I use the medium of watercolor to express my love of nature. I feel anchored by the earth and have great faith in its endurance with respect to our own brief life spans. For me, finding the beauty in everyday things provides the balance that allows me to enjoy life. I also enjoy painting the relics of human culture, from memorabilia to architecture. I work either in my studio at home or in “plein air” when the conditions are agreeable. I call my work expressive realism.

I have traveled extensively and compiled an archive of original photographs from which I develop dynamic compositions and, ultimately, finished works of art. I have lived my life behind a camera, a spectator, documenting and recording images that I find visually intriguing. The experience of painting allows me to explore the world in very specific and fleeting moments in which I render forms as they are defined by the changing light and the negative spaces that surround them.

Specific subjects I often paint include my garden in Montclair, NJ, flowers, ferns, houses, neighborhoods, chairs, rocks, rugged coastlines, and the landscape of the great American West. Most recently, I have been painting subject matter that is very complex: bird’s nests, gears, and picture hangers. I enjoy this as if I am doing a jigsaw puzzle but in watercolor.

I follow a few principles in my work. The first is deliberately choosing subject matter that is personal and evocative of an emotional response, either negative or positive. Often, I opt to paint a subject that I want to explore more deeply to find its edges and depths.

The second is paying attention to light, the way it defines the subject at any fleeting moment, the way it refracts and reflects, changing the colors that one perceives. Lastly, I emphasize attention to negative space, which is often as important as the subject that it surrounds. I prefer painting the negative spaces first so that I might better see my subject’s edges.

I grew up in a very creative household in Riverton, New Jersey. My dad was a commercial artist, and my mom was an art teacher. Both excellent artists, my parents took us on vacations that often meant stopping by a waterfall to dabble with watercolor or, at the very least, shoot a few rolls of film. My life of images started early. I began taking pictures at the age of five. Our house was always filled with science projects, piano music, and an odd hobby or two. Riverton was a great place to grow up, and I still have strong connections to the town and always try to visit from time to time.

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After graduating from Riverton Public School, I attended Palmyra High School, graduating in 1972. I was active in student council, playing clarinet in the band while still playing the piano. During the summers, my dad taught me how to do paste-up and mechanicals to assist him in the compositing of print-ready artwork for catalogs, ads, and periodicals. We also used our darkroom to create camera-ready art to size. This was an era of drafting tables, t-squares, ruling pens, Letraset, friskets, rubber cement, and white-out! The skills I learned were as good as if I had gone to technical school.

I studied at Douglass College, Rutgers University and attribute my initial interest in painting to one of my more inspirational teachers, Philip Ayers. Though I originally majored in sociology, I was once again drawn back into art. I graduated in 1976 with a degree in American Studies and Studio Art. Michael A. Rockland and Angus Gillespie were very influential in my American Studies Independent major. John Goodyear, Reginald Neal, and Gail Nathan were notable art professors.

While at Douglass, I assisted in the art coordination of the New Jersey Folk Festival, including its debut year, 1975. I designed the first New Jersey devil logo for the festival in 1976, which still turns up on a banner at Eagleton Institute on the main stage.

In 1979 I moved to New York City and began working in the field of multimedia as an art director and project coordinator at Meeting Makers, Inc.  Computers were not yet in common usage, so our visual productions were largely multi-media slide shows, often with twenty or more Kodak Carousel slide projectors running simultaneously, all pre-programmed and controlled by fledgling computers, some of which ran from a punch tape!

My most rewarding accounts included the design of several corporate business presentations held at the Hayden Planetarium using the full breadth of the media that was more typically used for presentations about the planets. I have to admit that I had the time of my life operating the Zeiss star projector during one evening performance, making the universe spin at my command!

Thankfully, the commercial art skills my dad had taught me attributed to my early success in this field, as did the ability to write logically and creatively, which I learned to do while composing numerous papers for my American Studies classes.

This was a very busy time for me in my fledgling career, and I began to find my inspirations to paint while on vacations to the coast of Maine and the canyons and deserts of the American West. Many evenings I studied at the International Center of Photography. I didn’t have a lot of time to paint, but I took thousands of pictures in various formats, including slides, which I still use as reference material for art.

