Explore The Treasures of Route 15!

Does your heart beat a little faster when you hear the words: Mixed media, painting, pottery, sculpture, photography, jewelry? What if we added tasty local wines, deliciously inventive meals, and cozy, relaxing lodgings to the mix?

And what if I told you these features and more are here for you to explore and experience when you journey through the heart of Pennsylvania by following the Route 15 Artisan Trail? 

The newly launched website, Rt 15 By Way of the Arts, is your ultimate guide to all art and tourism events held along the Trail. The website makes planning your journey quick and easy by arranging artisans and events by county. Updated by four daily newspapers, The Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunbury DailyItem, The Carlisle Sentinel, and The Gettysburg Times content is focused to bring you the best in uniquely flavored regional arts and entertainment.

Looking for a special gift? Why not interact with the artist as they create? Searching for a charming location to rest, relax, and rejuvenate? It’s here for you on Route 15.

I admit I am biased. I live along the Route and have explored many of the destinations. For this reason I am so excited to share this with you. Even if you can’t journey with us physically, I hope you will take the time to experience what our area has to offer. The website is a showcase of galleries, theaters, festivals, artists and more.

Creativity thrives along Route 15. Hope you’ll come along for the journey!

Rt15 By Way of the Arts

Recent Plein Air outings by Dianne Lorden

These are two plein air pastels from this week; the top one is from Larry Lerew's lovely property and the other, much less complete, is from a cool morning on the GNMP. There, we visited the Slyder Farm; farmhouse was being worked on. But the outbuildings are plentiful and offer many textures and angles. A lovely site, but I think I was too chilled to finish up. The surrounding landscape was beautiful, too, showing autumn in the hills. My website: South Mountain Sketchbook

Gettysburg Battlefield Along The Auto Tour - View Of Trostle Farm by Mary Beth Brath

View Of Trostle Farm Along Gettysburg Auto Tour

by Mary Beth Brath

8x10" Acrylic on Canvas

 

"View of Trostle" is a studio painting completed this week from a reference photo taken earlier this month. I used artistic licensing on the fence and created a path to allow the viewer to enter the battlefield.

 

This painting will be framed and available for sale at the upcoming "First Friday Gettysburg" on Friday October 4th at the Timber Frame Business Council located at 46 Chambersburg Street.

 

www.marybethbrath.com

The Twin Sycamores by Dianne Lorden

One of the plein air pastels I created during the Gettysburg Festival - not for the paint out, but for a fringe event called Art in the Street - was the historic Twin Sycamores building on the corner of Baltimore and Lefever streets, Gettysburg. Dear friends kindly sponsored us with their front porch/sidewalk area for working, and John Bardi enhanced my space with music. We all had a great time that day -- ending with pizza and friends.
My fine art website is South Mountain Sketchbook

Barn at Farm by the Ford - Dianne Lorden

I have been doing a seriously bad job of photographing my plein air paintings from this week's Gettysburg Festival Paint Out. I've been totally forgetting to take pictures before framing them! Yikes. But here is one that I did photograph - a view of the historic barn at the Farm by the Ford. This is the amazing property of Gabor and Liz Borrit, who were so gracious as to allow the paint-out crew to spend Sunday on their property. I started a watercolor there, as well, but have not finished it. This barn was, naturally, a Civil War field hospital.
My fine art website is South Mountain Sketchbook

Gettysburg Morn by Jane Albin

"Gettysburg Morn" by Jane Albin
5"x7" Original oil painting on canvas panel
A little painting from Gettysburg National Park.  This is from a photo I took last summer while plein air painting with a wonderful group of painters.

Below is the painting I created that morning.

Peering Into Devil's Den by Jane Albin

"Peering Into Devil's Den" by Jane Albin
5"x7" Original watercolor on 140#Arches cold pressed paper

Another view of Devil's Den in Gettysburg National Park.

Stroll Atop Devil's Den by Jane Albin

"Stroll Atop Devil's Den"
5"x7" Original watercolor on 140#Arches Cold Pressed paper

I've been reminiscing about my time last summer in the Gettysburg Artist Colony.  Here is a new
watercolor from a photo I took then.  I'm looking forward to doing more plein air painting in
Gettysburg again soon.

2012 Christmas Card by Amy Lindenberger

I've been in an artistic funk for much of this year, I'm sorry to say. It's not that I haven't produced any work, it's just that what I AM producing hasn't quite felt right, even if other people seem to be happy with it. I'm working through it and am sure I will come out on the other side eventually, but having been a professional artist for thirty years, I have to admit this is the longest "drought" I've experienced. It's pretty uncomfortable.

But I have just created a new Christmas card for this season -- part of the series of cards I've produced for the Shriver House Museum in Gettysburg -- entitled A Christmas Surprise, that I'm pretty happy with.

And during this "dry phase" I also learned how to add PayPal buttons to my Christmas card pages, so if you're interested in these or any other of my Christmas cards, I invite you to visit:
http://www.civilwarfineart.com/CivilWarChristmasImages.htm.

