Every Artist At This Ohio Gallery Is Amish Or Grew Up Amish — Its Grand Opening Is This Saturday

A new art gallery – called Swine Creek Studios Gallery – in Geauga County, Ohio sells only work by artists who are Amish or were raised Amish. It is holding its grand opening this weekend.

An Amish man named Reuben Bender is the owner. Bender actually opened the gallery, in Middlefield Township, about a year ago, so it’s technically been up and running for a while.

But it looks like the time has come for an official grand opening event, which runs Saturday, November 14, from 9 AM to 4 PM. The day comes with a deal of 10% off all art.

Bender is a self-taught artist whose own work hangs alongside that of the artists he represents. The Geauga County Maple Leaf describes what you’ll find on the walls:

Every artist featured in the gallery is Amish or was raised Amish, but most of the work displayed would appeal to non-Amish buyers.

Wildlife scenes and landscapes make up much of the collection, in pencil, acrylic and oil. The gallery also carries still life prints and one unique piece of 3D-art.

“You find most anything,” Bender said.

Some of the artists represented are ones known in Amish and Plain circles, and which we’ve covered here before, such as Christy Otto, or Rose Schmucker.

Artists From Four States

Bender met most of his artists at a yearly gathering of Amish and Mennonite artists, which alternates between Indiana and Holmes County, Ohio. Marlene Lehman of Plain & Simple magazine mentioned that gathering in a 2024 video we did with her here.

The current artists come from Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Colorado. Readers may recognize Christy Otto, an Amish artist near Topeka, Indiana, whose drawings and paintings appear on calendars sold in Amish and Mennonite stores. He answered questions for us about his work in a 2022 Q&A, saying wildlife and farm life are his favorite subjects.

The best-known name on the list may be Andy Mast. From the report:

Mast was raised Amish on a farm in southern Illinois, where he developed his skills drawing by lantern light after his chores were done.

His faith and his years working with horses shape much of his art. He now works out his studio at the base of the Sangre De Cristo mountain range in Westcliffe, Colo.

At 17, Mast suffered a serious head injury in an accident involving a horse. In the hard years that followed, drawing became a refuge for him and a way to express hope, healing and perseverance.

His work has been shown at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum and the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum.

Paintings On Saw Blades

Bender’s own work includes pencil drawings and acrylic paintings, some of them done on old saw blades and handsaws. He is now painting a four-season series on large saw blades and has spring completed. He also takes on commissions and does custom framing. Acrylic is his paint of choice:

“You can use it as an oil or a watercolor, but you can clean up with soap and water,” he said. “You don’t have the messy kerosene or the turpentine to clean up with.”

Bender said he hopes to add more carvings and wood sculptures to the gallery, though the artists can be hard to find.

Saw blades have turned up as a canvas for Amish artists before. It’s really a neat medium that fits the culture near perfectly, in my view. Taking a tool that a lot of Amish families rely on to make a living (sawmill operators and furniture makers, for instance) and transforming it into something charming and beautiful to hang on the wall. What’s not to like 🙂

Other examples of Amish artists working with saw blades include New York painter Anna J. Weaver, featured here in 2014, who has sold work painted on canvas, canvas board, and circular saw blades. And in 2019, I shared a post about a saw blade painting by an Amish woman named Edna Troyer that I picked up in Holmes County, Ohio (I’ve had it hanging on the wall for years now).

Amish Attitudes Toward Art

Making paintings and art for sale is not a typical “Amish thing to do.” Donald Kraybill writes in The Riddle of Amish Culture that “decorative artwork displayed on walls is disdained because it is not useful and because it encourages vanity.”

That said, decorative calendars, zip code charts, and family registers are common in Amish homes partly because they serve a purpose, as covered in this look at Amish wall decor.

However, times change, and acceptance of conventional art produced and displayed by the Amish seems to have been growing in recent years. You can notice this just by looking at the walls of some of the homes featured in our Amish home tour posts.

And of course, attitudes vary by community, with more room for this kind of work in more progressive churches.

Hoping To Teach Amish Children

From the article, we learn that Bender has never taken an art class. Books and plenty of trial and error got him where he is, along with some advice from D.L. Miller, a folk artist known for winter scenes and rural landscapes who used to live next door.

To show what practice can do, Bender keeps a drawing of his from age 7 next to a portrait he painted years later. “It’s something you can learn, but it takes time and commitment,” Bender said.

That is why he would like to offer art classes someday. According to Bender, plenty of Amish kids enjoy drawing but don’t have anyone to teach them, since art generally isn’t part of the Amish school day.

As the Maple Leaf puts it, when Amish students are “handed a sheet of paper and told to draw, many dislike it because they believe they can’t.” His own encouragement came in kindergarten:

He still has the kindergarten report card on which his teacher wrote that he had outstanding artistic ability.

“My kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Burt, from Huntsburg (Elementary School), she was an inspiration to me,” Bender said. “That always inspired me. I don’t know if she’s still living or not, but if she is, it’d be nice to meet her again.”

By this example, we learn that unlike many Amish children, Bender attended non-Amish public school. And while he says he never had an art class, it sounds like he did have some opportunities to demonstrate artistic talent.

He would also like the gallery to become a gathering spot. “I’d love to meet local artists, sit down and talk shop,” he said.

Hours & Location

Swine Creek Studios Gallery is at 16855 Bridge Road in Middlefield Township. Regular hours are Saturdays from 10 AM  to 4 PM, with weekday visits by appointment.

The grand opening is this Saturday, November 14, from 9 AM to 4 PM. Black Friday hours are November 27 from 9 AM to 8 PM and November 28 from 9 AM to 4 PM. Check out the full article at the Geauga County Maple Leaf, linked at top, for many more images from the gallery, and more details on what you’ll find there.

An Amish art gallery is not a common thing, though it’s something I expect we’ll be seeing more and more of, as the Amish population grows and attitudes towards the idea of making art for art’s sake continue to change. If you have a chance to visit, let us know how you liked it.