Eventually, I became a freelancer in 1988. I continued working in multi-media through the 1980s and 1990s as the field became dominated by computer graphics and PowerPoint. My career grew into project management and creating storyboards for visuals to accompany speeches at business meetings. Besides Meeting Makers, I worked at Image Media, Jack Morton Productions, and directly for corporate clients like Nabisco and Sony. The field was no longer as fun as it had been in the 1980s (no more tigers or balloon drops) and included a lot of business travel and long hours on the road, but it was financially rewarding
and I was able to take more time off and travel.

For a long time, I tried to convince myself that I would never move back to Jersey, but “never say never.” In 1990 I married David Fucio (a fellow Rutgers alumni), already a long-time significant other, and we left New York City for the burbs/Montclair, NJ. Dave has always supported my artistic efforts, and I owe him a lot of credit for putting up with me because, without him, I wouldn’t have been able to stop my freelance work, from which I retired in 2003. But does a freelancer ever really retire?

In 1997 I studied with Betty Lou Schlemm (1934-2021), a well-known watercolorist I have admired for a long time. “Watercolor Secrets for Painting Light” Art Instruction Associates, 1996, is one of her best instructional books.

Since 2003, I actively began painting and exhibiting locally, accepting commissions for numerous house portraits and setting up my tent at outdoor art shows. My father moved to Montclair to live with my sister, Judy. We would gather on Fridays for painting sessions, setting up still life, or painting outdoors, often joined by friends and family.

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I am still actively painting and exploring new media and subject matter. Most recently, I have written and created a lot of home-published children’s books for my grandnieces and nephews. It is a fun but time-consuming project that basically floods every flat surface in my kitchen, dining room, and studio with reference photographs, layouts and storyboards, sketches, and paintings in progress.

In the fall of 2022, I taught an online watercolor workshop via Zoom as one of the virtual events at the Palmyra High School Class of 1972 50th Reunion. It is really the first time that I have taught watercolor, and I find myself trying to emulate my mother’s nurturing style of teaching. I want to gently coax the fledgling creative artist/adults from their brain and heart while teaching easily learned drawing and painting basics as a foundation so that each individual can learn to express themselves and build confidence through successful early results.

On a more personal note, you can often find me on my back porch with David, feeding the squirrels and bluejays. Almost every day, I learn something new about nature through my own observations. Birds are a lifelong love. I plant a vegetable garden every year, which I share with the non-human species that pass through my yard, though I do attempt to fortify the garden fence, mostly to no avail. I still collect rocks and love anything about geology or volcanos. I love being by the shores of the Atlantic, whether in Maine or New Jersey or even the lake at Verona Park. But I do miss the “river way” walk along the Delaware River in Riverton.

Edith Munro

For more information or to contact Edith Munro, please follow these links…
http://emmwatercolors.com/
https://emmpaintblog.wordpress.com/
All photos are copyrighted and used with permission by Edith Munro

A chance viewing of a painting of the Riverton Yacht Club by William Munro at Marion Laffey‘s home led to this latest entry to our Local Artists tribute page.

After some networking on our website and Facebook, we can fill in some sketchy details about this talented fine artist and will include more when we get more.

Deb Lengyel confirmed that William Munro was “phenomenally talented,” that his wife was a “gifted painter,” and that their daughter, Edith Munro, is “an amazing water-colorist, to this day.”

Chris Halt sent this photo of one piece.

Leigh Dickinson Bridge recalled that Mrs. Munro taught art at Palmyra High School.

Leah Bentcliff Falicki added that William created a mural at Palmyra High School, which set off Linda Horswood to ask a friend who works there to send some photos.

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Tim Boyle responded, “Bill was a friend. I was fortunate to exhibit paintings in a few exhibits with him at the Thomas Margaret Gallery in Riverton. His wife was my art teacher in grade school.”

Tim sent these photos of pages from his friend’s sketchbook. He speculates that some drawings might be early sketches for the Palmyra High School murals, and other images are from his career as a commercial artist.

See, sometimes crowdsourcing works!

We welcome more biographical information and examples of artwork by any members of the talented Munro clan to fill in this virtual portfolio. -JMc

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After Deb Lengyel clued me in about William and Jeanne’s daughter being an artist, I found her on Facebook and messaged her. I expected that she might send some info I’d have to edit, but instead, she sent the following heartwarming story, published here for the first time, just as she wrote it.

