82-Lmcnt«r Fannins, Saturday, March 13 1993
Hoffmans Retire To Cultivate Artistic Abilities
JOYCE BUPP
York Co. Correspondent
DOVER (York County)
Stepping through the front door of
Mary and Wayne Hoffman’s
home is a lot like walking into a
folk art gallery.
Set in a giant loop formed by
the Conewago Creek in north
western York County, the Hoff
man farm is a small private world
untouched by urban sprawl. At the
end of a long, scenic lane, the cou
ple’s spacious farm home serves
as a perfect setting for artistic
talents both have cultivated in
their retirement
Mary’s oil paintings and decor
ative artwork mix and mingle
through the cozy rooms with the
handcrafted furniture and natural
life carvings created by Wayne.
Both have a flair for turning the
old and unwanted into items of
useful and artistic beauty.
Mary Hoffman retired several
years ago from a career in the real
estate business. Following knee
surgery in 1980, she signed up for
a fall semester evening class in
beginner tole painting at the Dov
er High School.
“I wasn’t sure how good my
knee would get and I wanted to try
something different,” she says of
her reasons for joining the art
class. “And, I had an old tin pan
here I wanted painted. After six
weeks, I was addicted.”
That Christmas, one of their
daughters gave Mary a beginner’s
set of oil paints and two books on
painting. Though she had started
with acrylics, Mary soon preferred
the flexibility of the oils.
“I like to be able to walk past a
painting and fix my goofs; with
slow-drying oils, you can do that
Everything is an experiment for
me. I get a lot of books, and read a
Calling herself a “dab” painter, Mary touches up the
swan she painted on an old wooden box.
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<p» jry tffman’s talent combine to turn ordinary household
Items—garbage cans, old wooden boxes, trays, a wood saw-lnto lovely works of art.
Her Christmas gnome remains from the holidays.
lot about how to do different
things, but I’ve taken some classes
and attend seminars,” Mary adds.
Many of Mary’s oils feature
flowers and birds; some are of
landscapes and picturesque old
country buildings. A painting of
the Hoffman’s bam, a building
dating to 1743, hangs near a win
dow with a view of the classic, red
structure. There’s even a portrait
of Wayne, done by Mary in a class
for which Wayne agreeably con
sented to pose for the students.
Some of Mary’s painting is of
the decorative type, ornamenting
picnic baskets, milk boxes, trays,
cheese boxes even garbage
cans.
“I like to paint big things,” she
explains, with a grin. “My daught
er saw a painted garbage can and
told me about it; it was the first big
object I ever tried.”
It turned out so well that each of
the Hoffman’s nine children even
tually got their own decorated gar
bage can. Mary frequently paints
them for wedding gifts. She pre
pares the new, galvanized, 20-gal
lon size cans with a base coat of
metal primer before adding trail
ing vines and flowers or perhaps a
whimsical rabbit or raccoon.
In 1982, Mary joined the Key
stone Painters, a regional artists
group which she now heads as
president. The more than 100
members travel from as far away
as State College and Lebanon as
well as the states of Maryland and
Delaware to the bi-monthly meet
ings, usually held at the Hoff
man’s own Salem Union Church
near Dover. One meeting is held
each year in Maryland.
“We often have a seminar or
paint-in between the six regular
meetings. Keystone Painters has
members at all levels of ability:
ability doesn’t have to stop some
one from joining.” Mary says. “At
every meeting, someone teaches
some technique or idea, and we
usually have ‘show and tell’ of
things we’re working on.”
One thing Mary does not paint
are the beautiful carvingts crafted
by her husband.
“She’s not allowed to do those,”
teases Wayne. “Carvers do their
own painting.”
“I wouldn’t have time anyway,”
counters Mary, adding that she
already has more painting projects
than she can complete.
Wayne took his first carving
class in 1984, after retiring from
his carpentry trade of more than
30 years.
“I thought he should try it; I
sent a check in for the class so
he’d be obligated,” chuckles
Mary, explaining her persuasive
tactics.
The graceful shorebird he
shaped led to another, and
another; the “flock” now numbers
35, each different. Wayne has also
added ducks, swans, loons and
songbirds to the array of delicately
carved birdlife. In many, each
feather is etched in such detail and
the acrylic colors so lifelike you
expect them to chirp or quack.
Favorite carving of the couple’s
grandchildren is a rattlesnake, the
curves of its body fashioned from
separate blocks. Jointures in the
three-foot wooden reptile are so
carefully fit they can hardly be
seen.
A wooden chain carved by
Wayne is another attention-getter.
The chain of about a dozen con
necting links is crafted from a
single block of wood. And a sleek
wooden replica of a Corvette
sports car is carved from several
layers of walnut, glued together to
give a striped effect to the fin
ished, highly-polished auto
model.
Carving the sports car brought
Wayne somewhat full-circle in a
lifelong love affair with
woodworking.
“When I was a kid, I would run
to my grandfather’s shop. Probab
ly one of the first things I ever
made was a bird house,” he remi
nisces of his early efforts with a
drawing knife. “In 1934, Chrysler
came out with an air-flow car. I
built a model of one out of two
curved pieces of wood, cut win
dows out and put a couple of
wheels on it to play with.”
Native Pennsylvania pine
boards salvaged from the bam
r-\ w
granary have proven a treasure
trove of material for Wayne’s
woodworking skills.
A keyholder inside the front
door is fashioned from a section of
one of the 18-inch wide granary
boards, and is a tribute to the
Hoffmans combined sense of
humor. Rats chewed holes
through the section, leaving
behind telltale teethmarks. On a
piece of plywood for a backing,
Mary painted a family of raccons
peeking out through the ratholes.
“I wanted to paint a rat,” Mary
explains, “But 1 couldn’t find a
good picture of one.”
Like Mary, Wayne always has a
couple of ideas waiting in the
wings. A green-winged teal duck
is the project under way in his cur
rent carving class with Manches
ter teacher Joe Kline.
Since Christmas, he has worked
Outstretched wings, carved separately, will be fitted to
the body of the eagle. When completed, Wayne will mount
the finished carving on a log or piece of tree limb.
the finishing touch to Mary’s oil paintings. A wooden rat
tlesnake he fashioned in sections winds through part of his
“flock” of 35 different shorebird carvings.
A reverse-glass painting of geese decorates the Hoff
man's transom. For this unique type of art, Mary uses
waterproof Ink to outline the design, then fifis in the col
or, adding finished details first and background colors
last.
homestead
several dozen hours on the white
pine carving of an eagle with out
stretched wings, which will be
perched on a piece of log or limb.
To add the fine detail of texturing
each feather, Wayne peers
through a free-standing magnify,
ing glass while using an etching
tool that bums tiny lines in the
wood.
Claws are fashioned of copper
wire, then coated with a putty-like
material that can be shaped, tex
tured and colored to create a life
like bird’s leg.
Numerous pieces of furniture in
the Hoffman home are testimony
to Wayne’s woodworking talents.
Tables, shelves, storage and toy
chests and stools made from an
oak tree that had fallen along the
Conewago Creek are scattered
throughout their cozy home and
(Turn to Pago B 3)