We’re celebrating Lebanon County’s role in American history. Read more here.
Jim Rudegeair is a life-long artist who doesn’t create paintings for profit.
He enjoys painting as a hobby and an outlet for his emotional health.
“I think with art it is about seeing things like in a picture, you know, or I’ll just be driving and will see something and think, ‘Well, that’d be a nice painting. That would be cool,’” Rudegeair said. “So it’s kind of that and why I do symbolism, too. ‘Cause that just gets feelings out of you, you know, and I want to sort of make a journal out of it in paint.”
The North Lebanon Township resident is now creating a different kind of painting, something he’s never done before in the 60 years he’s been an artist. For one, he’s used to painting still life and landscapes on flat surfaces, typically canvases or even pieces of wood.
This supplied photo of Jeff and Sue Werner’s sunflower farm near Lickdale depicts half of the Liberty Bell artwork that celebrates the county’s rich agricultural heritage that predates the nation’s founding in 1776. The other half of the bell will be painted with the barn that’s located at Union Canal Park in North Lebanon Township. This scene is painted on the wall in the lobby of Visit Lebanon Valley in North Cornwall Township. (Photo credit to Marshall Kramer of Level Eleven)
“The surface itself is different plus the size of it, and so it’s 3 foot-by-3 foot and a nine-foot surface area I’m painting,” Rudegeair said of his current medium, which has a round surface. “You sort of have to adapt to it. I just sit in my chair and go in circles around the table.”
Rudegeair is painting an agricultural scene of sunflower fields on the state-required Liberty Bell that’s part of the nationwide 250th anniversary celebration of the country’s birthday on July 4, 2026. Lebanon County, like the rest of America, will have special celebrations on the anniversary date next summer.
One side of the bell shows a scene of the fields of Jeff and Sue Werner’s sunflower farm near Lickdale while the opposite side shows the Union Canal tunnel, also with fields of sunflowers in front of it.
“I have to paint a lot of sunflowers, so I have to make it look like, perspective wise, the sunflowers are up front, the big ones, and then they fade into the background. That’s the trick,” Rudegeair said. “So up front, I gotta put a lot of detail into the sunflowers but as you go back, it’s less detailed because if it’s too much detail, it will look fake. You want it (the sunflowers) to fade into the background.”
Lebanon artist Jim Rudegeair says the devil is in the details when it comes to creating a piece of artwork that is life-like. Here, he is adding detail to sunflowers at his garage studio in North Lebanon Township.
The bell, when completed, will reside at Visit Lebanon Valley from sometime in December through the end of next year – throughout the semiquincentennial anniversary year, according to Jen Kuzo, executive director of Visit Lebanon Valley.
“First Energy actually was the sponsor for all the bells across the state and the program is called Bells Across Pennsylvania, and we are the host for this (bell),” said Kuzo, who also noted it’s different from the one loaned for the celebration by Lebanon County coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum. “This is a fiberglass bell so the difference between the two is that Doc Yocum has the wooden bell that was carved and this is a fiberglass bell and it will be housed here at Visit Lebanon Valley until Dec. 31, 2026.”
Kuzo noted that the state required each county to display one of its sponsored bells to be part of its Liberty Bell trail, with each county having its own version of the bell exhibited in a public place through the end of next year.
“It’s a great opportunity to bring more people into the office so that we can indeed educate people about agritourism in the Lebanon Valley and the history, the rich history of the wooden nickel trail and all the historic spots in the Lebanon Valley that we’ll be promoting throughout the year.” Kuzo said.
Read more: THIS WILL BE ADDED ONCE THE WOODEN NICKEL STORY RUNS
One side of the Liberty Bell also contains the barn from Union Canal Tunnel Park, along with sunflowers, which encompass the entire 3-by-3 foot bell.
For America250, Pennsylvania’s “Liberty Bell Trail” is a statewide initiative called “Bells Across PA” that places artistic Liberty Bell replicas in all 67 counties. There is not a continuous trail, but rather a network of historical and cultural stops that encourages visitors to explore the commonwealth’s diverse history. The effort is organized by America250PA, Pennsylvania’s official semiquincentennial commission.