William K. Munro and Jeanne Munro

by Edith Munro

Growing up “Munro” in Riverton, NJ, was an experience that I believed, for a time, every other child must have simultaneously shared. Bill and Jeanne, my parents, created an environment that nurtured both creative and scientific pursuits long before anyone would create the label “STEM,” plus a very big “A” for art.

Our house was filled with art, music, and science experiments. Literally filled. Paintings hung on every bit of wall space. Bird feeders at the windows. My dad’s cluttered studio was jammed with art supplies and reference materials arranged in crusty old filing cabinets, mostly unwilling or unable to open their drawers to share their valuable information. Somehow, he managed to fit a very large drafting table into the space, where he could draw and paint, where he could paste up a catalog, or do technical drawings for his commercial clients.

Bill was from Baltimore, Maryland, and Jeanne was from Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Both were born in 1918. Each of them created art from an early age, and it was this common interest that later brought them together. Bill’s family moved to Palmyra, NJ, in 1927, and he attended Palmyra High School, graduating in 1936. He continued his education at The Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, where he met Jeanne, who was also in attendance. Their focus was in illustration.

After their graduation, Bill was drafted into the Army and served with the 58th Medical Battalion (106th Infantry Division) in North Africa and Europe, and during that time, according to his family’s recollection, he carried a typewriter instead of a weapon.

He was an unusual, subtly humorous guy, and he was well-liked by all. His artwork created during the war exhibits the pacifism in which he believed and passed along to his children. He also sketched numerous portraits of everyday life in the army. During this time, he somehow continued to paint and create wood engravings, often requesting art supplies be sent to him in his letters home.

Art, I believe, was his coping mechanism for being able to preserve his sanity while serving in what can only be described as either an unpleasant or horrific environment depending on the day. Bill recounted being within earshot, over the mountains from the “Battle of the Bulge.” What he painted, however, was a pastoral winter scene, a beautiful escapist manifestation.

At this time, Jeanne was in New York City, working at Bell Telephone Labs as a technical illustrator. She managed to experiment with glass blowing during her time there. New York availed her of all sorts of opportunities to experience art and science, albeit on a very limited budget for anyone in their first job. During these years, Bill and Jeanne communicated through numerous letters; often, those from Bill were works of art in themselves, nearly always adorned with a drawing or a cartoon.

Bill returned to the United States to marry Jeanne. They began to raise a family in Palmyra, where Bill’s parents still lived. They moved to Riverton the year that I was born. Bill worked at H.L.Yoh company in Philadelphia as a technical illustrator and art director. Bill’s work life enabled friendships with other artists and a social outlet, whereas Jeanne was responsible for raising the kids and keeping everyone fed!

If you were one of us three Munro kids, you had to play at least one instrument and have one “collection.” For John, it was trumpet and insects. Judy’s was piano, violin, and seashells. Mine, the clarinet and piano, and the most ephemeral collection, feathers. Each choice developed a curiosity that would eventually come to define us, following these interests all of our lives.

The two-foot-wide parabolic mirror in the famous “Munro” basement, which many people remember like it was a museum or maybe a carnival sideshow. It was a big draw when we wanted to impress our friends. There was also a collection of rocks, a rusty old tool for everything, jars of nails and hardware screwed to the ceiling, a homemade puppet stage, a vintage roller printing press, and a darkroom. All of these items were actually used in various pursuits.

There was also a ping pong table with a set-up of home-crafted buildings and a model railroad on its playing surface, a hundred lost ping pong balls scattered and hiding in dusty corners. Later a light show with a repurposed sound system, thanks to my older brother, John. It was Edmund Scientific‘s local branch!

This is what my parents brought to the table, not just for the three of us kids, but whoever came in contact with us as friends, relatives, or students: a curiosity about nature, a love of the arts, a respect for study and practice, and the encouragement of self-expression.

Family vacations were always spent painting along a riverbank, on a farm, hiking in the woods, or on the rockbound coast of Maine. All of these destinations created an inspiration to paint, as well as document landscapes or seascapes in photography, to later be used as a reference for painting at home.

It was not uncommon for the whole family to be charged with sketching together or hiking together, identifying mushrooms or birds. I remember distinctly one hike in Sapsucker Woods in Ithaca, New York when we lost the trail while paying too much attention to the details and ultimately found our way back to the car in a swarm of ravenous mosquitos.

