Summer Painting and the Genesis of a New Series

That's me painting up in Black Moshannon State Park earlier this summer. My adorable husband took this photo.

This summer has flown by and I'm a little bit embarrassed by the time gap between this post and my last post. Nonetheless, we've enjoyed a beautiful summer here in central Pennsylvania. Although we could have used more rain, the drier conditions created numerous gorgeous late afternoons and evenings.

It's been a busy year for me with outdoor art shows and other opportunities related to my work, but I've made a concerted effort to get out and paint whenever possible. I'm somewhat fair-weathered about my plein air painting; as a pastelist, I don't usually work out in the rain because of the risk to my materials. And as a blonde pastelist who already has a long history of being outside as a teenager, I now avoid fully sunny situations. But this area is full of wonderful locations to go work, from farms to state parks and everything in between. I'm particularly excited to announce that I'm beginning a new numbered series of works to complement my ongoing work up in Black Moshannon State Park. This new series of plein air landscapes (Works painted directly on location) will be an ongoing body of work from the Penns Valley area of central Pennsylvania. This area is about a half hour drive from my studio / home, and I've grown interested in it because of the great, open vistas.

I thought that I would use this post to show you what I've been up to this summer. When available, I've included some of my "Postcards from the Easel" -- photos of my easel in the field with the just-completed painting on board. Enjoy!

On Windswept Farm, a beautiful farm property located about five minutes north of my home. This photo shows my easel in my "outdoor office" that evening.

Golden, a beautiful mountain vista during an early summer evening. This view is located about 15 minutes from my home.

Black Moshannon, No. 17 - "Summer Morning". One of the latest in my ongoing series of pieces from this beautiful state park. I completed this piece during an early July morning with my trusty studio mascot, Annie (My dog), keeping me company out in the woods.

A "Postcard from the Easel," showing Summer Afternoon, Spackman Farm still on the board with the actual scene in the background.

In Penns Valley, No. 1. The first in a new series of works that I'm starting out in the Penns Valley area. This particular piece was from a location just east of Aaronsburg, Pennsylvania.

Black Moshannon and the Centre County Dump

Yesterday I participated in a 5 mile walk sponsored by a group named People Protecting Communities. The walk was a fundraising event for this group's opposition to the proposed Centre County dump near the Black Moshannon State Forest in the north central region of Pennsylvania. Because these lands represent one of my favorite places to paint, I wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather and the efforts of the volunteers involved in this project to go check out the area that would be affected if the dump proposal gains final approval.

On August 28, 2006, the Centre Daily Times reported, "Lancaster County-based Resource Recovery wants to build a 274-acre municipal waste landfill on a 5,758-acre tract of land that crosses Rush and Snow Shoe townships. Company officials have said the site near Interstate 80 is well-suited for the project. They point out that mining took place there. They have also said they will help restore the area, including the Red Moshannon Creek, which gets its name and color from old, leaking mines." See the entire article here...

The walk route took participants to the Viaduct Railroad Bridge (Pictured above) and the Peale railroad tunnel. To me, the area was very impressive in both its natural beauty and its history. Originally populated by Swedish coal mine workers who loaded coal cars all day long for 35 cents a ton, the coal mining industry began here in 1883. Workers took daily "hikes" of three miles each way from Peale to the Tunnel Mines in this area to do their jobs. Indeed, settlement in this area was driven by the coal industry as it brought railroad workers, telegraph operators, clerks, physicians, teachers, Justice of the Peace offfices, and police officers to the earliest communities of Peale, Gorton, Tunnel Side, and Viaduct. However, the Tunnel Mines closed in the early 1900's and by 1912 buildings were being dismantled after the coal production moved to Grassflat. By the 1930's, most Peale residents left. Learn more about the history of Peale, Pennsylvania...

Unfortunately, one huge consequence of the coal industry was the pollution of the Moshannon Creek. Commonly called the Red Moshannon or Red Mo, this creek is noted for its reddish orange rocks, banks and water caused by an iron compound that precipitates out of the acidic waters that seep into the stream from numerous old coal and clay mines in the basin. The view of the creek from the Viaduct Bridge was pretty nifty, although I had to quell my innate fear of the 110' height, sans guardrails in some sections.

According to Resource Recovery's table for Origin, Composition, and Weight of Waste, they list Municipal, Construction/Demolition, Sewage Sludge, Residual, and Other (Asbestos) as the types of waste to be disposed in the landfill. The origin of trash is to be determined, although it has been rumored that much of it would come from New Jersey and New York states. If this landfill proposal goes through, it would be the largest dump east of the Mississippi with 5,000 tons of waste per day and a proposed site life of 28 years. This would only exacerbate Pennsylvania's unfortunate standing as the largest importer of municipal waste in the country. According to a 2002 edition of the Columbia Political Review, in 1996, of the 14.6 million tons of waste interred in Pennsylvania landfills, 7.9 million tons were imported.

To learn more about Resource Recovery's proposal, visit the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. To take action, check out People Protecting Communities.