Fern Isabel Coppedge (1883–1951), Road to Lumberville, 1938, Oil on canvas, H.18.125 x W. 20.125 inches, James A. Michener Art Museum, Gift of Ruth Purcell Conn and William R. Conn.
With all of this cold weather, I keep thinking of the artists who traveled outdoors in the harsh winters to create their work! It seems appropriate to bring up the work of one such artist, Fern Coppedge. With her winter scenes, Coppedge celebrated the use of color by creating purple mountains and blue and yellow snow!
Fern Coppedge did not travel far to create this painting because her first home was in Lumberville, the town featured here. Lumberville is a small village on the eastern side of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Situated along the Delaware River, it is known for rolling hills and lush green landscapes. Coppedge lived here between 1920 and 1929. Because she loved snowy landscapes, local residents often saw her striding through the snow, wrapped in a bearskin coat with her sketching materials slung over her shoulder, seeking the perfect scene to paint. One critic quipped that if she had been “born a man, she undoubtedly would have manned a trawler and sailed the Arctic Ocean.” Snow scenes such as Road to Lumberville were Coppedge’s favorite subject. Read More
Michener Art Museum’s “Best of 2010″ List
With the New Year upon us, everyone is compiling their “best of ” lists for 2010, whether it’s in books, movies, the arts, etc. As I reflected on this year, I came up with a brief list of some of the highlights at the Michener in 2010. There are so many to choose from!
In exhibitions, the Michener had a variety including Icons of Costume: Hollywood’s Golden Age and Beyond, Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom, and Transforming the Ordinary: Bookworks by Hedi Kyle, just to name a few. We ended the year with LitGraphic: The World of the Graphic Novel, Art Speaks, along with SNAG, our special installation in our Putman-Smith Gallery. Each exhibition drew a slightly different crowd, and received varying responses. Our interactive Screen Test in conjunction with our Costumes exhibition was a big success, which added many films to our YouTube Channel by our visitors! Read More »