Ghost Barn

Barn, Hancock, MA. 11x14 inches, oil on linen canvas.  The barn no longer exists at this site. 

Just An Empty Field

Old Hancock Barns. 16x20 inches, oil on linen canvas.  Yesterday I drove by the spot where these two barns used to stand.  Just an empty field now, leaving an empty feeling.  I felt compelled to remember them in this painting done today.

Still on the Road

Just a bit further down Route 43 going towards Williamstown but still in Hancock are this set of barns with shiny tops.  8x10 pastel.

Border Line

A 9x12 oil of the view approaching the Williamstown border at the top of the distant hill from Hancock.  I left out the power lines.   Edward Hopper left out power lines in his paintings, especially his watercolors, and when he didn't he probably regretted putting them in.  It's difficult to get them taut and slight without messing up.  Telephone poles imply lines.  In the air.  The light makes them hard to see.  So no need to put them in, unless one wants to make some kind of comment about their presence.  The garage in the above painting is next to a former commercial garage, both of which probably had their best days around 1940.

First Walk

This past Saturday I walked along Route 43 from Hancock to Williamstown, MA, a journey of several miles.  I've done this before on this road and elsewhere at different times of the year.  My wife will drop me off, and pick me up when I am ready to stop.  Macfarlane concedes later in his book The Wild Places that all the wild places aren't found in remote, never-travelled sites, but often, very often, right where we all live.  I think many wild places are at edges, such as edges of fields, rivers, and roads.

Route 43 doesn't have too many cars on it to be overly bothersome, but it does have incredible views, which one can't appreciate fully from a car.  Route 43 runs through a valley with mountains on either side.  I started at my favorite barn with the barber pole (above 9x12 oil).  I take pictures and notes, and always find something I had not seen before.  This time an overgrown 19th century cemetery which no one in a car would ever see.  In fact, I missed it the last time I walked by a year ago.  There are plenty of fallen down structures, and non-traditional views to be seen when walking along a roadway.  I did see some deer, plenty of cows, and lotsa crows.  More images to come.

Barber Pole Barn

This is an 18x24 oil of a famous barn in Hancock, MA on Route 43.  The other barn is in the background left.  The main barn is the distant one in the previous painting.

One more quote from the Schneider book on Matisse (I am almost done reading it): "...when myths are no longer viable, the process of identification remains the sole manifestation of the sacred.  To 'go out of yourself,' in order to become one with the model--be it a parakeet, a shell, or a woman--to feel ecstasy, is to know the divine: 'Do I believe in God? --Yes, when I work.'"  So said Matisse.

Geometry

A 12 x 24 oil of geometric forms in the guise of two barns and a road.   The "graffiti" in the roadway was created by a highway crew trying to preserve the cracks in the road.

More and No More

The oil was done while it was misting. It was time to stop when the water beads started gathering on the palette. The Hancock barn view is pastel over acrylic wash again. Unfortunately, the photos of these pastels over wash mislead. The pastels are flatter and more blended than they appear here. Reds tend to separate out in photos whereas they stay flat in the real thing. I know the handling is rough, but that's a consequence of the pitted paper, and what I am after. I like the compositions, which reward a second or third look.

Another Round

When I did the oil sketch on Sheep Hill, it was overcast and threatening to rain. The Hancock barns are pastel over acrylic wash.

Other Barn in Color

The foreshortened barn in color. Lotsa bits of stuff.

Other Barn

This one is much better in color, which I will try to tackle tomorrow. I am fascinated how working with black charcoal bits seems to be opening up my handling of pastel. At least it seems that way.

Red Barn and Pole

This red barn with its barber's pole with Christmas lights has always intrigued me. Like a little touch of Venice on Route 43 in Hancock. Mitchell Albala in his excellent book Landscape Painting writes that one can get luminosity by using mid-values together, which is what I tried to do here. I also tried to keep the abstract quality. The pastel is 11 x 14 on uart paper, and the charcoal drawing is 5x7 on standard sketching paper.

PS. I revised the painting a day later.

Barns without Red

Preparing to do more barns. Probably will do the top one tomorrow in pastel since today it appears to be the better composition. These are 8x10 charcoal on smooth Bristol paper for something different.

Barn

This is one of those barns that gets put up very quickly, but hopefully will withstand the ages, or collapse tomorrow. Or get reworked. We'll see.

Back in New England

I am back in New England, and revisiting the Hancock barns and the Pownal quarry. These are preparatory drawings for coming pastels. You can revisit a familiar site many times, if you select a different time of the day when the sun is in a different location, or not shining at all. But the weather has been great despite the forecasts.

Catching Up III

Then I did more barns in Hancock.  I was away for too long.  But it was good,  like a self-administered pastel clinic.

Catching Up II

Then I did some barns.  The one with the cupola is in Heartwellville, Vt.  The others in Hancock, Ma.  I like the barn without walls.

Not Yet Done

I still have a few more barns left.

Barney

Just call me Barney.

Barnstorming

I am barnstorming, but always at the same barns in the same town.

Recently, I mentioned the book on Gustav Klimt's landscapes.  When painting outdoors, he would often use binoculars or a telescope to view his landscape.   This gave him unusual vantage points.  It's similar to today's practice of using a digital image, which one can enlargen and trim on a computer.  

This weekend my wife showed me a cartoon by Dave Coverly, which appeared in Parade, an insert usually found in the Sunday papers.  It shows an artist working at his easel painting a still life.  He is looking at a table to his left, which holds his laptop.  The laptop has an image of a still life!