Jane Ramsey
by Michele Malinchak
Laura Ulrich remembers when Jane Ramsey knocked on her farmhouse door on a summer day in 2016. Jane introduced herself and said, “I want to paint your barn.” Laura literally thought Jane wanted to paint the old barn. Puzzled as to why she would want to undertake such a chore, Laura said she’d have to think about it. Jane emphatically replied, “No, I want to paint a picture of your barn!” That meeting marked the beginning of a deep and abiding friendship between them. It also gave Jane’s art a sense of purpose—to preserve the beauty and history of local farms like Laura’s.
Now, two years later, Jane has painted numerous watercolors of Laura’s farm in all four seasons. She has also been instrumental in helping her hold onto the farm by donating a portion her sales to benefit the Land Trust of Bucks County (formerly the Bedminster Land Conservancy) that works to preserve many area farms.
As a plein air watercolor artist, Jane has always been drawn to farms and barns, finding countless inspiration in their midst. Focusing on Bedminster Township, she has painted many works in the five-mile radius of her home. She’s thrilled when people recognize old family farms in her paintings, which is how she eventually met Laura.
In the painting, “Two Paths,” an old farmhouse sits atop a snow-covered hill with two divergent paths leading toward it. After Jane posted it on Facebook the painting received a lot of attention, especially from members of the large extended family who remembered the house. Several relatives bought prints and someone asked if Jane painted other barns in the surrounding area. Jane mentioned her passion for local farms, and the woman told her to scout out her Aunt Lollie’s farm, who turned out to be Laura Ulrich.
Laura first came to the farm in 1953 as the young bride of Raymond Ulrich, whose parents, August and Bertha first settled the farm in 1921. Laura grew up in Philadelphia and the rapid transition from city girl to farm wife was not often easy. She and Raymond ran a dairy farm until 1968 which meant little time off for the couple. Laura recalls alternating weekends with other farm wives to milk the cows so they could have some occasional free time.
After Raymond passed away in 2004, Laura continued to live on the farm and the land is tended with the help of her son and another farmer, Jack Shannon, who also has a farm nearby. Two donkeys, Midge and Piccadilly keep Laura company and are frequent subjects in Jane’s work.
Laura is 86 and has more spunk than most people half her age. If you were stuck on an elevator or stranded on a desert island, she’s exactly the kind of person you’d want next to you. Upbeat with a good sense of humor, she’s a great conversationalist brimming with stories that light up the soul. Looking fit and trim in her red Phillies T-shirt with matching red socks, it’s easy to see why in 1950 she was named athlete of the year at her high school. And, yes, she’s on Facebook. She’s dubbed herself Jane’s “honorary grandma” and after meeting her you’d wish you could be adopted in the same way.
In her youth, Laura was discouraged by her father from attending college who deemed it unnecessary. Though it remained a goal, working the farm always came first. However, she persisted and in 2002 earned a degree in Letters, Arts and Sciences from Penn State, Abington.
Her farmhouse dates back to 1840 with deeds going back to the William Penn Land Grant. Wanting to preserve the farm, she appealed to the Bedminster Land Conservancy and the Bucks County Agricultural Land Preservation Program. The process took about five years and in 2007 she received her conservation property easement. She’s very proud of the signs on her property that state the farm is protected in perpetuity.
While the signs do their part to preserve precious farmland, Jane is busy doing hers to capture the vanishing landscapes with her brush. She’s been painting seriously since 2007, stopping along roadsides wherever she finds inspiration. When people see her car pulled off to the side of the road, they often stop to ask if she needs help. To avoid confusion, Jane made her own bumper sticker: “I BRAKE TO PAINT—Plein Air Painter on Board.”
Her work is done almost entirely outdoors which has its pros and cons. On the plus side, she loves the spontaneity and unpredictability of it. The portability of her materials is also a positive, and she likes the interaction of paint to paper, the transparency of the medium. It almost takes on a life of its own as summer humidity affects the paper making the paint spread. Conversely, on cold dry days the paint shrinks, causing crisper edges.
“The sensory experience of painting right in the setting is exhilarating,” she said. Not fond of working from photos, she claims, “It puts a veil in front of the image. Painting outdoors I can tell the temperature that day, how many bugs were out, if there were deer around—the whole experience.”
Instead of photographs she prefers doing sketches to remind her of what struck her about the scene. Sometimes she has to wait for the same lighting to reappear in order to finish a painting which can be challenging.
Inspired by color, light and shadow, she views composition as most important in her work followed by values. Before she begins painting she asks herself, “How can I tell this story—how can I capture this place and time?”
More often than not, she succeeds. The biggest compliment she derives from others is when they say, “I can walk right into your paintings.”
Her favorite time to paint is late afternoon into evening and she’s usually able to complete a painting in three to five hours. She paints in the sky first which determines the value and then paints over it. Sometimes she’ll add oil pastels to the watercolor and also enjoys doing large charcoal sketches.
