Alice Sotter

One of the early female artists of Bucks County, Alice Bennett Sotter in known for her stained glass work and floral paintings, whose subjects she often chose from her own garden. She was active in the the Phillips Mill art colony in New Hope during the 1930s, which included George W. Sotter, her husband, Edward Redfield, William Lathrop, and Daniel Garber. After graduating from Carnegie Institute of Technology's School of Design in her hometown of Pittsburgh, Alice became an assistant to George W. Sotter and J. Horace Rudy, who were partners in the Rudy Brothers Stained Glass Studio. Rudy was the father of Bucks County sculptor Charles Rudy, and Sotter was a student of Bucks County painter Edward Redfield. Assisting George in creating stained glass for churches in their studio in Holicong, Alice traveled to England and France with her husband to study glass designs and exhibited her work in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. In her will, she generously remembered art galleries, schools, and churches, bequeathing them various examples of her and her late husband's creations.

Major Group Exhibitions
Fiftieth Anniversary Retrospective Art Exhibition, Phillips Mill, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 1979
George Sotter: Light and Shadow, Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 2017

Education and Training
Pittsburgh School of Design for Women, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1904
Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1915-1916

Teachers and Influences
Glass designer J. Horace Rudy, father of sculptor Charles Rudy, and George W. Sotter, her husband

Connection to Bucks County
George Sotter came to Bucks County in 1902 to study with Edward Redfield. Alice and George Sotter moved to Holicong permanently in 1919, where they maintained a home and stained glass studio on Ash Mill Road, called Walnut Grove.

Colleagues and Affiliations
Edward Redfield, Ben and Faye Swengel Badura; Forrest Crooks, Edward Byrne Sr., Valentine D'Ogries; Charles and Lorraine Rudy

Alice Sotter was an honorary member of Midway Fire Company in Lahaska, and belonged to the Delaware Valley Protective Association, founded by painter William F. Taylor, the Phillips Mill Community Association, and the Colonial Club.