Painting

Artist Calvin Murray's painting "Sorrow," inspired by the events of Sept. 11, 2001, is on display at the Contemporary School for the Arts and Gallery at 4 W. Franklin St. in Hagerstown. Prints on canvas and T-shirts are available at the gallery. The artist moved to Hagerstown from New York City.

andrear@herald-mail.com Despite suffering two heart attacks and having quintuple bypass heart surgery last December, Lonnie Jenkins has continued to paint and teach watercolor painting classes at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts and the Mansion House Art Center. "Art is alive and well, and we must give something back to our future generations to enjoy and study," said Jenkins, 56, of Hagerstown, who co-founded the Mansion House Art Center in 1989. "That's what preserving our heritage in art is all about.

BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. - Mary Klotz has been coming to Morgan County for 45 years - since she was 10 years old. There are certain things that mean Morgan County to her, like clusters of mailboxes - old-fashioned mailboxes, not those big shiny stainless steel boxes with cubby holes in new developments like one where she used to live. Klotz, 55, of Frederick, Md., likes those mailbox clusters so much she recently finished a painting of the subject. It will be part of "Paint Morgan County," an exhibit she's guest-curating at the Ice House.

Acrylic landscape painting classes will be held at Contemporary School of the Arts & Gallery Inc. on Saturdays, Dec. 15 and Dec. 22, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The class will be taught by Lou Murray. The class costs $15 per session and will be held at the gallery at 4 W. Franklin St. in Hagerstown. For more information, call 301-791-6191 or e-mail ronlytle3@netzero.net .

HAGERSTOWN - Hagerstown police on Wednesday were investigating the theft of a miniature painting from the Mansion House Gallery in City Park. "I'm happy that someone thought it was so pretty, I wish they would have bought it instead of stealing it" said Evie Cook, 75, who painted the missing 6-inch-by-8-inch landscape, "Pathway of Beauty. " The miniature painting, one of four by Cook on display at the gallery as part of an "All Members Miniature Show," was taken between May 30 and July 29, police said in a news release.

marlob@herald-mail.com Armed only with a black-and-white photograph and her own childhood memories of a beloved church building, Marjorie Tressler set out to create a painting worthy to hang in the sanctuary of St. Andrew's United Methodist Church on Maryland Avenue. But more than just a static painting of a building, Tressler wanted her work to reflect her belief that a church is the people who come together to worship Jesus Christ. And accomplish that she did, as congregation leaders and members commented recently on the beauty and spirituality of the 5-by-7-foot gilt-framed oil painting that graces the back wall of the church.

HAGERSTOWN -- The recipients of a Habitat for Humanity house came one step closer to moving into their new Hagerstown home Wednesday after a group of Lutheran pastors finished painting the inside walls. Gerry Johnson, dean of the Washington County Conference of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said 10 pastors started painting the house at 1014 Lanvale St. at about 8 a.m. and finished about 2 1/2 hours later. Johnson said the family will move in around November after the electrical work is completed and the carpet is laid.

Hobbyist displays modeling, painting talents WAYNESBORO, Pa. - The Gen. Jackson is John Sauder's favorite. Sauder and his wife Thelma took a cruise on the Nashville paddle wheeler, so he felt he had to build a model of it for himself. The Gen. Jackson was crafted in the cellar of Sauder's pre-Civil War house in the 100 block of West Main Street in Waynesboro. It's confined, crowded and jammed with hand tools, power tools, heater ducts, overhead plumbing, a furnace and a low ceiling.

Sam Bass considers himself the luckiest guy on Earth. If he's not thanking a higher power for his good fortune, he's pinching himself to make sure this fairy tale is actually his reality. There have only been two life-long passions for Bass: racing; and art. The 43-year-old Virginia native has combined the two to become one of the most recognized, influential and wealthy figures in the automotive art design industry. His list of clients reads like a Who's Who in NASCAR stock-car racing.

Western Maryland Blues Fest officials have unveiled the 2013 feature artwork, a trademark of the annual festival. Erin Mettille, a senior at Barbara Ingram School for the Arts in downtown Hagerstown, was announced as this year's chosen artist on Tuesday before Mayor David S. Gysberts and the Hagerstown City Council at City Hall. Part of a school project, Mettille's colorful oil painting called “Soulful Quartet” took about three weeks to create and depicts four musicians playing various blues instruments: guitar, piano, harmonica and trumpet.

