Decorate your game room or man cave with canvas art prints!

Brendan Bailey of www.easycanvasprints.com is offering a new service for military historians, wargamers, history buffs, photography buffs, and home decorators — photographs professionally printed onto high quality canvas and mounted on a wooden frame for display. These would be a cool addition to your game room, as you can customize the artwork with your own photography of your tabletop wargames, favorite battlefield scene, your Civil War or other living history reenactor unit, etc.

He also offers a large selection of his own stock photography of landscapes, cityscapes, battlefields, monuments, animals, and other topics, including several Civil War shots such as the one shown above from the Gettysburg National Military Park in south-central Pennsylvania.

It’s actually quite simple. I visited Brendan’s website (link above) and downloaded a nice photograph of my wife and me and two family members standing in front of Hazlett’s Battery on Little Round Top. In just a few keystrokes I had uploaded my digital photo, selected the size I wanted and the type of edge finish, and then I was ready to check-out. It took only a few minutes from start to finish. Within 2 weeks, I received a well-packaged canvas print in the mail, which arrived in excellent condition. It was of high quality, with a very nice appearance. He had retouched and optimized the color imagery before transferring the digital photo to the canvas. Debi and I proudly added it to our display of family pictures.

If you are looking for something unique and personal for your game room or another picture for your den or office, check out Brendan’s website. Be sure to mention the Charge! blog.

For more information, contact the company at

www.easycanvasprints.com

“The Diamond” – Gettysburg art print by Bradley Schmehl

Civil War artist Bradley Schmehl of York, PA has produced an excellent depiction of Major General Jubal A. Early‘s entry into Gettysburg’s “Diamond” (the town square) on the afternoon of June 26, 1863, following his successful repulse of Pennsylvania militia defenders at Marsh Creek and Witmer Farm. Both firefights, and Early’s occupation of York, are topics I cover in detail in my recently released book, Flames Beyond Gettysburg: The Gordon Expedition, June 1863. The book is available on amazon.com or directly from me at www.scottmingus.com

Veteran wargamer Larry Reber snapped the above photograph of Brad’s art print at a Gettysburg gift shop, and Brad gave me written permission to reproduce Larry’s image of his copyrighted artwork.

Brad tells me “The Diamond can be ordered from us.  The canvas prints are $200 + s/h ($20). Check or money orders, can be sent to 25 S Yale St, York, PA 17403.  In G’burg, the Wax Museum carries them and so does Gburg Frame Shop.”

If you collect Gettysburg art prints, this one is of interest as it is one of the few prints that depicts downtown Gettysburg under the Confederate occupation, and is one of only two I am aware of concerning Early’s entry (the other one is of Early’s cavalrymen under Elijah White entering town shortly before Early’s Georgia infantry under John B. Gordon arrived).

My wargaming room

A few of you have asked to see photos of my wargaming room in our basement, adjacent to the mecca of the Johnny Reb Gaming Society (a.k.a. Debi’s office and library, and our grandson’s playroom).  I particularly like the Lincoln print, which is actually a montage of 1,000 individual black-and-white photographs from the Civil War that have been arranged so that the patterns form an image of Honest Abe when seen from a distance. The two old steel chairs are from the 1920s; they graced my grandparents’ front porch in East Fultonham, Ohio, when I was a kid. I have lots of memories of playing 54mm toy army men on that old porch and munching ice cream bars while talking with my grandpa and grandma. Very nostalgic! Ah, the pleasant memories…

U.S. Grant memorial in Washington, D.C.

 

All photographs by Thomas M. Mingus of York, Pennsylvania. Used by permission.

Civil War Art

I was a guest author at the 10th annual History Meets the Arts festival in Gettysburg last month and was pleased to see so many exciting French and Indian War artists – some outstanding paintings and artists! I have gained a new appreciation for fine artwork. I enjoy browsing through the Civil War art galleries in Gettysburg, and especially like to walk through Dale Gallon‘s gallery. He’s one of my favorites, along with Bradley Schmehl, whose painting of the burning of the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge is next on my target list. Last night, I was in a friend’s house over in Adams County and was admiring his impressive collection of John Michael Strain‘s works (I like his new bridge painting – I’m partial to bridges!).

So, who is your favorite Civil War artist – Troiani, Maritano, Reeve, Kunstler, Gallon, Schmehl, Strain, someone else? And what is your favorite painting or subject matter? Why?