11/10/20
Local Artists Offer Modern Reflections on Community’s Past at Sewickley Tavern

When architect Nathan St.Germain first met with owner Courtney Yates about her vision for a local tavern, they agreed on one thing: that the art they would choose for the new restaurant would be just as important as the building design and the menu.

For the renovation and opening of the new Sewickley Tavern, the founder and principal of Studio St.Germain proposed a design concept of a modern take on a traditional tavern, which is reflected in the building design and on the menu. As a trained artist with a degree in art history, Yates agreed when St.Germain suggested that the new Tavern offered a unique opportunity to commission artwork from local artists that featured contemporary reflections on the history of Sewickley.

So St.Germain and Yates teamed up with Mark Rengers, owner of the Sewickley Gallery and Frame Shop and a knowledgeable curator and supporter of local artists. After reviewing the project’s goals, Rengers recommended three diverse artists that he admired and respected whose creative processes would complement the project.

“I looked for a diverse group of artists who would embrace the historic theme in visually interesting, modern ways and they exceeded my expectations. The final art spans decades of Sewickley history, referencing  places and events the artists re-discovered in the course of their research. Together, their works present a sometimes serious, sometimes humorous view of what has changed and what hasn’t about daily life over the years here in Sewickley,” explained Rengers.

Rengers and St.Germain approached each artist to invite them to interpret some aspect of Sewickley’s past. The artists conducted their own extensive research through the Sewickley Valley Historical Society and the Sewickley Public Library to come up with inspiration and concepts for their works.

“So much has happened in Sewickley – much more than most of us know. We realized we could make that invisible history visible by bringing it into a contemporary setting and inspiring conversation with different artistic voices. The artists made the most of their access to original historic resources and had full artistic freedom to choose their subjects and express what inspired them through form and color,” said St.Germain.

Internationally-recognized portrait artist and pastel expert Christine Swann created the oil-paper-on-board triptych of portraits that greet diners as they enter the front door. She reversed traditional oil-painting processes in order to create the stunning effect of a glowing, backlit aura around each subject that reflects the warmth of the restaurant’s interior. Inspired by the exuberant joy of the roaring 20’s flappers, Ms. Swann set out to capture the energy and excitement of the era while depicting her models in a more modern and empowered perspective on a timeless theme - women dressed for a night out and anticipating the company of friends - transcending the century between then and now.

Braddock native and Heinz Endowment awardee Ramon Riley chose dance as his metaphor for the coming together of people and communities in Sewickley’s story. Each work in his series of four poured-paint-on-paper works incorporate watercolor, oil, graphite and collage to depict a different dance and capture a different moment: Beautiful Dreamer on the Ohio depicts the view of Walnut Beach where musicians once serenaded passing steamboats as passengers waltzed; Pas de Deux signifies the Sewickley Bridge linking the communities of Sewickley and Coraopolis; Jig Outside Post 450 memorializes the Sewickley train station when it was repurposed into an African-American social hall where iconic artists including Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald performed; and Village Polka represents the energy of the many cultural and historic dance influences over the years that feed into the busy energy of the town’s main street intersection today.

Renowned illustrator and Pittsburgh transplant Mark Brewer provided a series of six finished drawings, each one a tongue-in-cheek, whimsical illustration representing a different historic snapshot from Sewickley’s past, ranging from the 1800s’s to the more recent 2000’s. The drawings all poke good-natured fun at the rhythms of life in the small river town, offering a visual feast of recognizable landmarks and streets bustling with the pedestrian activity of people of all ages. Viewers get lost in the vignettes, drawn in to pore over the detailed depictions of the retailers, restaurants, and businesses that line the busy streets where the relationships and errands of the townspeople’s’ lives take place. Historic river boats share the frame with leisurely innertubers, while commuters and cell-phone-checking walkers pass through the scenes with varying degrees of busy-ness and leisure.

“I’m delighted at the way each artist’s work contributes to the story we wanted to tell and the feeling we wanted to achieve at the Tavern. There’s a lot of history and  there’s also a lot of new energy in our tavern where everyone is welcome, and all people can come together to share a great experience. The artists have done an amazing job of capturing some nuggets of Sewickley history and presenting them in a way that gives us something new that we can see, be touched by, and learn from as we look to the future,” concluded Yates.

Digital images and artist statements are available at: https://www.studiostgermain.com/sewickleytavernartwork

More information about their work can be found at:
Christine Swann - https://swannportraits.com
Ramon Riley - www.rrileyart.com
Mark Brewer - https://www.markbrewer.com