “kep [sic] this letter safe it may be the last from J.”

To see this and other colored pencil images in my series, Beyond the Battlefield, please visit http://www.civilwarfineart.com/. Or better yet, stop in to my gallery, Civil War Fine Art, 333 Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, PA, this summer and especially during History Meets the Arts (June 16 - 19), a part of the Gettysburg Festival, June 10 - 19!

2011 is the 150th Anniversary of the first year of the Civil War, 1861

As noted on the sidebar, this June I will be participating in History Meets the Arts, a part of The Gettysburg Festival. (For a full understanding of what this fabulous ten-day Festival has to offer, please read the sidebar and follow the link provided.) At my gallery, Civil War Fine Art, located at 333 Baltimore St. in Gettysburg, I will be featuring my Civil War 150 Project (full details also in sidebar). This year I will be showcasing more than twenty works which focus on the years leading up to, and including, the first year of the war, 1861.

For today's post I have included my painting of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. When Abraham Lincoln met her during the war, legend has it that he greeted her with, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war." While that may be an exaggeration, there's no doubt that Ms. Stowe's publication of this novel in 1852 brought attention to the horrors of slavery in a more personal way than political speeches and newspapers could ever hope to accomplish, helping to galvanize the abolitionist cause, and thereby playing a significant role in shaping the attitudes that led to the war.

Final, Frederick Douglass

It's hard to believe that nearly a month has passed since I last posted. I guess there's been a lot going on: The Civil War Collectors Show in Mansfield, OH, then back-to-back Saturdays of teaching a class on colored pencil techniques for the Botanical Art and Illustration program at Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh, followed by a workshop on paper and other surfaces for use with colored pencil in North Canton, OH and finally a one-Saturday class for a drawing group in Sewickley, PA about using solvents with colored pencil. A lot of teaching can add up to not much time for creating! But the teaching has been a very enriching experience so I don't believe I'll stop teaching anytime soon.

I was pleased to learn that a colored pencil drawing from my Gettysburg Today series -- entitled Ever-Vigilant -- was accepted into the Adams County Arts Council's 7th Annual Juried Exhibition, which will be on display at Schmucker Art Gallery on the campus of Gettysburg College, June 18 - 27. (To view the drawing now, please visit www.CivilWarFineArt.com/GettysburgToday.htm. )

Next Friday, May 28, marks the opening of my seventh season in Gettysburg at my gallery, Civil War Fine Art, located at 333 Baltimore St. I'm anxious to get back into the gallery and hope to see you there!

Next month, from June 18 - 27, I'll be participating in the Gettysburg Fringe Festival with the Debut of my Civil War 150 Project (see sidebar for explanation). I'll also be involved with the Plein Air Paint Out during the Festival, along with many of my friends from the Daily Painters of Pennsylvania blog (www.dailypaintersofpennsylvania.blogspot.com). The Festival is a wonderful cultural event; I strongly encourage you to take a look at all it has to offer at www.gettysburgfestival.org.

As you can see above, I've finished my 24" x 24" colored pencil painting of Frederick Douglass. I am now working toward having limited edition reproductions made. I'm pleased with how this piece turned out; I like the looseness and energy of the strokes, the range of color, and the expression of the eyes. So now it looks like I'd better get back to considering the next edition of "Sarah".