“First Snow” (with Black-capped Chickadee) Original (15 x 22) no frame

$1000.00

painted signature.  on Illustration board  15 x 22″

This barn is from eastern Berks County in Pennsylvania, I believe, although I’ve changed many things in the scene.  I asked my brother to photograph some barns from around where we grew up in PA and this barn seemed typical and classic to me. We grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch country and nowadays that is often conflated with Amish country–we never saw any Amish people in those days, and no buggies. The Pennsylvania Dutch identity is no doubt disappearing now, and presumably it’s hard to find a person who can speak fluent Pennsylvania Dutch any more. (Our family was not culturally Pennsylvania Dutch although we were 1/4 descended from Schwenkfelders via my paternal Grandmother. That’s a religion that failed to thrive–there were 7 churches in 1850 and 7 today.) I asked my brother if the Quakers had fought politically against the waging of the French and Indian War and he said he couldn’t find any evidence of that “But the Schwenkfelders had,” he said. Back to the barn, I think it was west of Route 100 around Bally. The Sumac was a favorite plant of my Mother, although you could say that of a lot of plants as she was a self-taught botanist of some local renown. (She co-authored a study of the Rare and Endangered Plants of Pennsylvania in the 80s.) The Black-capped Chickadee is a seriously cheerful bird of winter in Pennsylvania and in Seattle.

This painting is one that I’ve reproduced as a Notecard as well as several sizes of prints including 12 x 16.  No Frame.