The Haunted House Studio

Lewis Barrett Lehrman

Web: http://www.hauntedstudio.com

The concept of the Haunted House is as old as mankind itself. In literature on the concept of “the Holy” it is argued that primitive man put aside certain sacred locations and these were seen as “Hallowed” ground, separate from normal tribal property and open to the “divine”. At this stage of man’s developments the “divine” was a nebulous concept and of course covered everything from tree and animal spirits to those of storms and place. This concept of the Holy was marked by such emotions and fear and awe and was just as much about terror and dread as about joy and reverence. In many ways the early foundations for haunted locations were laid at this very early stage. As mankind developed some of the earliest folk-tales and stories resonated with images of ghosts, spirits and haunted locations, ranging from natural environs to houses. Some of the earliest tales from the Indian Puranas and Agamas are filled with spirits, ghosts, dark temples and haunted domains.

Haunting is traditionally used as a plot device in both gothic and horror fiction. Roman-era authors Titus Maccius Plautus, Pliny the Younger, and Lucian wrote stories about haunted houses, and more modern authors from Henry James to Clive Barker and Stephen King have featured them in their writings. Traditional ghost stories, especially those of Europe and later America, reveled in the image of the Haunted House, certainly the Gothic novel used it as a central motif. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, written in 1764 is considered the very first Gothic novel and is the forerunner of most later horror tales, it used an old castle as its nexus and this model continued into such tales as Dracula.

In modern tales the Haunted House has ranged from a decaying castle to the modern home, which while seeming to be the centre of domestic bliss is actually the seat of some unknown evil, this can be especially seen in such films as the Amityville Horror, House and Poltergeist. While these images may resonate in film, the most common icon of the Haunted House comes from Hollywood and such films as the Hammer Classics.

It is hard to actually pin down the iconography of haunting, it seems to dwell in old buildings, Victorian mansions with secret passages, moonlit vistas, shimmering half light and mist.

This is where Lewis Barrett Lehrman comes in. He is a veteran graphic artist and illustrator and professional watercolorist, he is also the author of six books on art for artists. His website has been in operation since 1989 offering Haunted House paintings.

Lehrman began his career as a fine artist began back in 1984, following over twenty-five years in graphic design and illustration. The question we may ask is how did he come to undertake such an unusual career choice, let’s let him answer in his own words…

“How did I become interested in painting the haunted world? I trace it back to the summer of 1944, the year I turned eleven! That was when my aunt and uncle invited me to spend a month with them on a mid-western farm. I was a New York city kid, a budding artist even then, and to say I was excited at making the trip -- by myself!! -- on an overnight Pullman sleeper train to Battle Creek, Michigan, would be understating my feelings by quite a bit. Sleepless with excitement, I spent that night, nose pressed to the window, gazing out at moonlit farmlands, lonely houses lit by solitary lights, as we rolled past in the darkness. They're images I remember to this day, so it was only natural that I'd be drawn to painting the night. From painting the night it was a short hop to Halloween.

Through the mid '80's and into the early '90's, my wife and I owned an art gallery which featured my work as well as that of other artists. Night scenes -- and then Halloween scenes -- were always popular subjects. The more I painted them, the more they sold. And people loved them! Today, many of them live on mainly in memory, as they have long since left my world.

Those were the years before the Internet, high quality scanning and digital giclée (high quality ink-jet) printing, and all the technology which we take for granted today, all of which have now made it possible to produce incredibly faithful reproductions in small quantities, and which also helped make The Haunted Studio possible.

These days, The Haunted Studio and its activities occupy a great deal of my creative time. I have come to think of myself as "Painter of Dark."

The Haunted Studio currently offers some forty one paintings, available as fine-art-quality prints in varied sizes, at very affordable prices. The quality of these prints are truly impressive. Each reproduction is printed on 100% cotton fiber fine art paper, which has a soft white surface and texture that is close to the original watercolor paper. Each subject is carefully printed, signed and numbered, and is carefully rolled and shipped in a sturdy mailing tube.

