Harriet C. Ermentrout, 98, watercolorist

Harriet Curtin Ermentrout, 98, a Bucks County watercolor painter known for carrying a sketchbook everywhere she went, died Saturday, Nov. 15, of a heart ailment at Pennswood Village in Newtown.

"I don't waste any time," Mrs. Ermentrout told an interviewer at age 89.

She would ask others to carry on without her as she paused while hiking, walking a beach, or playing bridge to absorb the essence of a scene and transfer it to her sketchbook using a miniature watercolor set.

She held a cardboard viewing frame up to life to decide "how much I want to get in the painting."

"I love different angles, crazy angles of things. . . . I like old sheds and things piled up with junk," she told The Inquirer's Valerie Reed in 2005.

Her painting style, which Mrs. Ermentrout described as "free and quick, mostly realistic," was popular with art enthusiasts.

"She is well-known in the area," said Janet Hunt, director of the Coryell Gallery in Lambertville, N.J. "Her work speaks to the people. They love her subject matter and style."

Mrs. Ermentrout studied interior decorating at Moore College of Art in 1934 and 1935 but soon turned to painting. While running an antiques shop in Newtown in the 1950s, she studied art with Bucks County painter Roy Nuse. She attended workshops in New England with painter Ed Whitney in the 1960s, and studied watercolors with John Pike in Woodstock, N.Y., in the 1970s.

"She loved learning new techniques and the special challenges of watercolor," her family said in a remembrance.

Her subjects included historic houses, rustic buildings, Bucks County landscapes, and seascapes depicting the New England coastline and the Virgin Islands. She also liked to paint English gardens and hanging laundry.

While traveling the world with her husband, Charles, Mrs. Ermentrout kept busy sketching and painting. Her more than 100 sketchbooks - delightful and whimsical - formed the basis of later paintings.

When the couple returned from trips, daughter Sandy Ermentrout Rotenberg said, she most wanted to see the sketchbooks, not the photographs of their travels. "They are so much a part of who Mother is," Rotenberg told The Inquirer in 2005. "She has a wonderful ability to capture scenes and feelings."

Mrs. Ermentrout's paintings have received many awards. They have been shown at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, Woodmere Art Museum, James A. Michener Art Museum, Philadelphia Watercolor Club, and Coryell Gallery. She had 33 one-person shows.

Five examples of her work are on the Michener Museum website, www.michenermuseum.org/bucksartists/artist.php?artist=70&image=165

Born in Philadelphia, Mrs. Ermentrout lived in Ivyland for most of her married life. She moved to Pennswood Village in 1993. She enjoyed playing tennis.

Surviving, in addition to her daughter, are a son, Carl; and three grandchildren. Her husband died in 2008.

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 4, in Penn Hall at Pennswood Village, 1382 Newtown Langhorne Rd., Newtown.