Jan 28, 2015 4 min read

WAYNESBURG – Three local authors will be at Artbeat Gallery, 52 E. High St. Waynesburg, from 7 to 9 p.m. to sign their latest books and talk about what motivated and inspired them.

Watercolor artist Leslie Fehling’s “Sketch Book Journeys, Italy,” is filled with the lush colors and sure lines that capture the people and places of her artist’s vacation to the Tuscany region in 2013.

Fehling, who lives on a hill near Ruff Creek, is both an artist and art teacher. Her blog, Everyday Artist, is online and offers step-by-step photos of works in progress that show the process, from pencil sketch to inking and adding layers of colors.

Fehling will be traveling again to Tuscany in September to teach a class and is inviting students to join her there Sept. 20 -27 to roam the countryside doing plein aire watercolors.

Students will stay at Fattora Bacio, a 19th century villa at the summit of a hill, with 340 acres of olive groves and vineyards, adjoining farmhouses and gardens. Updates for the trip are posed at www.paulsenstudios.com.

The Rev. John Dorean’s “Justice in Greene” is the last book in a trilogy that uses Greene County as the backdrop for murder. As the longtime pastor of Jefferson Baptist Church, Dorean’s tales explore the weaknesses and strengths people bring to their actions that not only set the stage for murder but help solve the crime.

The trilogy’s “Murder in Greene” and “Witness in Greene” explore the crimes of robbery and social activism that inadvertently lead to death and clues are scattered across the familiar landscape of county roads, towns and eateries.

In “Justice in Greene,” Dorean tackles the problem of heroin addiction that is affecting so many families, both in Jefferson and elsewhere. Although fiction, the pain and danger that addicts and those who love them go through is only too real, Dorean said. He now leads a support group at his church for families dealing with addiction. “When people realize you’re not condemning, they open up. We meet weekly, and it’s open to the community.”

“Waynesburg and Washington Railroad – Second Number 4,” by Jim Weinschenker of Waynesburg, celebrates the life and times of the old steam engine now on display at the Greene County Historical Museum on Rolling Meadows Road. It was the second of four engines and the only one remaining that once moved people and products between two counties until the rail line was closed in 1933.

Growing up in Greene County gave Weinschenker a chance to rediscover the old rail line that told the history of America’s first attempt at mass transit to move rural goods to market on narrow gauge railroad lines.

“This railroad is in my back yard, so to speak, and I was into narrow gauge lines. I started doing research back in the 1990s, finding photos and news clippings and talking to people who still remembered. By the time I had more than 300 photos, a friend told me it was time to write my first book,” Weinschenker said.

That first book, “Narrow Gauge in Southwestern Pennsylvania – the Waynesburg and Washington Railroad,” was published by M2FQ Publications and went on sale in 2003 during the museum’s Harvest Festival. It had more than 200 never-before-published photos and offered historical data about the old stations and the rural whistle stops between the Waynesburg and Washington stations.

Weinschenker’s latest book, produced by Rhodes and Hammers Printing, focuses on the history of that last engine – Number 4, and how it was saved.

“Gordon Wood was vice president of the historical society, and in 1958, he wrote a letter to the Pennsylvania Railroad asking if we could have the engine. I have that letter in my book. My first book is out of print but I was able to find five copies and I’ll have them for sale Friday,” Weinschenker said.

Refreshments will be served and the authors begin speaking at 7:30 p.m.

For more information, call Artbeat Gallery at 724-833-9058.