Events continue today in Waynesboro
By Jonathan D. Jones/staff
 

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Douglas Cave of Martinsville paints in his booth at the Fall Foliage Festival in downtown Waynesboro on Saturday.

 


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Amy Lindenberger uses colored pencils to draw her latest creation. This is her second year participating in the festival.

 


Douglas Cave of Martinsville paints in his booth at the Fall Foliage Festival in downtown Waynesboro on Saturday.

WAYNESBORO -- Amy Lindenberger's passion for the Civil War started when she was a little girl.

So it only seemed natural after 15 years of working as a portrait artist to start integrating her love of history with her craft. She started intimately researching the war to draw pictures of what everyday life must've been like. The plan was to work her way chronologically through the war.

So far, Lindenberger has worked up to the first battle at Manassas, which took place during the first year of the war. She started in 1996.

"I could be doing this for the rest of my life," she said.

Her drawings of Confederate and Union soldiers, families and slaves hung underneath the Wayne Theater on Main Street Saturday. Lindenberger of North Canton, Ohio, was one of more than 200 artists from around the country who put their work on display at the 33rd Annual Virginia Fall Foliage Festival Art Show in downtown Waynesboro. The show continues today.

Jean Reece of Staunton and Margii Jones of New Hope wandered around the show looking for pieces of art they might be able to take home. The pair of teachers said attending the show has become an annual tradition.

What makes the show so appealing is the work that the artists bring, Reece said.

For the artists, the fall foliage show is nice because it's well-run and everyone is hospitable, said John Obolewicz, a Powhatan watercolor artist. He's been coming for at least 14 years, he said.

Over that time he's built up a sizable client base in the Shenandoah Valley region because of the Waynesboro festival, he said.

 

Waynesboro's Fall Foliage Festival kicks off
 By MICHAEL L. OWENS

News Virginian Staff Writer

Sunday, October 10, 2004

Life crowded downtown Waynesboro on Saturday, framed in vibrant colors as well as blacks and whites displayed on Main Street tents for thousands to admire.

Artists nationwide packed the city’s tiny strip from morning through evening for the first day of the weekend-long Fall Foliage Festival, each person with their captured visions of surreal, ancient and common sights.

Inside one booth sat Ohio-based Amy Lindenberger, sketching with colored pencil a Civil War-era child that would be a composite of photographs of actual children and backgrounds.

Within the frames hanging around Lindenberger were penciled moments from the war between the states, of imaginary and long forgotten characters.

Her father’s interest in that war drew her into artistic interpretations of the genre.

"I never remember seeing him without a Civil War book in his hand," she said.

One drawing depicts Rose O’Neal Greenhow, the Confederate spy who blew the cover of the Union advance on Manassas. Another, "The Calm Before the Storm," has a group of volunteer Union soldiers sharing laughs in a field.

"In research, the contemporary art always seemed to be about battle and generals," she said. "I was more and more interested about people and its [the Civil War’s] effect on people."

Thousands from across Virginia hoarded the nearly 400 displays lining the streets, each spectator in search of the perfect centerpiece for an office or living room.

"I don’t usually leave here empty-handed," said Therese Noland of Petersburg. "It’s got to be anything that’s different, unusual."

Noland and friend Catherine McNamara, of Richmond, are regulars of the street show, dropping by each year to peruse masterpieces and enjoy food hawked by downtown restaurants as well as mobile vendors.

"I just like to look at it all," McNamara said.

Added Noland: "The diversity of art is exquisite ... You can find almost everything you’re looking for here."

Self-proclaimed "dot man" Curtis G. Wood, of Maryland, portrayed his black-and-white visions of survival with thousands of ink dots on canvass.

Among his captured moments are a ballerina in mid-air, the squinting eyes and twisted grimace of famed blues musician BB King as he wrings a bouncy note from his guitar, and a teary baby in the wrinkled hands of an adult.

"That’s my goal, to bring out the emotion that tells a story," he said. "The first time I did it [dot art], it felt like I had been doing it for years. I felt that comfortable with it."

 

 

Contact the artist

October 18, 2004