Scotty Brown, Pen & Ink Artist

Ink In My Blood

I have always liked to draw with a pencil. When I was a young girl, my favorite subjects were my family’s dogs and cats, and the people around me. Sometime in my teenage years I discovered that a BiC pen was good for creating fine lines and soft shading. Virgil Evans, my art teacher at Susquenita High School, introduced me to a quill pen dipped in India ink. This was a boon to my art, because I was working part-time at The Duncannon Record, the local newspaper. The weekly publication was owned and operated by my father, the late Richard A. Swank. Dad sometimes asked for special illustrations, and the renderings required strong black lines.

I continued to work for the paper after high-school graduation. I was also creating art in my free time; mostly for my own enjoyment. Gradually I began to pick up some commissions in art work.

An organization known as The Perry County Tourist and Recreation Bureau began in the mid 1970’s. I was hired to make pen and ink drawings of local landmarks, and related illustrations, for the Annual Spring Booklets. The booklets that include my work span about twenty five years.

During the seventies I left the newspaper to develop my business as a free-lance artist. I also married and began a family.

The formation of The Perry County Council of the Arts came along, and I hopped on board for the first Art Festival! It was truly a communal gathering back in 1984. My pictures were spread out on one small folding table. My family was spread out on a blanket nearby.

Over the years I have completed many homes in pen and ink. This spring I finished the last of nine depictions of buildings and grounds at Carson Long Military Institute, New Bloomfield. The framed ink drawings are displayed in The Maples, one of the beautiful structures on campus.

In addition to the above work, I also enjoy acrylic painting, colored ink and watercolor pencils. I am inspired by the old fields and woodland surrounding my home near Duncannon. I live there with my husband Carl. We have a son Cody, 26, and a daughter, Elizabeth, 21.

Scotty Brown