Bill and Jeanne were avid, accomplished watercolorists and spent what free time they had practicing their art, and staying active in the community art scene, sometimes exhibiting in local mall shows, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, as well as the Atlantic City Boardwalk Show, and the Perkins Center for the Arts in Moorestown, New Jersey.

Jeanne would sometimes take night art classes at Fleisher in Philadelphia. In the 1960s, she was instrumental in developing an arts and crafts summer program at Riverton School and spent many years teaching and helping to run the program. She was always a very nurturing teacher, and her students often turned up at our door, where she was always generous with her time and an occasional treat.

She then worked for many years in the 1960-1970s for the Palmyra School System as an art teacher, rotating between three elementary and middle schools. She simultaneously attended Rutgers Camden to earn a necessary teaching degree. She was well-liked by her students. I well remember the many hours she would spend cutting out shapes for sewing projects, setting up a studio for copper enameling, or tooling leather.

After her teaching career, she painted more often and dabbled in writing and illustrating a children’s book, which she never finished.

In 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, I managed to scan in all of her drawings and fill the holes in her rough script, to create “The Always Way”, a story about a plucky squirrel who needs to find a safe way to a birdfeeder – a legacy for her grandchildren.

Jeanne passed away in 1986, paintings remaining unfinished on easels around the house.

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Bill eventually become a freelancer and continued to keep his hands active in various branches of art production. The bread and butter of his career had been technical illustration, advertising, book, and catalog design. He also continued to experiment artistically with new subjects and media, whether it be abstractions or collages, sculpture, or acrylics. After my mom passed, he lived alone and would stack up the paintings on the two sofas in the living room, expectant of a visit from one of us kids or anyone who happened to drop by. There was no place to sit, but there was always quite an exhibition of new work!

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Bill is known for his paintings of the Riverton Yacht Club and his seascapes. When he was in college, he painted the murals hanging in Palmyra High School, presented by his sister, Janet Munro’s class of 1940. Hundreds of students passed by the murals every day. In 1993 he was able to restore the paintings that adorned the main hall.

He has also received recognition in both the art of printmaking and watercolor. He has exhibited at the Baltimore Art Museum, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, and the Montclair Art Museum. Most recently, he was represented by the Thomas Margaret Gallery in Riverton. One set of regionalist-style prints is in the archives of the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Bill retired in 2000 and moved to Montclair, NJ, to live with his daughter, Judith. He lived a block away from Anderson Park and began sketching the trees in the park on his daily walks, getting to know each one individually and enjoying the natural beauty that provides balance and distraction to the otherwise bustling town of Montclair. He frequently, if not weekly, enjoyed painting workshops at his daughter Edith’s house. He passed away in 2007.

As I grew up, I thought everyone had a Mom and Dad like mine. It took years to figure out that wasn’t true. My Dad always retained a childlike enjoyment of life, even as he slaved to support us. My Mom was the realist and the nurturer. They were both imaginative, skilled, and innately talented artists who would effortlessly put pencil to paper and produce a masterpiece. This is not something that comes easily to all of us. Believe me, I know. But on the other hand, once in a while, I would wonder, “Where did the idea for that painting come from?”

Edith Munro

All images are copyrighted and used by permission of Edith Munro.

A chance search on eBay resulted in finding this marvelous framed print by a local artist who passed away in 2002.

Digging further, we found that published writer and artist Constance Burke Schurr produced several illustrations inspired by locations nearby and in Philadelphia.

She apparently also turned them into Christmas cards that she mailed to family and friends during the 1970s thru the 1980s.

Here are a few of Connie’s (as she signed them) delightful Christmas cards, as captured from the Constance Burke Schnurr website:

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The messages she included provide some insight into her motivation (124 Boxwood Lane was her Cinnaminson address, she worked at FMC Corp. near Rittenhouse Square as an advertising secretary, and she often drove by Riverton Yacht Club).

Her notes reveal that she sold some landscapes to a calendar company,  wrote a children’s book and that her husband, William Bernhardt Schnurr was an author and actor in local plays. His passing followed hers by only three months.

Listed in the World Biographical Encyclopedia, as a notable artist by Marquis Who’s Who, and a member of the Willingboro Art Alliance, Constance Burke Schnurr and her husband Bill obviously crossed paths with a lot of people in the area. If a reader can supply more information or photos about this creative duo, please email us at rivertonhistory@gmail.com.