Farm on the Battlefield by Daily Painter of Pennsylvania Mary Beth Brath

Farm on the Battlefield by Mary Beth Brath

6x6" Acrylic on Strathmore Canvas Paper

Plein Air with Palette Knife

This painting was created during the 2012 Gettysburg Plein Air Colony. Mark Brockman and Claire Beadon Carnell were the Master Instructors. The weather was very hot this day and several of us found shade along the edge of a field.

www.marybethbrath.com

Little Round Top finally finished and heading to Gettysburg by Mary Beth Brath

"Little Round Top"

11x14" Acrylic on Masonite

I started this painting plein air during the 2010 Gettysburg Festival Artist Colony under the guidance of Master Artist Lisa Egeli. It was not quite finished.  The composition and colors were blocked in and it has taken me 2 years to get back to finishing the painting. There is even an 8x10" photo of me hanging in the festival conference room showing me painting this on location.

I will be sending this to Gettysburg along with 2 other battlefield landscapes to be included in our exhibit in the Majestic Theater gallery. The show will hang during the festival in June.

A View from E. Cemetery Hill by Dianne Lorden

Here is another collection of images from the recent Plein Air Paint Out, part of the Gettysburg Festival's Fringe Fest. I parked myself on what felt like the top of the world - at least my little bit of the world - and had a wonderful time trying to capture (and accentuate, really) the changing light. The barrel of the cannon in the foreground contains a blue bird nest; they were very busy building on that day!
To see more of my work, visit South Mountain Sketchbook.

Bushman Farm (from 2011 G'burg Fest Paint Out) by Dianne Lorden

I'm still organizing my photos from the 10-day Gettysburg Fringe Fest Plein Air Paint Out. Here are images from Day 2, with the pastel at top. On this day, I actually had to scrap my initial attempt (seen on easel) to begin anew on a different surface. I learned, during this festival, that a sanded surface works better for me when painting in the field. It was very frustrating, but once I made that switch - on the go! - the rest of the fest went better for me.

I'll soon be posting my work from this year's Gettysburg Festival on my website, which is:

South Mountain Sketchbook.

LIVING WITNESSES, THE COPSE OF TREES By Cecelia Lyden

oil on stretched canvas

16x20

http://www.cecelialyden.com/

lyden1819@comcast.net

I paid my first visit to the Gettysburg Battlefield this past Thursday. I had passed by it many times to visit my cousin, who lived nearby, but had never entered the grounds. I went there to paint with my fellow plein air painters, but I did not get much work done. Armed with my camera, I became a tourist and began snapping photo after photo.

It was a cloudy, chilly morning, which lent itself well to the somber setting. Many have told me what a beautiful, serene landscape the battlefield is, how peaceful and spiritual it is, worthy of deep respect and reverence. I felt all of these things and yet I also felt a profound sadness. With 600,00 dead, Americans fighting Americans, The Civil War to me is the saddest of wars.

After looking around, I settled on the Copse of Trees, learning about its significance later. The trees are aged, but still standing, protected and revered as living witnesses to the bloody, hand to hand violence that took place around them in July of 1863.

I decided not to place the old trees in a serene setting, but to depict them as writhing, agitated and bent over in pain. I used red in the sky and on the ground to symbolize the blood shed. This rendering, I feel, more closely represents my feelings about the Civil War and all wars.

"Surgeon's table" by Dianne Lorden

Michael's recent re-working of one of his wonderful re-enactor paintings got me thinking about some of the pieces I've done along those lines. (Not nearly as many as he's done!) They never seem to turn out the way I expect them to, so I found his comments interesting.
This one is from a couple of years ago. The demo this gentleman presented was much more intriguing than the pastel that resulted from it! But it's all a good experience - nothing wasted when you're working!
View my artwork at South Mountain Sketchbook: www.southmountainsketchbook.webs.com

Cedar Trio - Watercolor by Susan Gray

This little ditty was done completely en plein air at Gettysburg Park near the Alabama Monument. There are a couple of places at that location where the Cedar trees punctuate the landscape in rhythmic form. It's size is 7 inches square.

"Bushman Farm House" by Dianne Lorden

Hey all, this is a plein air in pastel that I didn't get to complete in time for the Gettysburg Festival this year. The Bushman Farm is visible from one of the stops along the auto tour of the Gettysburg National Military Park. It's got wonderful stonework. There's been so very much to do lately, and so little time to do it! Once my show is hung this week at Gunnar Galleries (in the Sewing Factory, Fourth St. in Gettysburg) I hope to get back to some of the painting projects I've been looking forward to. View my work at South Mountain Sketchbook:

http://www.southmountainsketchbook.webs.com/

Codori Farm, Gettysburg by Lyn O'Neal

Codori Farm, Gettysburg

oil on board

11 x 14 inches

Last week was the Gettysburg Festival and the Plein Air Paint Out. My favorite event of the year. This painting is of the Codori Farm which is located on the historic battlefields. There is no way to adequately describe the quite serenity and overwhelming peace that I feel while painting on the vast open fields of Gettysburg. It is breezy and scenic in every direction. The historical significance is weighty. The tranquility of this scene is what I hoped to capture in this painting. Though my mind knows the "roughness" of events that occurred on this very field, my spirit saw rest and quite.

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!

Gettysburg Sunflowers II by Mary Beth Brath

Gettysburg Sunflowers II by Daily Painter of Pennsylvania Mary Beth Brath

12x12" Acrylic on Canvas

Sold

About 2 years ago, the fields just north of Gettysburg Pa. were covered with sunflowers. I didn't have time to paint plein air, but my family and I stopped to take pictures so I could work in my studio. How I hope the landowner will once again plant his fields with these beauties.

www.marybethbrath.com