More Barn

This is a nice spot.  I may be here for a while. 8x10 on sabretooth.

Most favorite barn

If you drive north on Route 43 going to Williamstown, MA, you will recognize this pair of red barns located in Hancock.   I hope they never scrape away all the beautiful flaking paint.

Unsettling and unsettled landscape

This weekend the weather was unsettling and unsettled, never resolving into rain, or sunshine, or grayness, or immense clouds, or blue sky. I spent the time gathering materials for future pastels. This is a quick view looking north near Five Corners. The big mountain is called the Dome.

I have been reading the book Gustav Klimt: Landscapes, in which Verena Perlhefter writes, "The fields, the river, the mountains are not 'landscape' of their own accord; they only become so when one confronts them, for no practical reason, in order to feel at one with nature. Those aspects that appeared useful or useless and were rejected as being hostile were transported into greatness, sublimity, and beauty--transferred aesthetically into a landscape." We may sometimes forget that once the outer landscape had no correlation with the inner landscape. For me, my inner landscape is dependent upon the outer landscape.

Farm Landscape

I wandered off the road a bit to get this view.  Right of the fence is a cow pasture and to the left unseen a cornfield.  

When in Doubt

When in doubt, paint a shed.  Another weekend with so many choices but I haven't been able to settle on anything today.    I need a shed equivalent.  

Field Work

This is a field off Stratton Road in Williamstown, MA.  It's my homage to Elizabeth Mowry.

Stratton Road

Stratton Road in Williamstown becomes a dirt road going south. Speeding vehicles create a lot of dust, but you can see them a mile away, so have time to get out of the way.  The views are spectacular.  And yes, it does look like this.  This view faces north with the Taconic Mountains visible at the upper left.  8x10 on colourfix paper.

Last Shed of the Week

This is a view of the shed from behind off the road with the early morning sun shining right on it.  The window is just a hole.

The Shed

When I was a kid, a long time ago, I found a pile of old lumber under the front porch.
Every summer from the time I was about eight or nine until I was sixteen, I built a shed. I took it apart when the summer started, and re-used the wood (and the nails) to build a different, bigger, better shed each time. Maybe that's why I like old sheds. 8x10 on colourfix paper.

Back on the Farm

This is the iconic farm shed early in the morning.  An earlier Farm Shed painting was accepted at the Small Works exhibition at the Bennington Center for the Arts, and nicely sold.  My very slight disappointment is that I didn't see it on the wall, but I can handle such disappointment.  The purchaser can depart with the artwork without waiting for the show to be over.   I will try to construct a few more farm sheds this week.

More Canal, More Green, More Rain

I'm getting to the point where I might switch to doing potatoes and old shoes.

Gray Day on the Canal

Still on the green and canal theme. Another variation.  8x10 on colourfix paper.

Not Far

This location on the D&R Canal is near the same view as yesterday.  Late afternoon this time.  8x10 on colourfix paper.

Root Canal

I can't avoid the canal when I go for a walk or for a car ride.  It's at the center of my world.  This is a view at about 9:30 this morning.  The sun was shining.  The air was bright. 8x10 on colourfix paper.

Doing the Canal

On a roll, doing the canal, without a canoe. 8x10 on colourfix paper.

Canal View from Path

This is a view of the D&R Canal looking south across from It's Nutts restaurant.  8x10 on colourfix paper.

These words of wisdom from John Ruskin are in the section of Modern Painters where he writes about the relative importance of details in the foreground: "...to the rightly perceiving mind, there is the same infinity, the same majesty, the same power, the same unity, and the same perfection, manifest in the casting of the clay as in the scattering of the cloud, in the mouldering of the dust as in the kindling of the daystar."

Through the Shadows

This is the view early in the morning walking past the sidewalk that leads to the front entrance to the museum in Washington Crossing Park.  I like looking under the trees through the shadows down the road into the sunlight.   This reads like Hemingway.   5x7 on Wallis paper.

Field Training

Still out in the fields in the park.  

Watch out for ticks.  This is a 5x7 on Wallis paper.