Harriet Curtin Ermentrout

Painter Harriet Ermentrout's favorite medium is watercolor, but she also painted in pastels and oils and did pen and pencil sketches. As a student at the Moore Institute of Art, she specialized in interior design. Ermentrout studied painting with Bucks County painter Roy Nuse, watercolorist John Pike in Woodstock, New York and Ed Whitney.
She is especially known for her paintings of historic homes, rustic buildings, and Bucks County landscapes. An avid traveler, Ermentrout has painted the New England coast line, the Virgin Islands, English gardens and Greek Islands. On her first trip to Paris, she started sketching, and those sketches inform her larger paintings. She has over 100 sketchbooks in her collection. She has had over 33 one-person shows and has exhibited at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, the Woodmere Art Museum, the Philadelphia Watercolor Club, the Philadelphia Sketch Club and at the Coryell Gallery in Lambertville, New Jersey, among others.

Major Solo Exhibitions
Nassau Club of Princeton, Princeton, New Jersey, 1990
Art Council of Moore County's Campbell House Galleries, North Carolina, 1993
One-Man Show, Legacy Gallery, Newtown, Pennsylvania, 1996
One-Man Show, Pennswood Professional Gallery, Newtown, Pennsylvania, 1996
Meadowood at Worchester, Lansdale, Pennsylvania, 1996
Meadford Leas, New Jersey, 1999

Major Group Exhibitions
Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1938
Plastic Club, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, c. 1945
Phillips' Mill Annual Art Exhibition, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 1956- present
A.H. Rise Art Gallery, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, 1969, 1976
Philadelphia Watercolor Club, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, c. 1970-present
Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1977-present
Coryell Gallery, Lambertville, New Jersey, 1983 to present
Barn Studio Gallery, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 1984, 1988
Hahn Gallery, Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, 1989
Adam's Mark, Philadelphia Art Show, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1992
Salmagundi Club, New York, New York, 1992, 1993
Philadelphia Sketch Club, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, c. 1995-present
Wilmington Circulating Gallery, Wilmington, Delaware, 1997

Education and Training
Moore Institute of Art, (now Moore College of Art and Design), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Interior Decoration, 1934-1935
Studied with painter Roy C. Nuse in Rushland, Bucks County, 1950-1960
Ed Whitney and other workshops in New England, 1960s
John Pike Watercolor School, Woodstock, New York, 1970s

Teachers and Influences
Harriet Ermentrout studied with Roy C. Nuse, Ed Whitney, John Pike, Howard Watson, Ranulph Bye and Katherine Steele Renninger. She includes Prendergast and "all the watercolor artists" as influences on her art.

Connection to Bucks County
Harriet Ermentrout lived in Bucks County from 1939 until her death in 2014. She lived at Pennswood Retirement Village in Newtown, beginning in 1993. She resided in Newtown and Richboro and was active in many local art groups. For many years, she owned and operated an antique shop in Newtown, Bucks County.

Colleagues and Affiliations
Harriet Ermentrout studied with painter Roy C. Nuse at his home in Rushland after he left his position as a teacher at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. She also studied with Ed Whitney, John Pike and Howard Watson.

Ermentrout and Anita Groenendahl were painting companions and friends for many years. Ermentrout exhibited with Katherine Steele Renninger and studied with painter Ranulph Bye. She knew painters Paulette Van Roekens and Arthur Meltzer well. Ermentrout was a member of many local arts groups, including Artsbridge, the Yardley Art Association, the Doylestown Art League, and the Phillips' Mill Community Association.

Teaching and Professional Appointments
Visiting artist:
Oreland Art Center
Doylestown Art League
Newtown Friends School
Wanamaker's Grand Court for Woodmere Art Gallery, 1980s

Affiliations and Memberships
Artsbridge, Lambertville, New Jersey
Catherine Lorillard Wolf Art Center, New York, New York
Doylestown Art League, Doylestown, Pennsylvania
National Musuem of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C.
Oreland Art Center
Philadelphia Sketch Club, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia Watercolor Club, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Phillips' Mill Community Association, New Hope, Pennsylvania
Whiskey Painters of America
Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Yardley Art Association, Yardley, Pennsylvania

Publications
Splash 5: Best of Watercolor, the Glory of Color, published by North Light Books, Cinncinati, Ohio, 1998
Artists of the River Towns, Vol. 1, Doris Brandes, River Arts Press, 2002

Television
Featured artist, Art Beat, Suburban Cable Television, Doylestown, Pennsylvania

Major Awards
First Award, Fidelity Regional Art Show, 1973
Mary Roebling Award, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, 1977
Mary Townsend Award, Woodmere Art Museum, 1977
Doylestown Art League, First Place, 1989, 2001
The Hahn Gallery Award, Philadelphia Watercolor Club, 1991
Jane Breene Award, Phillips' Mill Art Exhibition, 1991
Certificate of Merit, Salmagundi Club, 1992
Mary Hill Memorial Award, Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, 1992
Alice B. McReynolds Award, Salmagundi Club, 1993
Bucks Beautiful Award, Bucks County Chamber of Commerce, 1994
Patrons Award, Coryell Gallery, Lambertville, 1995
Best in Show, Seven Arts Magazine, 1995
First in Watercolor, Seven Arts Magazine, 1996
First Prize, Oreland Art Center, 1996
First Place, Tinicum Art Festival, 1997
First Place, Fox Chase Show, 1999
Second Prize, Tinicum Art Festival, 2001
Silver Anniversary Award, Clinton Historical Museum, New Jersey
Betty Lehr Memorial Prize, Woodmere Art Museum