Welcome!

The Bull Run Tap House is proud to be a gallery for FARMLAND PRESERVATION ARTISTS of CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA offering space to a group of artists who are committed to preserving farmland.

Composed of local artists, the FPACP formed in late 2005, a joint enterprise of the Art Alliance of Central PA and the Centre County Farmland Trust. Its mission is to promote the preservation and appreciation of farmland through the visual arts. The artists work in a variety of media and focus on the following goals:

  • Portray the beauty of the rural landscape, local farms and the agricultural products they yield

  • Highlight farm life, local food markets and economy

  • Illustrate the issues facing farmers that effect our communities

  • Increase support for farmland preservation through the exhibition of sale of art

  • Promote the goals of the Art Alliance of Central PA and the Centre County Farmland Trust

All of the art in the Bull Run gallery is for sale. A percentage of each sale goes to the Centre County Farmland Trust and the Art Alliance of Central PA. Brochures containing information about the artists are available at the restaurant.

- Meet the artists -

Peggy Shannon Klinger

Peggy Shannon Klinger is a Centre County native who celebrates her life and her surroundings in paint. A graduate of Penns Valley Area High School and of the Harrisburg Area Community College, she has studied with many prominent local artists, most recently James Farrah.

Peg is a member of the Art Alliance of Centre County, the Central Pennsylvania Pastel Society and is currently president of the Farmland Preservation Artists.

Cinda Kostyak

Biography

I am a Penn State alumna with a B. A. in Art (oil painting focus), B. S. in Art Education, and a Masters in Counselor Education. I retired from the University after 24 years having had no time to devote to painting, but now enjoy a retirement filled with art, travel, and grandchildren. I am a member of the Bellefonte Art Museum, Central Pennsylvania Art Alliance, Pennsylvania Watercolor Society, Carlisle Arts Learning Center, and the Farmland Preservation Artists. My media of choice include oil, pastel, and watercolor.

Artist’s Statement

It is so fulfilling to get back to painting after years of sitting indoors in front of a computer. Plein air painting is a particular favorite of mine, applying paint to canvas or paper with the warmth of the sun against my skin and the beauty of what lays before me. Central Pennsylvania, with its seasonal changes and flowing waters, is the perfect environment in which to paint. It’s community of artists is just as important to me, and I feel fortunate to know and learn from each of them. My husband is an avid fisherman and together we explore local and distant waters. While he casts a line from his kayak, I enjoy plein air painting from mine. I have also completed much of my work while floating on lakes in Canada, bayous along the Gulf Coast, or standing along streams throughout the eastern half of our country. Life couldn’t be any better!

Valerie Moyer

Valerie Moyer is an experienced professional Fine Artist creating landscape and still-life paintings. Her artwork includes custom paintings of personal residences, homesteads, churches, family farms, landmarks, historical buildings, and businesses in both commissioned and non-commissioned form. Each specialized painting becomes a treasured heirloom as well as a unique and wonderful gift. Valerie has earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Kutztown University as well as studied at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia. She has been working in the art field for the past 26 years, has won several awards, and exhibits in various galleries. Her wall murals can be found in several locations around Snyder County. Her personal trademark is the bunny she hides in nearly every painting, making each piece distinctive and fun. She and her family live in central Pennsylvania and she gives God the credit for her talent.

“What I enjoy most is both preserving history though my artwork and creating custom family heirlooms.”

A variety of her artwork has been reproduced in print form and available from the artist.

ANNE KENYON

Anne Kenyon is an artist who has worked in a variety of media, including watercolor, handmade paper and most recently in pastel. Her work is primarily landscapes with a focus on local scenes, farms and gardens. For many years she worked in handmade paper collage, making her own paper colored with artists’ pigments and developed into paintings. Over the years, she has experimented with different media and a workshop in pastel led to further exploration of that medium. Her current work is created in pastel. Some works feature pastel over underpaintings of handmade paper or acrylic, adding texture and depth. More recent work includes watercolor and pastel over drypoint.

