Miracle Buggies
The setting of this painting is the small community in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, known as Fertility. This small “town” shares the unusual feature of an uncommon name, which Lancaster towns are well known for, causing many an eight-year-old snicker.
Another source of inspiration for painting came from an innovative used-car dealership I observed almost daily early in my business career. “If it is a good car, it’s a Miracle.”
The sunset is prominent in this painting. A sunset is one of nature’s quiet masterpieces — a fleeting painting brushed across the horizon. As the sun descends, the sky transforms into a layered gradient of gold, rose, and violet, each hue bleeding gently into the next. The light softens, shadows stretch long, and everything it touches seems to glow from within.
Black Buggie…or not! Actually, there are five different-colored Amish buggies. Granted, black is by far the most common buggy color, with the rarest and most striking color of them all, yellow. The Byler Amish community in Belleville, PA, is the only community that uses these bright yellow buggies. This community is often called the “yellow toppers”. Notably, the men in this community are also known for wearing only one suspender.
The five buggy colors and the region they can be found are:
- Black - Many communities across the United States and Canada
- Grey - Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
- Brown - This color buggy is found in the Amish communities of New Wilmington, PA, and related settlements in Montgomery County, New York.
- White - White buggies are driven by the “Nebraska Amish”. Their name is somewhat misleading, as this Amish group is located primarily in Mifflin County, PA, and in Ohio. The Nebraska Amish is the second most conservative subgroup of the Amish. As with their white buggies, the men are permitted to wear only white shirts.
- Yellow - Belleville, PA