The rule for writers is to write what you know, and the same approach has borne fruit for painters.

Sarah McRae Morton, the 23-year-old Lancaster County native whose richly textured paintings of the Amish drew so much attention in the wake of the Nickel Mines tragedy, continues to explore themes of Plain life in her latest works, which will be on display at Red Raven Art Co. during the month of February.

"Lancaster will always be my home, even if I'm not living here. I guess I take my element with me," Morton said during a recent interview at Red Raven.

"I'm inspired by what I know best."

Morton grew up among the Amish. Her father, Dr. Holmes Morton, is a pediatrician and director of the Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, which was established to address the medical needs of the Plain population.

A 2002 graduate of Lampeter-Strasburg High School, Morton went on to study art at University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She mounted her first show last spring, after a year spent painting and traveling abroad  in Europe.

Morton then moved to West Virginia to take on new subject matter — specifically, the coal mining families of rural Appalachia. But once she settled into her studio near Beckley in the southern part of the state, her palette drifted back to the subject she knows best.

"Though I am not Amish or Mennonite, from growing up close to that world, I have inherited much from their example of a way of life," Morton said. "I have learned from them my work ethic and to be committed to the purpose you are called to."

Her upcoming exhibit, titled "The Homecoming of Sarah Morton," is the product of seven months of work. Starting most days around 4 p.m. and painting into the wee hours of the morning, Morton focuses her work on deceptively simple themes such as memory and the importance of family. She often paints with her dog, Fletcher, by her side as a constant reminder to "paint from nature."

For an artist who derives her muse from the agrarian culture of central Pennsylvania, Morton's work is as far as you can get from the standard prints of Amish schoolchildren and the Star Barn. Her images are, in a word, haunting.

Morton's paintings seem to emit light, pulling colors out of shadow. They depict stark physical and emotional contrasts. In the evocative "The Blue Inside the Carriage," a face peers out from beneath blankets into the soft, rich darkness.

"'The Blue Inside the Carriage' is particularly interesting because I was aiming to make a restful painting that's also celebratory," Morton said. "Some of the artists who influenced it are Edvard Munch as well as Victorian-era painters like Dutch artist Alma-Tadema or German artist Kathe Kollwitz, who were able to capture what they wanted to say so poignantly."

Though she currently enjoys her quiet life in West Virginia, Morton is considering returning to Lancaster, where she might try to find a barn somewhere and turn it into a studio. She's also considering a return to Europe to "explore the light just south of Paris." And a move to New York City isn't out of the question.

"Right now, I admit, I'm a little transient, but ... I definitely feel like I'm en route to New York. It maybe doesn't make a lot of sense geographically, but the way to get to New York is through West Virginia, even though it's quite possible that ... the very next step might take me to France."

"The Homecoming of Sarah Morton," an exhibit of 12 new paintings, opens Friday, Feb. 1, at Red Raven Art Co., 138 N. Prince St., and runs through March 4. For more information, call 299-4400.