The mystery of Louis Sloan's 'Spirit'

FELLOW ARTISTS recalled when Louis B. Sloan painted his masterwork, "Spirit," a 36-by-80-inch oil painting, which was declared stolen this month.

Well-known landscape painters James Brantley and Jim Simmons, now in their 60s, jumped at the chance to go painting with Sloan, their onetime mentor.

It was like the old days, when Sloan would take art students at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts on annual painting trips to the YMCA Camp in the Catskills, the Delaware Water Gap, the Poconos and elsewhere.

This time, however, Simmons suggested that they drive to the Adirondacks, to a camp that a relative owned near Split Rock Falls along Lake Champlain.

"They loved it," said Simmons, who returned three times with Sloan and Brantley.

"It was very extreme," he said. "A rocky torrent of water comes down the mountain. Lou climbed along the ledge to paint."

Brantley said that in 2007, Split Rock Falls inspired Sloan to paint the unusual rock formations, glazing layers of purples, blues and earth tones, with a dramatic beam of light shining between the rocks.

Sloan titled the painting, "Spirit."

"It was an incredible piece of work," said Brantley.

"Sloan was very excited about it," said longtime friend, painter and fellow PAFA instructor Elizabeth Osbourne. "It was an important work of his and he worked on it a long time."

Brantley said that Sloan had told him that "as a child, he woke up one night and saw this beam of light."

Throughout his professional life, Brantley added, "he repeated that image on canvas. It carried him through his life."

"Spirit" was last exhibited in the "Yesterday and Today, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Alumni Invitational Exhibition" in June 2008, and then in July at the Sande Webster Gallery.

The painting was part of an extended show in August, 2008, said Sande Webster.

Sloan then picked up the artwork on Aug. 29, 2008, six weeks before he died.

Sloan told his brother Jim that the beam of light was his "soul ascending to heaven," a premonition that many believe foreshadowed his Oct. 15, 2008 death.

"He thought it was his best work," added Jim Sloan.

"Hopefully, the painting will miraculously reappear," said Brantley.