GLSD Art Conservation Trust

12/18/2025

12/08/2025

We had a lovely art tour today, led by Barbara Nakles, and artist Diana Williams had the opportunity to view her painting, Paschal Birthday, which was acquired by the GLSD Art Collection in 2005.

12/08/2025

The Greater Latrobe School District Special Art Collection is very proud to be featured in the Downtown Latrobe Mural Art Initiative.

An echo of the French countryside soon will greet visitors to downtown Latrobe, with the debut of a new mural on the historic Danceland building. The enlarged image of “Le Lutin pres du Loing,” a 1940 work by French painter Pierre Eugène Montézin, is set to be unveiled about 6:...

10/29/2025

https://www.latrobebulletinnews.com/news/local/glsd-art-conservation-trust-celebrates-25-years-of-elementary-school-art-at-annual-gala/article_420023fd-60b3-449a-8c96-73613e91b065.html

In the midst of the Great Depression, Latrobe High School art teacher Mary Martha Himler worried that her students weren’t going to get the chance to see original art.

10/14/2025

Artist Becky Mormack stands with her painting "Harmony," which was acquired in 2024 as part of the High School's Special Art Collection at Greater Latrobe School District.

10/03/2025

06/01/2025

The June Painting of the Month is "Claustrophobia Sky" by Clayton F. Merrell and was acquired in 1998 by the students of the Greater Latrobe School District.

The paradoxical title of this work leads the viewer to study the painting more carefully because claustrophobia, the fear of being enclosed in narrow places, usually is not thought to apply to a sky arching toward infinity. However, if the viewer takes up the challenge of the artist and abandons his everyday way of looking at things, he may imagine himself lying on his back in the center of a forest glade. Here, his peripheral vision perceives a circular horizon rimmed with distant trees and fields. Overhead is a whirling vortex of clouds surrounding a sapphire blue center that at first appears like an astronomical black hole drawing all attention to its core and then suddenly changing its aspect to become a powerful force collapsing down toward the viewer.

05/01/2025

The May Painting of the Month is "Garden Patch" by Esther Topp Edmonds and was acquired in 1949 by the students of the Greater Latrobe School District.

The Somerset countryside represented here was one of the artist's favorite subjects. The composition depicts a rural spring scene with new green showing everywhere in the warming earth. The house and series of farm buildings half enclose the sunlit garden, creating a sense of secure privacy. Two men are planting the garden while a woman, wearing a dress of the same cream color as the house, sits on the porch. Ms. Edmonds' time studying and teaching in France is reflected in this work, especially in the loosely painted trees and soft colors.

04/01/2025

The April Painting of the Month is "Rainy Night" by Raymond S. Simboli. This abstract urban landscape was acquired in 1956 by the students of the Greater Latrobe School District.

03/01/2025

The March Painting of the Month is "Drying Off" by Sara Feldman. This painting was acquired by the students of the Greater Latrobe Senior High School in 1963. To learn more about "Drying Off" and other paintings in the Special Collection, visit https://www.glsd.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=1756128&type=d&pREC_ID=1965529

02/01/2025

The February Painting of the Month is "Reflections" by Kathleen Hicks and was acquired in 2005

"Reflections", the title of this work may be found to have two meanings here. First, "reflections" is the word describing the serene forest landscape with snow, bare trees and an area of frozen water. A low winter sunset beyond the trees provides enough light to cause reflections on the icy layer covering snow and water. Misty colors of yellow, rose, lavender and gray veil this word with only dark tree trunks and branches to anchor it firmly to the earth. The second meaning involves personal reflections of the viewer on the seasonal metaphors of the winter solstice; light and darkness, warmth and cold, hibernation and rebirth.

01/01/2025

The January Painting of the Month is Ice Trees by Helen Lindsay Lee. This painting was acquired by the students of the Greater Latrobe School District in 1966.

The frosty cold of a winter sunset is intensified here by stark white pine trees silhouetted against the fading light. An ice storm has transformed the trees into sharp stalagmites thrusting upward from a glossy foreground toward the sky. The background is almost transparent with no indication of texture. Dark smudges create the impression of land and trees untouched by the storm while a color-streaked sky hangs like a stage backdrop.