PENNSYLVANIA — Northern Pennsylvania artists motivated by their surroundings are the focus of the Route 6 Alliance’s Artisan Trail this year.

The theme of the alliance’s new postcard and poster project, as well as its corresponding digital exhibit is “Open Your Senses on 6! Nature Inspires Art.” All of the art is from people who live along Route 6 in Pennsylvania.

A photograph taken by PA Route 6 Artisan of the Year Curt Weinhold, featuring an autumnal scene of the dam at Lyman Run State park in Potter County, will be printed on a commemorative poster and postcard. The works of several of these artists are featured in a short digital exhibit that will air in certain sites along the trail, as well as on the website for the project.

The first Artisan Trail map was published in 2005, as a way to encourage and assist artists in communities along Route 6 in Pennsylvania. The trail is now a network of more than 400 artisans, galleries and shop owners, as well as tourism-based businesses and others across 11 counties, all of whom see the value of arts and culture in northern PA. Funding support for the trail is provided by the Bureau of Recreation and Conservation of the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Galilee-based artist Naomi Teppich of the Wayne County Arts Alliance will exhibit a photo of a sculpture of birch bark in the exhibit. “My interest in bark fragments stems from going on hikes in the woods where I find different shaped pieces,” she said in a release. “They look like art to me so I bring them to my studio, shape them out of clay and use my imagination to color these fragments.”

Other images in the exhibit include photographs of natural and painted gourds from Danette Wightman of DRW Designs and 1 of a Kind Gourds; a photograph of a swan on the Allegheny River by Karen Heltzel of Moments in Time Studio in Warren; woodturning and cane carvings by Jack Northup of the Artworks in the Summit in Kane;  jewelry designed with natural elements by Dan and Jan Niebauer of Ralph Miller Jewelers and Gallery  in Erie and an abstract impressionistic painting by Geoffrey Fowler of the Wayne County Arts Alliance.

To watch the trail’s digital exhibit visit www.bit.ly/ArtisanTrailTRR