Jane is president of the New Hope Art League and has memberships with the Bucks County Illustrators Society, Philadelphia Watercolor Society, Philadelphia Sketch Club, the Peace Valley Plein Air Painters and Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters.
Plein air painters often travel to paint in a particular area and sometimes have to ask permission on private property. Jane remembers one time in Vermont when the group wanted to paint at a farm sitting on a hilltop. No one wanted to be the one to walk up the steep winding road and approach the owner. Jane was first to volunteer and when she asked the tight-lipped farmer, he reluctantly said yes but clearly didn’t understand why anyone would want to paint his rundown farm. In the end when he saw the finished works of the artists, his crusty exterior melted as he exclaimed, “This really is a nice old barn, isn’t it?”
It’s encounters like these that keep Jane energized and wanting to share the stories behind her paintings. She wrote the following in a blog on her website: “There's a sense of timelessness, a feeling of reverence as I make my way down past these wonderful barns and outbuildings. Though they are now quiet, dormant in this stage of their lives, they speak of years of hard work, lives well lived, endless seasons and harvests of plenty.”
Sketching from an early age, all the stars were aligned in favor of her becoming an artist. Born in West Hartford, CT, in 1958, Jane grew up in Lumberville, PA, where her parents settled in 1960. Nestled along the banks of the Delaware River and Canal, the village was populated by friends and neighbors who were artists with working studios that Jane enjoyed visiting and observing. Early jobs included babysitting for artists’ children so they could paint in their studios. Later she took a job housesitting for art restorers who gave her explicit instructions on what paintings to remove first in the event of a fire.
In addition, her mom was friends with the nephew of late Bucks County Impressionist Edward Redfield who lived down the road. Daniel Garber’s old studio served as a playhouse for Jane and her girlfriend who had no idea the artist painted there.
Jane fondly recalls frequent walks with her mom to Cuttalossa Farm and she’d always bring her sketchbook. Her earliest memories are of drawing outside and her talent was cultivated by her parents, especially her mother who was a poet and writer. Her father took the family for Sunday drives to see neighboring farms and had a passion for old barns. A woodworker who taught shop at Central Bucks West, he was also part of a gallery in New Hope along with other wood artists such as George Nakashima and James Martin.
There was always a steady supply of art materials and her father brought home art books from the school library.
During her high school years, her parents took two teaching contracts overseas and Jane spent four years on the island of Palau in Micronesia and in American Samoa in the South Pacific. It left a lasting impression on her regarding cultural differences, and she recalls struggling with the superficiality of wearing the right clothes and fitting in when she returned home to New Hope Solebury High School.
The highlight of her summer growing up was attending the Tinicum Arts Festival and she always dreamed of being in the show. Today she enters her paintings there every year and has won two honorable mention awards among numerous others.
There was no question that Jane would attend art school and she began studying at Edinboro State in PA and later at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA. She graduated with a B.F.A. in design with an emphasis on illustration.
In addition to painting, Jane is also a children’s book illustrator and has three published books. Her recent book, “Madam President—Five Women Who Paved the Way,” is authored by Nichola Gutgold and features Jane’s watercolor illustrations of five women who ran for the presidency. Jane is also a featured artist in the book, “100 Painters of the Mid Atlantic” by Gary Pendleton.
She has a long list of artists she admires including Eric Sloane, Ranulph Bye, Edward Redfield, George Sotter, Daniel Garber, John Singer Sargent and Andrew Wyeth. Similar to Sloane, a 20th century painter and writer who feared that old barns would be replaced by modern structures, Jane is also concerned about the preservation of farms and their buildings. Her paintings honor them in much the same way that Sloane did.
Jane’s future plans include doing portraits of farmers and documenting their stories in a book. “It’s on my radar,” she said. She and Laura will also be working together on a project to write down her stories of the farm accompanied by Jane’s paintings which she hopes to include on future blog posts.
When asked, Jane offers private drawing and watercolor lessons and also welcomes commissioned work. Her paintings can be viewed on her website: janeramsey.com.
Like Andrew Wyeth, who painted and sketched at the Olson farm in Maine for almost 30 years, Jane has found countless inspiration at the Ulrich farm and others in the area. Wyeth maintained a studio at the Olson farm, the home of Christina and Alvaro Olson and the birthplace of “Christina’s World,” one of Wyeth’s best known works. Wyeth later said, “I just couldn’t stay away from there. I did other pictures while I knew them but I’d always seem to gravitate back to the house.”
On a similar path, Jane will be moving to Laura’s farm this summer where she’ll maintain a studio. She said, “The best part for me, through all of this, is being able to give Laura joy and celebrate her life on the farm.”
Michele Malinchak is a freelance writer and avid gardener from Quakertown, PA.