Dan Campanelli

Nationally-known watercolor artist Dan Campanelli passed away under hospice care at his home in the Quakertown section of the township on Wednesday after an almost two-year battle with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and then Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

Cremation was private under the direction of the Holcombe-Fisher Funeral Home, 147 Main Street, Flemington, NJ. A memorial service will be held on Sunday, June 25, at 1 p.m. at the Quakertown Friends Meeting, 290 White Bridge Road in Quakertown, NJ.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his name to the Hunterdon County Historical Society, 114 Main Street, Flemington, NJ 08822 or Hunterdon Hospice, 2100 Wescott Drive, Flemington, NJ 08822

Campanelli was born in the Bronx in 1949 to Florence Tomasulo and Dominick Campanelli, and moved with his parents to Ramsey at the age of four. He attended art school in New York City, but chose not to give credit to the institution since it preferred to promote modern art rather than the realism he became recognized for.

He worked first in pencil, then stone lithography, and finally watercolor, and had his work shown in numerous galleries.

Campanelli relocated to Warren County in 1976 with his first wife, oil painter Pauline Eble Campanelli, who passed away in 2001.There he restored a colonial-era stone farmhouse that was featured numerous times in decorating and lifestyle magazines.

His watercolor landscapes of historic sites were reproduced as fine art prints, and one, The Daily Beggars, was an international best seller for many years. He also co-wrote and illustrated Pagan spirituality books with his wife for Llewellyn Publications.

In 2002, Campanelli married Bronx-born Marty Anne Katz, a graphic designer and former art director of country style decorating magazines based in New York City.She had been living in Lancaster, Pa., when they first became friends in 1992. They relocated to another historic stone home in 2005, this time in Hunterdon County.Dan continued with his landscape paintings, often producing limited-edition prints as fundraisers for historic sites.The couple also co-wrote books on local history for their community. He frequently gave both open- and limited-edition prints to non-profits, enabling them to use his artwork to raise much needed funds.

The Campanellis loved antiquing and frequently attended shows in New England, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.Their prime passion was schoolgirl needlework and Dan delighted in shocking people with his knowledge of that typically female subject. In 2013, they researched and produced "A Sampling of Hunterdon County Needlework: the motifs, the makers & their stories" as a fundraiser for the Hunterdon Historical Society. The book was featured in The New York Times, as well as on Martha Stewart's website.From that recognition, they were asked to co-curate Hail Specimen of Female Art! New Jersey Schoolgirl Needlework, 1726-1860 at Morven Museum & Garden in Princeton, in 2014-15.

The couple enjoyed giving presentations on this fascinating topic, along with researching the needle workers and their families. Articles by the Campanellis have appeared in many national publications.

In addition to collecting antiques, Dan loved to do woodworking, tend the couple's vegetable garden with Marty, prune his fruit trees, and take care of the small flock of Shetland sheep on their farm. Jezebel, Florabell, Tinkerbell, Liberty Belle and Adorabel will sorely miss his attention.

Unable to paint on location because of his illness, Dan undertook one last project in 2016. He made watercolor depictions of early tavern signs for A Fanciful Journey Back in Time to the Old Tavern Signs of Hunterdon County, New Jersey: A 2017-18 Calendar.

He and Marty researched and designed the calendar for The Hunterdon 300th as a fundraiser. In 2017, the couple were recipients of the Hiram Deats Award from Rural Awareness, Inc. a non-profit civic organization, acknowledging their community service in Franklin Township and Hunterdon County.

Dan wished to thank the nurses on Three West at the Hunterdon Medical Center, the staff at Hunterdon Regional Cancer Center and Hunterdon Hospice for taking care of him during this long and arduous journey.