Ms. Kenyon is a member of the Art Alliance of Central Pa., a signature member of the Central Pa. Pastel Society and the Farmland Preservation Artists. She has exhibited her collage work and her pastels at the Central Pa. Festival of the Arts for many years. In 2002 she received an Award of Merit at the Arts Festival. More recently her pastels have been accepted into juried pastel society shows in New Mexico, Florida and Connecticut. In 2012 Ms. Kenyon had a solo show at the Bellefonte Art Museum in Bellefonte, Pa. In 2015 she had a joint show at the Bellefonte Art Museum featuring her Florida paintings. Also in 2015, Ms. Kenyon 's painting "Late Summer" was included in a show sponsored by the Central Pa Pastel Society and the Pittsburgh Pastel Society at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art at Ligonier Valley. Ms Kenyon has two landscapes in the recent book, Landscapes of Central Pennsylvania, published by the Bellefonte Art Museum.

Ms. Kenyon has taken a variety of courses and workshops over the last 25 years in watercolor, papermaking and pastel. She studied watercolor with Elizabeth Ayers Nesbitt & Bill Vrscak and papermaking with Jean Giddings. Her recent studies in pastel have included workshops with Robert Carsten, Ron Monsma, Judith Carducci, Terri Ford, Richard McKinley and Albert Handell.

More work by this artist can be seen at the Gallery Shop in Lemont and the State College Framing Company and Gallery, Rolling Ridge Dr, State College.

annekenyon4@comcast.net

Roxanne (Roxy) Naydan

Biography

Roxanne (Roxy) Naydan holds a BA in art with a focus on painting and printmaking and minor in Art History from Kean University. She also holds an MA in Art with a major in painting from William Paterson University. After marrying and starting a family, she received her teaching certification in Art Educaton from Penn State University. Her paintings have appeared locally in individual, group, and juried shows in Central Pennsylvania (where she worked as a guest art teacher in the State College Area School District), as well as in Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. Her graphic designs appear in Selected Poetry of Lina Kostenko: Wanderings of the Heart (Garland Publishers), which she illustrated.

Artist's Statement

For me, the process of creating art is filled with dichotomies. It involves responding to what is both the ordinary and magical in the world and reflecting on the visible in front of me while connecting to what is deep within me. It is both a meditative and physical act. Through my explorations of color, atmosphere, and light, I attempt to capture the lyrical potential of an image and the spirit of a scene. Through the marks I make, I hope to give visible expression to my own sensibility and connection to the precious nature of life and the fleeting nature of all things. The genres of landscape, still life, and portraits allow me an opportunity to interpret life, chart the flow of time, and mirror my inner life. I hope my work gives the viewer a glimpse into my perception of the world.

Barb Pennypacker

Biography

Barb received a B.S in Botany, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from Penn State. She was a faculty member in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. Barb conducted research into diseases of alfalfa and soybeans and taught the popular graduate course Effective Scientific Communication. A traumatic brain injury suffered in a collision with a coal train took her analytical ability and made it impossible for her to continue her research career. She held the rank of Senior Scientist, Professor of Agronomy and Assistant Dean of the Graduate School before retiring in 2005.

Barb soon realized that the old barns she loved were rapidly disappearing. The immense barn beams, marked with adze cuts and fastened with wooden pegs to create the soaring structure of the barns, speak to old-growth trees long gone from Pennsylvania. These old barns are virtual windows into our agricultural past. She had a strong desire to paint these barns before they were gone forever. Barb took a private, month-long, drawing class. The studio was an abandoned farm with a crumbling barn. One of her fond memories was jousting with her instructor who told her to draw what she saw, to which she replied, ‘I can’t draw it if I don’t know what it is!’ She eventually learned to draw what she saw. Barb spent the next year plein air sketching old barns in Centre County. Classes at the Art Alliance of Central Pennsylvania and subsequent painting partners took her from sketching to watercolor to the oils she now uses.

