A Day None Will Forget

The Windy Bush Gallery in New Hope, Pa., hosts a benefit exhibit for the American Red Cross.

By: Jodi Thompson
   The works in America the Beautiful, a juried show at Windy Bush Gallery in New Hope to benefit the American Red Cross, are as varied as America itself.
   There are still life paintings and landscape photographs. A Bucks County barn adorned with Old Glory and a streetscape of small-town California hang next to a still life of onion and garlic and a winter wonderland scene of Yellowstone National Park. The cord tying the diverse works together is that each artist was moved by the Sept. 11 tragedy.

Abby Brooks’ "Lumberville Walking Bridge" is part of America the Beautiful, a juried show at the Windy Bush Gallery in New Hope organized in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

   Windy Bush Gallery owner and artist Beverly Garnett will donate five percent of the sales from the show to the American Red Cross. Ms. Garnett believes the Red Cross is the best recipient for the funds, as their work in the public eye makes them seemingly the most reliable.
   When the planes struck the twin towers, Ms. Garnett was worried about her daughter and son-in-law, who are New York City residents. It took hours to hear they were safe. During that time she painted a scene of the disaster, strictly for herself, not included in the show.
   "When I get upset, I paint," she says.
   The occurrence affected every American, artists included. An artist that regularly shows his work at Windy Bush Gallery, Doylestown resident Lee Harper, was a realist painter before Sept. 11. One work hanging at Windy Bush is small in size but demands attention. A man stands at his car with a Wawa store behind him, the sign of both the Wawa and a 7/11 across the street are reflected in the windshield of his car. It is a familiar part of American life: a stop at the convenience store.
   After that fateful September day, Mr. Harper, who owns a framing studio in New Hope, began to paint less-familiar images. His latest work is an abstract titled "September 11th." It is not dark and tortured as one might image. Strangely enough, the canvas is large and pale, the abstract lines only lightly discernible.
   Many of the local artists contributing to the show are also Ms. Garnett’s students. She teaches extensively in "plein-air" technique, a French phrase for outdoor painting.
   "I don’t understand why more artists don’t go out and paint," she says. She learned from her great aunt, impressionist Elizabeth Washington, a 1912 graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. A small woman, Ms. Washington would often paint outside, even digging trenches in the snow so she could reach the top of the large canvases.
   "She was my mentor," Ms. Garnett says of her aunt. "The two best teachers are nature and looking at great art."
   She defines great art as that which has stood the test of time. It is what her students strive for. Focusing on the beauty this country holds was just gravy.
   "I feel very strongly about how beautiful this country is because I paint it all the time," Ms. Garnett says. "I’m very moved by it as are all of these painters. They go out and really work hard, not to sell the paintings, because most of them are well-heeled. They go out because they love it, as I do."
   That love doesn’t stop them from questioning what they are doing when the hot sun or bitter wind gets to them as they work out in the elements. Ms. Garnett thought that by focusing on America the Beautiful, people would see the beauty of what is around them.
   "We have such a gorgeous, diversified country to paint," she says. Photographs also capture the beauty, but there are only two represented in this show. Falls Township resident Ingeborg Snipes won the best composition prize for the show with her entry, "Purple Splendor." Ms. Snipes took the photograph in Upper Antelope Canyon on Navaho Nation land.
   Many local artists entered pieces painted while traveling. Ms. Garnett’s entry is a large seascape painted on location on Fisher’s Island, off the coast of New London, Conn. On the frame, she has attached a snapshot of the site depicted in the painting. As gallery owner, she asked that she be exempt from consideration for a prize.
   Juror Jill A. Rupinski obliged. Ms. Rupinski is an instructor with PAFA. In her juror’s statement she says the exhibit theme "has given the artists of the community an outlet for showing their pride in America." She was impressed with the "numerous representations of the American flag in the paintings, which shows that these artists are in tune with recording the current emotions of the country."
   That is Ms. Garnett’s intention.
   "’America the Beautiful’ sounds kind of corny," Ms. Garnett says, "but it’s the only thing that gets to the point. What better way to show our country than landscape painting and photography."
America the Beautiful, a juried show to benefit the American Red Cross, continues at Windy Bush Gallery, 3569 Windy Bush Road, New Hope, through Jan. 26. Gallery hours: Tues.-Sat. 1-5 p.m. and by appointment. For information, call (215) 862-0714.