Her obituary, as published in the Courier-Post, reads:

Age 70 on Sat. Dec. 21 2002 at her Cinnaminson home.
Born in Lynn MA Mrs. Schnurr was a 1953 graduate of Wellesey College. She was employed by FMC in Philadephia as an advertising secretary & she was also a secretary at Rockefeller University in New York. Mrs. Schnurr was a published writer & artist.
Surviving are her husband William & 8 nieces & nephews.
Relatives & friends are invited to attend her viewing Monday 7-9pm at SNOVER/GIVNISH OF CINNAMINSON 1200 Rt 130. Burial will be in St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Lynn MA.

After inquiring of other members about the work seen on eBay, it turns out that two neighboring families own a print by Schnurr because their homes are in it!

That’s the Solin homestead on the left and Betten’s in the center. Pat Solin explains:

Many years ago, Barry and I went to our first Cocktail Social to benefit the library… at the Riverton Country Club. …we did not know that they held a silent auction. Breezing through the tables, I noticed a print of OUR house. We did not have our checkbook with us and, typically, just barely enough to pay the babysitter.  I put our bid on the picture with all we had on the two of us. Then I unashamedly hovered by the table, hoping no one else would bid on it. …we won this framed delight for our $5 bid. It hangs on the first floor of our home, and we love it.

Many more “delights” adorn the walls of area homes. Send us a photo, and maybe we’ll discover another local artist. -JMc

P.S. Oh, yeah… I bid on the RYC print but lost.

 

 

Added 12/8/2022: Thank you to Alice Doerr Groome for sending this photo of another work by Constance Schnurr.

Heather MacIntosh Huffnagle is a writer and graphic artist living in one of Riverton’s historic houses on Lippincott Avenue. She works primarily in watercolor and pen and ink and features Riverton in many of her works.

She earned a Master’s Degree in the History of Art from Williams College, a Master’s Degree in Architectural History from the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture, and attended the North Carolina Governor’s School in art as a high school student.

Most of her work is designed to illustrate stories for young people, but she also works on commission and has painted portraits, landscapes, and historic architecture. She is a member of the Historical Society of Riverton’s Board and worked in historic preservation advocacy prior to becoming a mother and freelance writer and artist in 2009. She is currently developing a series of illustrated environmental fairy tales, set in Southern New Jersey (mostly Riverton).

Follow Heather on Instagram. You can direct message her on Facebook.

Jane Allen Boyer, an illustrator for several charming WWI era books aimed at girls, lived in Riverton.

Her 1940 obituary gives a fuller explanation of her life in Riverton, where “…she was most active in its church, club, and social life.”

Her considerable accomplishments as a member of Christ Church, the Porch Club, the Red Cross, the Cinnaminson Home Board of Managers, and the Welfare Association of Riverton and Cinnaminson certainly helped improve the well-being of the Borough’s citizens.

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While abebooks.com has a used hardcover copy of The Mary Frances Sewing Book for sale for $225, at least three of Boyer’s books (Cook Book, Knitting & Crocheting, and Sewing) now live on as 100th-year anniversary paperback editions for sale on Amazon for $19.99-$21.95 each.

This image from the auction site invaluable.com depicts a sold oil on canvas work by Jane Allen Boyer.

By the way… our historical society does not have any of the items pictured here. Even the New Era obit is a screen capture from our digital newspaper archive.

If a reader can fill in a bit more about the life and work of this Riverton artist, or favor us with a donated item, please contact us. -JMc, Editor

Added 10/9/2022: I recently bought an old hardbound book entitled “The Quaker Boy on the Farm and at School” by Isaac Sharpless, illustrated by Jane Allen Boyer, and published by The Biddle Press at 1010 Cherry Street in Philadelphia in 1908.

Discarded from Houston Public Library and eventually making it to an eBay online auction, I paid $6.95 plus $4.20 shipping so that I could add to this post more examples of Jane Allen Boyer’s illustrations.

Turns out I could have saved my money had I found this page-by-page scan of the whole volume on google books!

If a reader would send us an actual item illustrated by Jane Allen Boyer we would gladly display it along with these virtual examples.

Casey Foedisch kindly gave us permission to use this piece about the Hartmanns that she wrote for the 2018 July 4th Program.