The Singer Society, the volunteer association of the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, held its monthly meeting Jan. 10 in the museum's Bowman Gallery.  Showing examples of his work, the guest speaker was Philip Koch, a modernist-influenced American landscape artist. Based in Baltimore, and a professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art Baltimore, Koch travels to New England and upstate New York to paint in the same locations that inspired Edward Hopper, Winslow Homer and the Hudson River School artists he admires.

Washington County Technical High School was evacuated Thursday afternoon after an alarm went off in the collision repair program's paint booth, according to Washington County Emergency Services. No one was injured in the incident at the 50 W. Oak Ridge Drive building, a 911 dispatcher said. The alarm was reported Thursday at 2:26 p.m., according to the 911 dispatch center. The alarm went off when the temperature in the paint booth got too high, said Brian Pile, battalion chief of the Hagerstown Fire Department.

Area artists set up easels and painted in the cold morning air Saturday as throngs of best-selling author Nora Roberts' fans lined up for a noon book signing. Promotions bill Roberts' “Inn BoonsBoro” trilogy as being “inspired by the inn (she) owns and the town she loves.” The inn referenced is the boutique-style bed-and-breakfast hotel of the same name as the trilogy on the square in Boonsboro. Roberts updated the property in 2008 with a $3 million renovation. The Gifts Inn BoonsBoro hosted an en plein air painting event on the streets of Boonsboro on Saturday in coordination with the book signing at Turn the Page Bookstore and the release of “The Perfect Hope,” book three of the trilogy.

Special to The Herald-Mail The Washington County Museum of Fine Art's important oil painting by Thomas Birch (1779 to 1851), titled "The Shipwreck," 1837, plays a pivotal role in an important exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The show opened Saturday, Sept. 22, and continues through Sunday, Dec. 16. The exhibition, "Shipwreck! Winslow Homer and 'The Life Line,'" focuses on Homer's painting, "The Life Line," and explores the making and meaning of images of rescue.

As I have promised, during this sesquicentennial period commemorating the American Civil War, here is another column, this one relating to events from March through September 1862. The Civil War was actually fought in two separate theaters of war; one in the West and one here in the East. Most of us from this area (the mid-Atlantic) know a lot about the war as it took place in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia and maybe a little about North and South Carolina's involvement. Yet a thousand miles away from the Union Capitol in Washington and nearly a similar distance from the Confederate Capitol in Richmond, Va., numerous battles were fought and strategy formulated in states like Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and Georgia.

The Mountain Man is gone. After more than 40 years, the image of a West Virginia blacksmith hammering on an anvil that graced the sign promoting the Mountain Heritage Arts & Crafts Festival has been replaced by a new image showing an impressionistic mountain range. ”We wanted to update things a little bit, get a new look,” said Heather Morgan McIntyre, executive director of the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce which has been sponsoring the festival for 41 years. The event attracts about 7,000 patrons to a large vacant field near Harpers Ferry every June and September, McIntyre said.

Art in the Hallway Artwork by Eliane Ambrose will be on display and for sale through the gift shop. Exhibit continues today. Artwork is in the hallway near the information desk at Meritus Medical Center, 11116 Medical Campus Road, east of Hagerstown. A portion of the proceeds benefits Meritus Medical Center. Call 301-790-8144 or email barbara.resh@meritushealth.com . Spring show Ten local artists will showcase their work. Exhibit concludes Saturday, June 2. Gallery 7, 107 E. Baltimore St., Greencastle, Pa. Call 717-597-3284.

In describing the life of many military members, 1st Sgt. Starlene Hamilton started by reminding the crowd at Boonsboro's Memorial Day ceremony that often those servicemen and servicewomen began their military careers as recent high school graduates. They were probably student-athletes and had a high school sweetheart who either broke up with them when they left or swore would wait for them when they returned, said Hamilton, 49, of Williamsport. While they love music, they also love “the sound and smell of a 16-inch round when it leaves the chamber, especially when it hits black on a target 500 yards away,” she said.

Last chance to win Ben Jones painting Covenant Presbyterian Church is raffling off one of local artist Ben Jones' paintings titled, “Nesting.”  Raffle tickes cost $20. Call the church at 301-790-2758 if you would like an email picture of the painting.  The church thanks Jones for donating the painting in commemoration of the church's 50th anniversary. TOPS 0462 TOPS, or Take Off Pounds Sensibly, Chapter 0462 in Smithsburg had a good weigh-in with each member recording a loss.