THURMONT, Md. – Rebecca Pearl has been busy this past week. Fighting off the remnants of pneumonia, she’s been painting a new Thurmont scene to debut at Friday’s Gallery Stroll.

“I’m working on a painting of Roddy Road Bridge with a Christmas feel to it,” Pearl said.

She said there will be a lot of animals in the picture so that it looks “kind of like a little manger scene.”

The unnamed painting will debut along with two other Thurmont-area paintings by Pearl – “Thurmont Train Station-1914” and “Meeting at Loy’s Station.”

To paint “Thurmont Train Station-1914”, Pearl mixed images of the old Western Maryland Railroad Train Station, Western Maryland Railroad locomotives and the Thurmont trolley and set them in a winter scene.

Local residents won’t be surprised to find that the young boy holding the reigns of a horse in the painting is George Wireman. Wireman lent Pearl a number of photos of the old station to use for the painting. Among them Pearl found a photo of a young Wireman wearing knickers and a cap and standing in a box car with his friends so she decided to incorporate him into the photo as a way to say thanks.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of “Thurmont Train Station-1914” will go to the Guardian Hose Company toward their building fund.

“They do such a good job all year round that we wanted to help them,” Pearl said.

The debut of the paintings will be part of the Thurmont Gallery Stroll on Nov. 2 from 6-9 p.m. Main Street businesses, such as Brown’s Jewelers, Cool Beans, Hobb’s Hardware and PNC Bank will he hosting a wine tasting and free entertainment will be provided by Norman Gibat and Holly Rife. The Shamrock Restaurant will also be providing free hors d’oeuvres at the Rebecca Pearl Gallery.

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