Contributed by Casey L. Foedisch

Imagine a painting. A scene by the Delaware River, lush and green, shaded by gorgeous trees. You can almost hear the tide coming in if you stare long enough. Anyone from Riverton could look at this painting and know exactly where the artist stood to see that slice of our town, and many have seen him out painting.

Over the years, Edward Hartmann has painted hundreds of scenes of Riverton, many of which hang in homes around town, and he has never grown tired of the beautiful place he calls home.

Ed was born in Northeast Philadelphia on March 28, 1925, several years before the start of the Great Depression, to Edward Hartmann Sr. and Anna Cecelia Kunkel. He grew up in the shadow of St. Edwards Catholic Church, playing games like “halfies” and building makeshift cars out of boxes and skates with his friends. Ed attended Northeast Public High School, where a teacher noticed his interest in art and helped him to develop that skill.

Because of the Depression, his family didn’t have money for him to attend postsecondary school, so with the help of his teacher, Ed applied for scholarships. There were only two scholarships for art in Philadelphia: one at Temple University and one at the Philadelphia Museum School of Arts (now University of the Arts). For his application, Ed reproduced a painting by Fredric Remington called The Emigrants, and the Philadelphia Museum School of Arts was so impressed they gave him the scholarship!

However, at the time of his graduation from high school, World War II was in full swing. Ed was only able to complete one year of art school before he was drafted into the Navy. He became a radioman based out of Pennsylvania, sending and receiving coded messages at the rate of eighteen words per minute.

During this assignment, he saw a posting on their bulletin board for Officer Candidate School and jumped at the opportunity to try something new. Ed was a little afraid they wouldn’t accept him, since the first interview question was an algebra problem he couldn’t solve! Despite that small mistake, Ed started in 1945 at Bucknell University, a school he loved. After a year, however, the program split into two cohorts and left Bucknell. One group went to the University of Pennsylvania, and the other, Ed’s cohort, was sent to Harvard University. In 1947, he graduated from Harvard with a Bachelor’s Degree in War Service Science. Now, he just had to wait for an officer’s assignment.

As soon as his first service with the Navy was complete, Ed went right back to the Philadelphia Museum School of Arts to finish his diploma in Illustration. Unfortunately, the school told him he’d have to start all over again, but a beloved painting professor pled his case and changed their decision so that Ed could begin his second year. Luckily he did, because without that change, Ed never would have met Joan Marr Bailey in his second-level classes.

Joan was from Palmyra, NJ, and the two became friends immediately. They had a lot in common and one day, while out dancing the jitterbug (a favorite of theirs), Ed told Joan “I love you and I want to marry you.” Joan said, “Really?” Her response wasn’t quite what he expected, but the outcome was what he’d hoped for. The two were married in 1951, but it wasn’t long before the Navy came knocking with Ed’s next assignment.

A month after getting married and enjoying their honeymoon in Bermuda, Ed was assigned to the USS Duel APA 160, a member of the amphibious ship group in the Korean Conflict. There, he served as the Lieutenant and Ships Navigator for another tour. After returning home, Ed began working as an Art Director and Graphic Designer, creating brochure layouts, graphics, and company logos for more than thirty years before going into business for himself.

In the early years of their marriage, Ed and Joan lived in Northeast Philadelphia. Joan, though, was set on moving back to New Jersey, and Ed had no problem obliging. The Hartmanns ended up a few blocks from Joan’s family on Linden Avenue, where Ed still lives today. His parents thought they’d moved to the Country, but Ed loved Riverton immediately. It was the perfect place to raise a family, and they had their only child, a son named John, in 1957. Ed’s love of art rubbed off on John, who attended Bucknell University and went on to earn a Masters in Art Conservation from the State University of New York at Cooperstown. He now has his own painting conservation business in Pennsylvania.

In addition to his work as a designer, Ed began helping his in-laws with their flower growing business in Palmyra. Eventually, that grew into a bigger operation on Route 130 in Cinnaminson, and Ed worked there for thirty years raising thousands of azaleas before it closed. He also attended Calvary Presbyterian Church in Riverton with Joan and has been a member there for over 53 years.

All along, Ed never lost his love of art. One Christmas night, soon after they moved to Riverton, Ed announced that he was going out. It was cold and snowing, and Joan was reasonably surprised by this, but that didn’t stop him. In the silence, Ed took his tools and set up his easel, painting the winter around him. One Riverton police officer kept circling back to check on him; Ed was pretty sure the officer thought he was crazy! But of course, he wasn’t, he was just a man rediscovering his lifelong love.

