Holley artist creates painting celebrating solar eclipse

Andrea Newman selling posters of painting as fundraiser for Holley festivals

HOLLEY – Andrea Newman, an artist from Holley, created a painting celebrating the upcoming solar eclipse. Holley is in the path of totality and very close to the center line of the eclipse. (The center line will pass over neighboring Brockport.)

Andrea Newman

Newman’s acrylic painting on canvas shows Holley’s lift bridge over a shallow Erie Canal. At about 3:20 p.m. on April 8, Holley will be in darkness as the sun is blocked by the moon. Totality will last for almost four minutes.

It is a rare event. Orleans County was last in a total eclipse in 1925.

“I’m excited,” Newman said today. “It’s going to be a great day.”

Newman was asked by Holley Mayor Mark Bower to create a painting commemorating the eclipse. Bower saw an eclipse poster featuring the Erie Canal with many of the canal towns listed on the border of the poster. He was disappointed Holley wasn’t included.

He reached out to Newman, a former Holley Board of Education member who works as an artist. She also is an adjunct communications professor at SUNY Brockport.

She is happy to help the Holley community celebrate the eclipse. She is selling posters of the painting as well as digital downloads through her Etsy site (click here). Proceeds will be donated to the village to go towards community festivals.

Newman experimented for a few days on creating a silhouette for the painting. She settled on the lift bridge for the scene in Holley, because she said the lift bridge is such an iconic landmark.

“It’s going to be a monumental day,” she said about April 8. “It’s so cool it’s coming right this way.”