Fox Chapel artist Carol Skinger is best known for bold watercolor and gouache paintings of recognizable Pittsburgh scenes, like the bustling Sixth Avenue streetscape that hangs in the Duquesne Club or the pictoral Schenley Park map seen at the Heinz History Center.

In her current show, open through Nov. 8 at Cooper-Siegel Community Library in Fox Chapel, visitors might notice that Skinger focused on more local scenes.

There's the Brilliant Avenue railroad trestle in Aspinwall, and the Civil War monument that sits in O'Hara's Greenwood Cemetery, for example.

“I came across that one while looking for August Wilson's grave site,” Skinger said.

There are two paintings of the striped spire above Grace Methodist Church on North Canal Street in Sharpsburg and its neighbor, the new Hitchhiker Brewing Co., as seen from Route 28.

“There will be views from my imagination and views of the area served by the Cooper-Siegel library,” said Skinger, a native of Vermont who moved to Pittsburgh in the 1980s.

Watercolor, gouache, ink and pastel are her primary media. There are about 40 pieces in the show.

Along with her most recent works, Skinger included a display of ink drawings from her days as a young art student in Stowe, Vt.

“The teacher had the class walk out from school into the village to draw a scene with a dip pen and bottle of ink,” she said.

At that same time, the owners of the iconic Ben & Jerry's ice cream factory in nearby Waterbury, Vt., displayed one of Skinger's ink drawings on the wall of their first ice cream shop, she said.

Artist exhibits at Cooper Siegel were added to the program two years ago. They are scheduled and managed by library volunteer Kathleen Wendell, who previously worked at the Heinz History Center in the Strip District.

Cooper-Siegel is at 403 Fox Chapel Road. For more, visit coopersiegelcommunitylibrary.org

Tawnya Panizzi is a staff writer for the Tribune-Review.

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