HARRISBURG'S TRIBUTE By Cecelia Lyden

acrylic on stretched canvas
14x18
http://www.cecelialyden.com/
lyden1819@comcast.net

A century and a half ago, the more than 180,000 African-American soldiers from 25 states who participated in the Civil War, were excluded from the 1865 Grand Review Military parade in Washington D.C. When they were not asked to join the celebratory parade, Harrisburg's Garnet Equal Rights League organized its own U.S. Colored Troops Grand Review.

This summer the first re-enactment of the parade took place in Harrisburg. My husband and I attended. I found the music, When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again, The Battle Hymm of the Republic and the colors of the flags and uniforms emotional and stirring. I took lots of pictures and began painting this scene. I just finished it today. This is Harrisburg's tribute, but it is also my tribute to those soldiers who participated in the Civil War and to all soldiers who fight for us and die for us.

Getting back in touch by Amy Lindenberger

My 86-year-old mother passed away in late summer, after nearly a decade-long battle with Alzheimer's disease. The ensuing weeks (months, actually) have found me immersed in preparing for her Celebration of Life, which we held in mid-October to allow more family members to be in attendance. It served as a sort of cathartic experience; a chance to look through old photographs and reminisce about the many facets of her life, particularly in the decades when she was well.

The colored pencil painting depicted here, entitled "The Notions of Safety and Security", is not about my mother, exactly. It's actually about the final days in the life of Judith Carter Henry, an 85-year-old widow who became the first civilian killed in the Civil War, at the First Battle of Manassas (or Bull Run) in VA in July of 1861. (To read the complete historical narrative for this painting, please visit http://www.civilwarfineart.com/BeyondBattlefield/JudithHenryNotionsofSafetyandSecurity.htm.)

But in working on this piece, I saw parallels between Judith Henry's situation and my mother's: when Judith's family realized what was coming they found themselves powerless to protect their mother, no matter how badly they wanted to, and there came a point in Mom's illness where we felt that same sense of helplessness. I found this piece to be a classic example of how our art is informed by our life and its lessons, and wanted to share it as I move ahead from this experience.

Final Version, Frederick Douglass, by Amy Lindenberger

I'm embarassed to admit that I promised to share this with the group, nearly a month ago. (How DOES the time slip away so quickly??) Another in my series dealing with the abolitionists, this piece is 24" x 24" on Gessobord, laid in with watercolor pencil as a ground, and completed with Prismacolor ArtStix. I wanted a lot of passion and energy with this one, to better convey the intensity of Frederick Douglass for his unfinished cause at this point in his life (approx. 1859), so working with the ArtStix seemed much more appropriate than with the thinner, more precise pencils. I'm pleased to have completed this in time for the opening of my Gettysburg gallery, Civil War Fine Art, at the start of my seventh season. I plan to hang the portrait near a window: I figure that he'll either bring visitors in, or scare them off -- that remains to be seen, I guess!

Abolitionists, a Series of Colored Pencil Images by Amy Lindenberger

In the course of developing my main body of work devoted to Civil War-era Americans, last year I created two 16" x 20" images, one of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and the image above of John Brown. This past October marked the 150th anniversary of Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, VA (present-day WV) and much to my surprise and pleasure, I was contacted by the United States Marine Corps for permission to use this image on the cover of the Fall issue of their military history magazine, Fortitudine.

Since that time I've been working on a few images of Frederick Douglass; the one I'm posting here is a very straight-forward rendering of Douglass in his later years, done in graphite with a light tint of colored pencil, on a 12"x 12" Gessobord. The photograph I'm showing here was really of very poor quality, and as a result I had to Photoshop the background somewhat to try to recreate what was actually there -- but it gives you at least an idea of what the original looks like.

Currently I'm working on a much larger -- 24" x 24" -- image of Douglass, using Prismacolor Artstix (a colored pencil product that looks similar to pastels but consists of large sticks of the same material that's in a colored pencil lead) and a bit of solvent. This piece is much more dramatic and shows Douglass at a younger age, and at a time in his life when the fight for the abolition of slavery was not yet won. I'll be posting the final version on DPP, probably sometime next week, but you can see the in-progress stages on my blog at http://amylindenberger.blogspot.com/.

To see more of my Civil War-themed work, please visit http://www.civilwarfineart.com/.

To see my other work or learn about workshops, please visit http://www.amylindenberger.com/.

Civil War Christmas Tree by Amy Lindenberger

This "quick sketch" is another one of my series of Civil War Christmas card images. The tree and toys are part of the display at the Shriver House Museum in Gettysburg and I made the drawing during their annual Christmas candlelight tours, a couple of years ago. I just wanted to post something with a holiday theme! You may view all of my Civil War-themed work at my primary website, www.CivilWarFineArt.com. For information on workshops and other types of art I pursue, please visit www.AmyLindenberger.com.

Shriver House Window Christmas Card

Andy's miniatures got me to thinking that I should post something with a holiday theme. A few years ago I began developing a series of Civil War/Gettysburg-themed Christmas cards. Within that series, among other things, I wanted to feature some of the decorated windows of Gettysburg. The Shriver House Museum is one of my favorite places in Gettysburg and I've worked on a variety of projects with Nancie and Del Gudmestad, the museum owners, so this was the first window I decided to showcase. The only other window I've done so far is the Jacob Benner house, which is actually the house where my gallery is located. You can view all of my Christmas cards one my website, http://www.civilwarfineart.com/.

The End of Innocence by Amy Lindenberger

Colored Pencil , 27 3/4" x 21 3/4" . The original work, as well as limited edition giclees are available on my website: http://www.civilwarfineart.com/.

I decided to use this image by way of introduction to my work, since it is one people have begun to associate with me. I have been a professional artist for nearly thirty years (but this is my first experience with blogging so it may take me some time to get comfortable with this), and have had a passion for American history - particularly the Civil War era -- since I was very young . For the past decade or so I have been researching and creating works which attempt to tell the story of the often-overlooked members of that generation. Most Civil War-themed work focuses on battle scenes and famous generals; my work focuses mostly on the private soldier, his wife and family and community. In 2004 I opened a small gallery of my own work in Gettysburg, PA. I look forward to seeing the work of other PA artists and welcome any feedback!