Extraordinary Stories From An Ordinary Guy: The "Inspired By Nature

Friday, September 23, 2022

The "Inspired By Nature - Susquehanna River Artwork" Story

It was an ordinary day. Reading the "Living" section of my local Sunday Newspaper. On the front page of the section were two beautiful pieces of art that featured the Susquehanna River. The Susquehanna River flows between the county of Lancaster and the county of York in the state of Pennsylvania. The story that deals with the beautiful Susquehanna River is titled "Inspired By Nature." The story deals with how the Susquehanna River shaped the style of artists over the course of centuries. Many artists as well as photographers have used the river as a source of inspiration when trying to share their art form with their audience. One of the pieces of art is titled "The Valley of the Susquehanna" and was made by Nathaniel Currier and James Ives. It was completed circa 1870 and is a hand-colored lithograph. The other piece of art was a steel-plate engraving by William H. Bartlett titled American Scenery which was made in 1838. Both pieces are featured in the "Drawing on the Susquehanna: Four Centuries of Artistic Inspiration and Commerce" art exhibit at the Demuth Museum which is located at 120 East King Street in downtown Lancaster, PA. The show features 60 works of art, spanning, primarily, from the early 1600s to the early 1900s. The Susquehanna River has always been a popular place when drawing, painting or even photographing to express your artistic ability. I have spent many hours driving along both the east and west sides of the river, looking for interesting photographs to share with others. The exhibit at the Demuth Museum will be open from August 6 to October 30. The curator of the exhibit if Rob Evans who grew up in the suburbs of Washington D.C., but spent his summers at his grandparents home in the hills of Wrightsville roaming the forests. He now lives in a farmhouse in Wrightsville, overlooking the river which became a part of who he was and who he would eventually become. Rob has included several images and artifacts, including a book with an engraving of a painting by Thomas Cole for his close friend James Fennimore Cooper's novel "The Last of the Mohicans". "Drawing on the Susquehanna" begins with a piece of Native American petroglyph that broke off a rock and washed up at the Safe Harbor Dam. The petroglyph was a part of an archeological collection that Evans was able to acquire along with a couple other artifacts. The exhibit flows through time to see how artists depicted the river and the ever-changing landscape. It tracks artistic interpretations of the changes of the river, the landscape and the people that live and work along the river, but it also tracks how art was made and disseminated to the public. If you have a chance to stop and see the exhibit, I'm sure you will not be disappointed. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. Following are a few pieces of artwork that are in the display.