As of early October, Rudegeair was 50 to 60 percent finished with the project, with a self-imposed finish date of mid-November. He said he is in the toughest part of the process.
“Like I said, the devil’s in the details. So I have to do that and then I have to get into the fields and then the barns. I have to put the detail into the barns and then I have to do the trees and that all has to be just right,” he said. “And then an auto body business is going to clear coat it. So it will shine plus make its colors vibrant. Most importantly, that will protect it from the weather and whatnot.”
Rudegeair said that painting so many details into a piece of art that is dominated by sunflower plants can test an artist’s nerves.
Jim Rudegeair has used a stool that rotates around the bell, which is a new process for an artist who is used to painting on flat surfaces. This photo gives a broader view of the barn and adjacent tree that is Union Canal Tunnel Park. The other side of the bell is a scene. from Jeff and Sue Werner’s sunflower farm in Lickdale.
“This is sort of the nerve-wracking part of it but this is what needs to be done. There’s shadows with the barn ’cause I didn’t put those highlights in yet and so many other details of the barn, and then the trees, the actual trees, the top’s all being lighter to make it look like the sun’s coming down on it,” he said.
He also explained what the first half of the creative process entailed.
“I had to put the first layer down, so I started back here at the sky and I worked to the front and then I came into the sunflowers but then I had to start doing the detail backwards, so it is halfway finished,” he said on the day LebTown visited his 10-by-10 garage studio at his home in the 1000 block of Cider Lane, Lebanon. “These are a thousand sunflowers that I’ll try to make. And I’m used to working in detail. I don’t generally work like this (in a circular motion). So it’s challenging, that’s for sure.”
He also needed, at the very start of the job, to see what he would be painting. He visited Visit Lebanon Valley because the wall in the lobby contains a picture of the Werner farm when their sunflowers were in full bloom.
A close-up view of the Werner farm near Lickdale.
“They have on the wall a giant picture of a farm, a farm that has sunflower fields. So I took that farm here, that’s on this side, and the barn on that other side is the one that they reconstructed out at the old (Union Canal) tunnel. So it is a joined painting. When it’s on the circumference bell, it (the two scenes) has to join. It has to come together. So again, that’s one of the challenges.”
The fact that an agricultural scene dominates the bell is not lost on Rudegeair nor Kuzo.
“I think it’s (agriculture) such a big part of our identity. With developments chewing away at all the farms and stuff, I think it’s important to keep it represented, keep it in the forefront ’cause the farmers, man, without them, we’re doomed,” said Rudegeair, who also highlighted the importance of food security. “What if we had to start importing corn and depending on other countries for grain? That would be a bad feeling. That’s not good. So I think, you know, keeping farms as farms is more important rather than having big ugly warehouses that are an eyesore.”
“I think looking towards the future, you always have to honor the past – and the two are intertwined. I think it’s important to see where you’ve come from as far as looking towards the future. I think it’s important to honor that,” Kuzo said. “And thank God for preserved farms and thank God for our peaceful drives to work through the farmlands and, you know, the fields that we have because that’s what sets us apart.”
Jim Rudegeair said his self-imposed deadline is to have the county’s second Liberty Bell finished by mid-November so it can receive a clear coating to heighten the color and protect it from the elements. When finished, this bell will be unveiled at a special ceremony in December and then reside at Visit Lebanon Valley throughout 2026.
Rudegeair said one of his influences and favorite painters is Vincent Van Gogh.
“That’s what inspired me, I think, were Post-Impressionists,” Rudegeair said. “I would say, you know, this is maybe a more Impressionist kind of painting, if I were to categorize it.”
Kuzo said there’s a plan to unveil the finished bell at an event in December.
“The artist believes that he will be done with the oil painting and the finished coat will be on it by early December. At that point we will have a bell ceremony to unveil it here at the (tourism) office,” Kuzo said. “I’d like to have a high school band and something fun to incorporate all of that excitement of that unveiling. And then we’ll have it on display here in our office for the whole year.”
A still life painted by Jim Rudegeair earlier this year. Two of his favorite scenes are still life pieces of art and landscape paintings.
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