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Sue Hand
Jan 153 min read
Snowflakes and Flowers
Artists’ studios can be strange worlds, imaginative, full of intrigue. American artist Andrew Wyeth’s studio boasted armies of little...

Sue Hand
Dec 18, 20243 min read
Illuminating Our Back Mountain
In the American colonies, an event called an Illumination meant lighting the insides of public buildings and sometimes private ones with...

Sue Hand
Nov 15, 20243 min read
Chase-ing Clouds
Ten years ago, November 2014, with much trepidation, I wrote my very first article for InSide the Back Mountain , in which I reflected on...

Sue Hand
Oct 15, 20243 min read
Reimagining Moments Captured
It all began one afternoon in the art studio as I attempted to explain my inspiration and fascination with the new series of paintings I...

Sue Hand
Sep 17, 20243 min read
What I Did on My Summer Vacation
Is there anyone else InSide the Back Mountain who remembers that “back in the day,” usually in the elementary grades, our very first...

Sue Hand
Aug 15, 20243 min read
Boats on Harveys Lake
While perusing Back Mountain Kitchen Treasures , a 1956 cookbook published by Reverend Yost’s Shavertown Methodist (not yet United)...

Sue Hand
Jul 11, 20243 min read
Perfect Picnic Places
My parents, especially my mom, taught me to love picnics! Before I was of school age, on the first warm day of spring Mom would exclaim,...

Sue Hand
Jun 15, 20243 min read
It's a Salad Bowl!
Before American art became a force in the world of painting, subjects tended to be portraits, history, mythology, or architecture. It was...

Sue Hand
May 15, 20243 min read
May: The Blossoming Month
My mom loved flowers! The rural yard of my childhood InSide the Back Mountain in Franklin Township was never a showplace garden, but it...

Sue Hand
Apr 15, 20243 min read
Young at Art
I always wanted to be an artist. I experienced my very first art lesson at age 11. I sat in a large room originally used as the front...

Sue Hand
Mar 15, 20243 min read
Chasing Sunsets
“Look at that sunset!” I yelled and took off running down Jackson Street in Cape May, New Jersey in my much younger days! My daughter...

Sue Hand
Feb 12, 20243 min read
The Fogs of February
“The fog comes on little cat feet…” wrote American poet Carl Sandburg. Fog can silently envelope a landscape. It can shroud it in...

Sue Hand
Jan 19, 20243 min read
Outside the Back Mountain
It still lays in layers on the entire floor of Wyoming Valley underneath the Susquehanna River and climbs up the mountainsides, wrapping...

Sue Hand
Dec 15, 20233 min read
In the Light of Memories
Aren’t old postcards fascinating? I especially love historical postcards from familiar places. High on my list, of course, are old...

Sue Hand
Nov 16, 20233 min read
What’s the Point?
Learning how to draw receding railroad tracks in one point perspective is one of the very first basic lessons for art students learning...

Sue Hand
Oct 19, 20233 min read
The Texture of Autumn
According to the artist Willem de Kooning, texture is a word that denotes the events of our lives. If he is correct, then the texture of...

Sue Hand
Sep 14, 20233 min read
For the Love of Phthalocyanine
Those of us who remember September 11, 2001 can never forget the intense blue skies of that infamous morning. InSide the Back Mountain...

Sue Hand
Aug 15, 20233 min read
Going with the Flow
“Go with the flow!” As a landscape painter, I observe the flow of seasonal and micro-seasonal images. As a lover of flowers, I enjoy the...

Sue Hand
Jul 15, 20233 min read
A Brush with Water, Just for Fun
Summertime can be a season when laziness becomes almost respectable. Read a book on the porch. Take a nap in the lawn chair. Stroll in...

Sue Hand
Jun 15, 20233 min read
River of the Year
Seated in the bow of Peggy’s Wenonah canoe, I plunged my paddle into the crystalline current of the headwaters of the Susquehanna River,...
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