New Hope School artist Evelyn Faherty is exhibiting a brand-new set of landscapes at the Gallery at the Frame Shop.
By: Jessica Loughery
Upon entering Evelyn Faherty’s humble townhouse, nestled alongside the banks of the Delaware Canal in Yardley, Pa., you might think you’ve come for a visit with your standard grandmotherly figure. It’s got all the sure signs: The place is cozily warm. Black-and-white photographs of loved ones hang on walls and perch on side tables. Floral-patterned easy chairs beckon to be pulled up for a story.
But then you’re invited down the hall to the back room, Ms. Faherty’s studio. Each wall is covered in beautiful framed landscapes. New and used tubes of paint sit on tables next to a visibly loved, wooden easel. Spotlights shine down on masonite boards still wet with vibrant colors while cloths and paint brushes curl as they dry. You breathe in… the smell of oils.
Ms. Faherty is one of the last surviving Bucks County Impressionist painters of the New Hope School. Her work hangs in such venues as the Delaware River Gallery in Yardley and the Canal Frame-Crafts Gallery in Washington Crossing, Pa., as well as numerous private collections and the James A. Michener Art Museum. A brand-new set of her landscapes will be exhibited at the Gallery at the Frame Shop in Lambertville through Nov. 30.
"I have to keep painting," the 87-year-old artist says. "When I don’t paint, I don’t know what I’m going to do." And so, she paints on.
Born in 1919 in Hopewell, Ms. Faherty cannot recall when she recognized her affinity to the arts, shrugging and saying, "I’ve just always painted." In her late teens, she began formal training when she received a scholarship to attend the Moore Institute in Philadelphia, now Moore College of Art and Design. After art school, she studied with the likes of well-known Bucks County artists John Folinsbee and Harry Leith-Ross.
"Folinsbee invited me to paint with him and he told me to bring a friend," she recalls. (The friend was to model for her.) "I had never done a portrait before, but when you’re invited to paint, you paint. ‘You really captured the determination in that girl’s chin,’ he said to me (afterward). I’ll never forget that.
"I’ll tell you a secret," she says later. "I had the worst headache I’ve ever had that day. Talk about pressure with a capital letter. ‘You’re gonna make it,’ he said to me, though. He was really the nicest gentleman to work with."
During those years, Ms. Faherty maintained continuous dedication to the study of art. She says she used to get groups of girls together for painting demonstrations with professional artists because they wouldn’t teach one person alone. "To (the girls), it was a social thing," she says. "Me, I wanted to paint."
Ms. Faherty works primarily with oils, though she has dabbled in watercolors and pastels. She loves painting en plein air, and prefers to capture Bucks County landscapes, especially the Delaware River, the canal and local farmhouses. With a sigh, she says that most of the farmhouses she painted are gone due to new construction.
During colder weather, Ms. Faherty used to take her Jeep out and leave it running to keep the temperature of her paints up. With the turn of the weather this season, though, her health will bring her back inside to the studio for the winter; she’s been out painting all summer long with a newly acquired friend.
Back in June, Ms. Faherty made the acquaintance of Scott Taylor. "I knew of her and had bought a few of her paintings," Mr. Taylor says. Delighted to have met the artist one day by chance, he has since been helping her with art supplies and has become her traveling partner when it comes to plein air work. In return, he gets to paint next to and learn from a master.
"Anybody who goes out with me has to work," Ms. Faherty jokes. "He used to carry the paints and easel, now he’s almost carrying me!"
Mr. Taylor is apparently also quite good at reminding the artist to put her John Hancock on her paintings. "I forget to sign them a lot," she says, laughing, then turns to The Gallery at the Frame Shop’s director, Lise desChamps, and says, "Are the ones I gave you for the show signed?"
Ms. desChamps assures her that they are autographed and ready to go. Quite familiar with the history of Bucks County Impressionist art, Ms. desChamps shares Mr. Taylor’s admiration for Ms. Faherty’s work. "(Ms. Faherty’s) paintings are truly treasures in which she captures the essence of her subject matter so perfectly," Ms. desChamps writes. "I feel quite honored to be showing (her) work."
Among the paintings that will adorn the walls of the Frame Shop’s gallery are "Canal at Center Bridge," which portrays the canal’s snowy banks, and "Fleecydale Road, Carversville, Pa.," of a section of road in Carversville first painted by Edward Redfield, Ms. Faherty’s favorite Pennsylvania Impressionist artist and the most influential on her work.
Perhaps the favorite, as far as Ms. Faherty is concerned, is "Washington Crossing State Park," which portrays one of the park’s trademark white structures in the background of an open field. She says she loves painting this particular area because there are no new houses, the river is right there, and the park is well-kept.
What you won’t see at the show are Ms. Faherty’s batiks, which she says she loves doing. "I’ve made millions of them," she says with a smile. "I’m very prolific as usual."
Batiks are sheets of dyed cotton or linen, which are hung out to dry once finished. Ms. Faherty has a few brightly colored, framed pieces portraying fish and other animals hanging in her home. Though she hasn’t shown any, she says she’s sold a few.
"I was doing (batiks) in Florida (Ms. Faherty and her husband owned a home in Sarasota for many years), and they had to be hung out to dry," she remembers. "My husband said, ‘Don’t hang those things outside. You’ll make us look like hillbillies!’ So he made me hang them in the basement!" She laughs and her eyes sparkle with the recollection.
A Solo Exhibition of Work by Evelyn Faherty will be on view at The Gallery
at the Frame Shop, 39 N. Main St., Lambertville, through Nov. 30. Gallery hours:
Daily 11 a.m.-6 p.m. For information, call (609) 397-8939. On the Web: www.thegallerynj.com

