For Some Reason

Oil paint reminds me of mud, for some reason, or is it the other way around?  Here's the painted muddy intersection of Oblong and Sloan Roads in Williamstown, MA.  12x16 inches, oil on linen panel.

Churning A Lot

The sun has not been shining much lately, but the mud has been churning a lot on Oblong Road at Sloan Road in Williamstown, MA.  12x16 inches, oil on linen panel.

Susceptible

This stretch of Stratton Road in Williamstown, MA is unpaved and always susceptible to mud conditions. 6x8 inches, gouache on mixed media paper.

A Demo In The Mud

This is the painting I did while standing in the mud, with my boots on, with a tarp to hold my gear dry, and with the cows at my back (on the other side of the fence) between me and the sun.  I could see their moving shadows from the corners of my eyes.  When they walked around, they made plopping, sucking sounds in the mud.  I found myself talking to them as I painted.  You could call it a demo.  8x10 inches, oil on panel. 

Well Hidden

Here I followed the muddy lane to where it forks and assembled together some flat rocks to create a dry spot to hold my backpack.  I felt like I was trying to make a landscape painting in a place where it was well hidden in plain sight.  6x8 inches, oil on linen panel.

Gully And Stream

 

The dirt tractor road crosses a gully by going down and then up.  At the bottom of the gully, a stream crosses the road.  On the other side of the gully is a large grassy field, and more corn fields.  The stream always reflects the sky.  

I read yesterday the following from Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez: "Our first wisdom as a species, that unique metaphorical knowledge that distinguishes us, grew out of … an intimacy with the earth..."

8x10 inches, oil on panel.

The Yellow Truck in a February Thaw

It's February but the weather was warm on Monday so I drove up a muddy Hopper Road to paint the yellow truck at Haley Farm in Williamstown, MA.  The truck sits in a cow pasture deep in muck.  I used a wooden pallett, conveniently nearby, to stand on while painting.   9x12 oil on panel.

Drying Up.

Right now this looks like a failed painting to me, but it seemed a good idea at the time.  I wanted to paint the tractor track puddle at the lower left, which is on an improvised, usually muddy, roadway edging a corn field.  The farmer came by on his ATV and told me I'd better hurry up before it dried up. I'm always tempted to paint pictures with stuff around the edges because you are not supposed to do that.  This one is 10x10 inches.

Unsegmented Corn Field

This oil painting is one piece 12 x 24. A familiar view of the late cornfield, now mud site.

Muddy Landscapes and No Flowers

Someone whose opinion I value said to me that nobody wants landscapes of muddy cornfields. People want flowers, color, paintings that bring comfort. Oh, well.

Two Corn Fields and a Mountain Lion

This weekend I wandered around the corn fields. One day I wore my boots, and it was a good thing since my sneakers would not have survived the mud and water. Of course, I knew it would be wet where I was going. I visited the abandoned barn again, which is surrounded by corn fields. I saw some big footprints in the mud, like from a large dog, but it wasn't a dog. The prints were in the vicinity of a lot of deer tracks. Strange that I have never seen a deer in that area, though I see deer almost daily in New Jersey.

The next day I met up with the farmer, and asked him about the barn. He told me many things, one of which is that a mountain lion has been seen around the barn, supposedly lives in the barn. Hmm... That might explain why sometimes I feel that I am being observed, not to mention the footprints.

The two paintings above are 9x12 oils.

Tractor Path

The farmer uses a tractor or a four-wheeled vehicle to move everywhere and anywhere. Since the edges of the field where he drives most of the time are mud, there are ruts in the mud. Fortunately, there are mountains in the background, and corn stalks remnants, and bright skies (sometimes). This is a 9x12 oil, or should I say, a 9x12 mud, but I hope not in the bad sense that oil paint can become like mud.

Back to Mud with Charcoal

Back to muddy corn fields. I want to continue the muddy field series, but act out some drawings first before each painting to learn the lay of the land. This will look better in color. The charcoal drawing is 9x12.

Mud Memories

Today I talked to another artist about how I viewed muddy, harvested corn fields as battle sites, still fresh from the turmoil and disaster. A muddy field is like a drawing tipped aslant, the lines and scratches in perspective, instead of upright and flat. Evidence of tragedy lies everywhere. Wounds still raw from scraping and rubbing, but new life is just beneath the surface, or even on the surface. Maybe I am being overdramatic.

The top is 8x10, the bottom 9x12, both oils.

Corn Field Remnant

Not much happening here, except some corn stalks, a muddy track where the tractors went, and sunlight. It's actually behind the abandoned farm house and barn. Not quite abandoned when one encounters the signs of harvesting.

This is an 8x10 on uart paper, which I roughed in with pastel, brush and water, let dry, and then added more pastel.

Muddy Field

A muddy entrance to a muddy field. Apropos of nothing: de Kooning turned paint into flesh. God made Adam from clay. Jesus cured the blind man from saliva mixed with dirt. Emily Dickinson wrote, "I was always attached to mud."