On the weekend of April 19th, I had the honor to attend History Meets the Arts in Gettysburg, PA. It's an annual event that brings together artists whose work is inspired by historical events and places. Here's the scene "after hours" at the American Historical Art Gallery. Ok, there's no groupies or anything stronger than beer or wine, but it was a lot of fun. Many thanks for the hard work of gallery owners Les and Maggie!





There are very few chances for artists in this small genre to get together and socialize, network and market themselves. For relative newbies like me, it was also a valuable learning experience as well. Plus, for collectors or admirers of historical art it's a great chance to see the faces and characters (and there's some characters!) behind their favorite art. If you know an artist just from books and prints, seeing an original is, at least for me, a thrill! I guess I'm an art geek too.





And, in case you didn't know, historical art has been around for quite a while. Probably as long as people became aware of history and started producing art. In the more modern era, there's Meissonier, Detaille, Pyle, and Remington. You can also take a look at my earlier post referencing John Ward Dunsmore. There's many more than I could name here, but enough of historical historical artists. Let's look at some present historical artists.

Here's the gang at American Historical Art Gallery on Saturday night. Below are links to their work in order from left to right, so have a look:

Bradley Schmehl

Mark Maritato

Dan Nance

Ron Tunison

Jaime Cooper

Tom Gallo

Randy Groves

Yours Truely

Keith Rocco

So, keep an eye on the History Meets the Arts website for details about next year. It's great time to visit Gettysburg - before the big summer rush! There's B and B's galore, great shopping in a vibrant downtown and at outlets, some darn good restaurants, museums up the wazoo (including a brand new visitor's center), ghost tours, and even a picturesque battlefield. Throw in scads of history geeks and you have yourself a pretty good weekend, no?

There a so many ways to have your brush with history!