Story by Colin Deppen of Spotlight PA This story first appeared in PA Local, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA taking a fresh, positive look at the incredible people, beautiful places, and delicious food of Pennsylvania. Sign up for free here . Ellen Cooper has spent days preparing to paint former state House speaker Bryan Cutler’s official portrait.
Before putting brush to canvas, she toured the Capitol with the Lancaster County Republican, gathering the kinds of visual reference material — posture, countenance, accessories — that goes unnoticed by most. When finished, the piece will be added to a Harrisburg gallery of faces spanning hundreds of years, something Cutler called “an honor” and “humbling” in a statement to PA Local. It will also join Cooper’s growing catalog , which includes some of Pennsylvania’s most powerful — if not instantly recognizable — people.
Cooper, a Temple grad from Delaware County, painted the official portrait of former state House speaker Samuel H. Smith and a posthumous portrait, commissioned by former First Lady Susan Corbett, of Pennsylvania’s first and so far only female governor, Hannah Penn. She’s also painted judges, CEOs, doctors, university leaders, and a former governor of Massachusetts.
Cooper spoke with PA Local about finding faces in the crowd, immortalizing her muses, and why she thinks painted portraits persist in an age of Instagram and livestreams. The conversation has been edited for clarity, flow, an.