Lehrman has worked exceptionally hard to make available the highest quality product and each print also includes an outline on the back suggested framing ideas etc. He has a strong sense of customer service and what he offers and the way he responds to enquiries and supplies his goods cannot be faulted.

Haunted House Notecards

The Haunted Studio also offers a range of Haunted House Notecards, these are superb reproductions in high quality, they are great Halloween cards but can also be used for birthdays, holidays, really, anytime ! (They are supplied with envelopes)

There are a wide selection available in various series including Jessica Concluded That This Place Promised, Midnight In The Treehouse of Good and Evil, Sweets For The Sweet? Tilted Angel, Thirteen Spooks, Maybe More, The Pumpkin Sellers' Halloween and Strange Light.

How about your Own Haunted House ?

Have you ever wondered how your own house (or maybe the house you grew up in), might look in the moonlight, perhaps with strange light emanating from an attic window, maybe with some spooky faces peering from behind the curtains in a darkened room, perhaps with some trick-or-treaters (you? your children?) on the front walk? Lehrman offers commissions to create your own the way you would dream it to be (in your nightmares, of course !).

You can see some examples at http://www.hauntedstudio.com/your.htm

Again, Lehrmann offers the ultimate in customer service, while you pay a deposit (refundable), the rest is not due until you are totally satisfied with the result. I cannot think of an artist who has more consideration of his customers.

The Haunted Studio Website

The Haunted Studio website offers all sorts of information about Lewis Barrett Lehrman’s art works, these are three pages full of images in his gallery which offer good sized images of each print and full background to each. I love the fact that you can get the background story of each print; let us take The Ghosts of Black Mountain farm as an example. There is a large image of the print, background story and details of sizes available: Large Format, Medium Format, Small Format and (soon) in Premiere Limited Edition. Let’s get the feeling for this print…

Ghosts of Black Mountain Farm

They came to America when the nation was young. Hard working farmers, they headed west, paused their wagons on this spot, and knew it to be the very place they had dreamed of.

A sod hut was their first home, and that first spring, they turned the soil, planted, tilled, harvested their crops, and tended their chickens and lambs. A sturdy cabin soon replaced that sod hut, as the family grew. Here they lived, here they worked and began to prosper. Years passed. They celebrated each birth, sent sons to defend their new homeland, mourned each passing, and interred their dead in the grove behind the cabin.

Following The War Between The States, the family decided to build a grand Victorian mansion upon the site of that original sod hut. They named it "Black Mountain Farm," in memory of the distant land from which their forefathers had arrived nearly a century ago.

As generations died, they were laid to rest in the little graveyard: the old, and sometimes, sadly, the young.

They thought it would last forever, their paradise on the prairie, but another war came, then the dust bowl years, then yet another war. And another. This generation's youth, its ambitions kindled by the hardships of farming or by the allure of the college campus, departed, never to return.

Finally, there came a time when none remained to fill the vacant rooms, to love and maintain Black Mountain Farm, and thus it was abandoned to the mercy of prairie winters, vandalism, and decay.

Now, as dusk descends and a chill wind hisses softly through the withered prairie grass, only the ghosts of Black Mountain Farm stand watch, drifting soundlessly down moldering hallways, through the forgotten graveyard, or peering from the gathering shadows.

But what of that light in the attic window?

There is also a free newsletter called “The Halloweenist”. It is a great free newsletter showing prints in preparation, news, art being worked on and all sorts of other interesting tidbits.

There is a lot to look at The Haunted Studio website, lots to read and enjoy and some great prints, postcards and more. It is a great embodiment of the feeling we all so much enjoy when we see a ghost film or read a horror tale, that sense of both fun and a tinge of fear, the memory of being scared as a child and enjoying it. Lewis Barrett Lehrman is a great artist, a dark visionary and dedicated to customer satisfaction, I am sure you will find something you want on his site !

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