Barb’s paintings are featured in the Bellefonte Art Museum’s book Landscapes of Central Pennsylvania, and have been in numerous juried shows. Her paintings are on display at the State College Framing Company and Gallery in State College and on the Fine Art America website Barb-Pennypacker.pixels.com. She is a member of the Farmland Preservation Artists, the Art Alliance and the Bellefonte Art Museum’s Artist Registry. She is a member of the Advisory Board at the Bellefonte Art Museum.

Artist’s Statement

My love of farms, old barns and the beautiful, rolling countryside of central Pennsylvania is the inspiration behind my paintings. I strive for realism in my painting. I work in my studio from photos I’ve taken of rural central Pennsylvania

Susan Nicholas

Influenced by her artist father, Susan Nicholas Gephart developed a deep appreciation of the earth and its relationship to art when she was a young child. Her passion to explore the landscape is expressed through a unique use of color, texture, and atmosphere, capturing the emotion of a moment with spontaneity and directness. Susan graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pennsylvania State University in 1979, and an Associate in Arts from Montgomery County Community College in 1977. She has been exhibiting and painting award-winning landscapes for over forty years. Her colorful, impressionistic plein air pastels and oils are in private and permanent collections internationally. Susan is an associate member of the Pastel Society of America, signature member and past president of the Central Pennsylvania Pastel Society, a founding member of the Central PA Farmland Preservation, and co-founder of the Plein Air Painters of Central Pennsylvania.

She has been instructing pastels since the mid 80’s, and organizing the Hameau Farm Studio Artist Retreats for all levels and mediums for 23 years. All of Susan’s workshops are supported by over a dozen national art supply companies, allowing her students to sample a variety of fine art products. Susan also has her own S.Nicholas Signature line of Jack Richeson Hand-Rolled Soft Pastels called "Earth, Water, Sky". Her workshops are advertised in Pastel Journal and PleinAir Magazine, and her art is advertised in Fine Art Connoisseur. Susan Nicholas has been Plein Air Convention faculty since 2016.

In July 2018, Susan led the first Sennelier-sponsored Brittany Skies & Seas workshop. Pierre-Yann Guidetti hosted the artist retreat at his family heritage home in Kerrema, Brittany, France.

Susan's home studio of 33 years is located in Victorian Bellefonte in a 1902 home. It includes three floors of galleries and two working studios.

Visit S.Nicholas Art Studios by appointment.
Visit Susan's website: www.SNicholasArt.com

R Thomas Berner

R Thomas Berner is a freelance writer and photographer whose favorite subjects are barns and clouds, either in the same frame or separately. He is a past president of the Farmland Preservation Artists of Central Pennsylvania and a member of the Historic Barn and Farm Foundation of Pennsylvania. He is the associate editor of State College Magazine. Among is publications are two self-published books: Pennsylvania Barn Stories and Pennsylvania Quilt Barns.

Jeff Mathison

I graduated from Penn State with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Impressed by the combination of town culture and rural beauty, I have lived in Centre County ever since. I am retired from a career of producing maps and graphics for an archaeological consulting company. I now make illustrated maps for freelance clients, especially books and magazines. I am painting more than ever, working both from life and from photographs in my studio. I especially enjoy figure painting. The local landscape is also a key inspiration. I appreciate both the natural land and the agricultural vistas. My favorite medium is watercolor, which allows for colorful improvisation as well as exacting realism.

Over the years I have been in numerous galleries and juried art shows both locally and nationally. I win some awards, make some sales, and return to my studio to make more paintings!

www.mapsbymathison.com
www.artbymathison.com
Instagram - artbyjeffm

Brienne M. Brown

Biography

Much to her mother’s indignation, Brienne owned little clothing that was not covered in paint. From a very young age, Brienne showed talent in art and music, but wanted to pursue a career in the sciences. She started her education at the University of Utah as a double major (Art and Chemistry), eventually receiving a BS in Chemistry and finishing with a Master’s degree in 2004. After graduation, Brienne worked in a Toxicology lab. Though she painted some by taking an occasional class, as the years wore on, she realized she wanted more art in her life than a career in science would allow. She was surprised and delighted to find great fulfillment in painting. In fact, it became a necessity.

