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

I was one of the artists/galleries participating in History Meets the Arts, a part of the Gettysburg Festival. This past Saturday I had my gallery 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 tomorrow.

The image is of the Stone House, a prominent landmark on the Manassas National Battlefield in Virginia. As part of the 150th anniversary commemoration of the Civil War era, I have undertaken my own project, which I've called the Civil War 150 Project, to depict various characters and events from each of the major battles in each year of the Civil War. 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!