After that, Ed was a fixture in Riverton. Many people can remember him at various places, brush in hand, capturing a tree or the river or another part of the town.

He has hundreds of paintings in his studio, and even more hang in the homes of his neighbors, family, and friends. He would be the first to say that his style varies, influenced by his favorite artists and changing to show familiar places in new ways.

It is undeniably beautiful though, and many professionals over the years have agreed. Ed Hartmann’s work has been featured in at least twenty-seven Fine Arts Exhibitions in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey over his lifetime.

His work is a picture into the quiet way of life and charming natural surroundings of a small town in America. “Riverton is the best town in the whole world,” Ed said, and looking through his eyes at the town, captured in his beautiful paintings, it is easy to agree. – Casey Foedisch

From The Courier-Post on Nov. 4, 2010: HARTMANN, Joan Bailey Of Riverton, passed away Monday, November 1, 2010. She was 83. Joan was born in Palmyra. She attended Friends Meeting House grade school, graduated from Palmyra High School, and went onto graduate from the Philadelphia Museum School of Art.

Joan also was an elder of Calvary Presbyterian Church in Riverton, where she was a life member. She was a member of DAR, an honorary member of the Philadelphia Water Color Society, a member of Riverton Historical Society, and a dedicated genealogist. Joan had a lifelong career as a watercolor artist.

The real tribute to the incredible virtuosity of the Hartmanns is hung on walls throughout the area. We welcome more information and examples of their art. – JMc, Editor

Added 7/9/2021: In a rare example of the positive power of social media, local photographer Meredith Perkins Salmon recently posted this photo on a Facebook group page that she shot around 1993-1994 and asked if anyone knew who it might be.

In short order, a number of people correctly guessed that it was Ed Hartmann in the photo. Merideth’s post received a long string of several dozen comments, questions, replies, and shares from other Facebook users.

Around comment #50 I commented that the Historical Society of Riverton has a tribute page to local artists on its website and provided the link to this page for the Hartmanns. If anyone lands on this page who can provide anecdotal information or more photos of their artwork we would very much like to share them with our readers.

Added 8/12/2021: It looks like at least three different eBay sellers have started to auction off a number of Mr. Hartmann’s paintings that they acquired at the estate sale earlier in the summer. I contacted each one and they gave permission for us to display these photos of Ed Hartmann’s artwork.

Before you ask, the styles and signing of the works vary. Do you have an explanation? Also, if you recognize a subject, please let us know.

Added 8/13/2021: Thank you to Dorothy Robbins Talavera who writes: Here are two drawings Ed did of his/our church – Calvary Presbyterian Church of Riverton. We used one as the cover of our directory and printed the other on notepaper.

Thank you to these visitors who commented:

August 16, 2021, from Iris Gaughan: The above yellow house is across the street from my home. It is 400 Main Street…on the corner of 4th and Main.

August 13, 2021, from Bill Moore: The portrait is undoubtedly Joan as a young woman. It’s a very good likeness.

A graduate from Penn with a BA in History and Princeton Theological Seminary where he received his Masters of Divinity, Richard C. Moore served as a Navy chaplain, and later served 27 years as minister at Calvary Presbyterian Church.

His tenure in Riverton proved to develop Richard into a serious artist whose forte was ship and maritime compositions. If your home displays one of Mr. Moore’s canvases depicting a Riverton landmark not seen here, please send a photo.

Below are some examples of her work. -JMc, Editor

Anne Knight Ruff‘s charming and colorful interpretation of the 1890 view of Bank Avenue serves as a cheery welcome to our Local Artists page.

Read more details about Anne Knight Ruff’s life and how the book came to be in this 2002 New York Times interview by Jill P. Capuzzo: “IN PERSON; A Born Storyteller, She Took Her Time”

Helene Lilholt is a Riverton resident who lives an artful life. Watercolor is her passion; she also plays piano, loves doing needlepoint, and prides herself as being a splendid cook. She gardens and takes care of fish in a backyard pond. Helene’s magnificent garden was to be on the Porch Club’s Garden Tour, which was canceled—another casualty of COVID-19.

We welcome Helene’s friends and family who have been recipients of her art to add their comments and photos to this tribute page. -JMc, Editor

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