After leaving her job as a toxicologist to raise her first child in 2008, Brienne had the opportunity to paint more consistently. Prioritizing painting and taking workshops from artists she admired paid off. Soon she was not only exhibiting and entering shows regularly, but also winning awards. Brienne holds signature membership status for the National Watercolor Society, Western Federation of Watercolor Societies, Pennsylvania Watercolor Society, and Utah Watercolor Society. Since 2015, Brienne has been an invited faculty member at the annual Plein Air Convention. Also, every year, she participates is several national juried plein air events and teaches workshops all over the country. Her work has been published in Splash 17 Best of Watercolor: Inspired Subjects, PleinAir Magazine, Southwest Art Magazine, and Watercolor Artist Magazine.

Brienne’s passion is watercolor and plein air painting. She has won several top awards in many plein air competitions. “I find beauty in everyday life, the so called ‘mundane’. Ordinary people going about their everyday lives inspire me. I especially enjoy painting en plein air, where each painting reminds me of where I was, of the experiences I had, the sounds, smells, and the people I met. As I try and capture the essence of a scene, my paintings are always more about a moment in time than about a particular location. I enjoy sharing how I see the world.”

Website: www.briennembrown.com
E-mail: bbtravelingcolors@gmail.com

JENNIFER SHUEY

“I create art to help people appreciate the natural and agricultural landscapes of central Pennsylvania and encourage conservation. I paint with pastels to quickly capture the beauty and character of nature. Pastels are a vibrant and spontaneous medium, and they allow me to express the light and the energy of the lands and waters that I love.”

Jennifer Shuey is the Director of Development for the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, where she raises the money to produce the community's annual Arts Festival in downtown State College and the adjoining University Park campus of The Pennsylvania State University. Prior to that she served nearly fifteen years as Executive Director of ClearWater Conservancy of Central Pennsylvania.

Jennifer is a native of Centre County, Pennsylvania. She holds a B.S. of Landscape Architecture from the Pennsylvania State University and is committed to using her time and talents to make her community a better place. She is particularly interested in conserving the beautiful natural and agricultural landscapes of central Pennsylvania and engaging more people in the protection of land and water resources through the arts.

Jennifer is a Signature Member of the Central Pennsylvania Pastel Society and served five years on the Board of the Art Alliance of Central Pennsylvania. She is on the Bellefonte Art Museum's Artist Registry and is a juried member of the Farmland Preservation Artists of Central Pennsylvania.  She also is a Trustee of the Hamer Foundation.

Jen’s work can be found at State College Framing Company & Gallery and online at jennifershueyart.com.

DENISE WAGNER

Denise Wagner paints and photographs the disappearing beauty of the natural world around her.

Because she strongly believes in contributing to organizations that are caretakers of our environment and the animals that are part of it, she has donated a series of paintings and photographs to The Shaver's Creek Environmental Center; Centre County's Pennsylvania Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) for their annual Fur Ball; Centre Wildlife Care for their annual “Wild About Animals' event;” and Art in the Marsh for Millbrook Marsh.

She has exhibited paintings and photographs in the following galleries:

Art Alliance of Central Pa; Foxdale Village Art Gallery; The State College Framing Company & Gallery; The Bellefonte Art Museum; The Centre County Historical Society; Hershey Medical Center; Gray's Woods Geissinger; Schlow Library; The Field Restaurant at Toftrees; and the Hub-Robeson Center at the Penn State Campus. She is also a member of the Farmland Preservation Artists, painting vanishing pastoral, woodland, and farmland scenes. Her favorite medias are acrylics and pastels. She uses acrylics to paint raptors, wetland birds, songbirds, landscapes, and animals. She prefers pastels for landscapes because of the rich colors and quickness of the medium.

Denise can be contacted through her email lilium35@yahoo.com, or her phone number 814-235-9528.