Gone

Old Farmhouse, Williamstown, MA. 18x24 inches, oil on linen canvas. A painting I did three years ago.  I’ve painted this farmhouse many times. I’m sorry to say that the farmhouse was torn down recently. I’m certain there must have been good reasons for demolishing it. I can’t think of any at the moment. 

More Wishful Thinking

In the summertime, the complaint is that there's too much green.  In the wintertime, the complaint is that it's not summertime.  Here's more wishful thinking, showing the farm buildings at Sheep Hill in Williamstown, MA.  8x10 inches, gouache on mixed media paper.

Foreground Background

Since I'm doing paintings of old farmhouses in winter, here's one more, just completed, to be seen on Sloan Road in Williamstown, MA.  I'm fond of this view because of the echoes between the Hopper valley in the distance and the gully besides the road, and the rising Mount Greylock with the high roof peak of the farmhouse. 18x24 inches, oil on linen canvas.

Winter Farmhouse

Here's another larger painting that I've been working on, just completed.  The old farmhouse is comfortably settled in, or slightly dwarfed by, its surroundings.  18x24 inches, oil on linen canvas.

With A Winter Coat

This morning I was reminded of this old farmhouse, which I painted several times this spring.  So I painted it again today with its winter coat on.  6x8 inches, gouache on mixed media paper.

The Old Sun Dial

While painting this old farmhouse with its angles and projections for the fourth time, it suddenly turned into a sun dial.  I could tell what time it was from the location of the shadows and sunlight.  To get in the entire house, I used a larger panel and set up in the brambles across the road.  12x16 inches, oil on linen panel.

The Whole House

The second painting from yesterday afternoon of the old farmhouse in Williamstown, MA.  This time the whole house got into the painting.  12x12 inches, oil on linen panel.

Morning Sunlight

Today I painted two versions of the old farmhouse in Williamstown, MA.  This is the first from this morning: more angles from the shadows of the morning sunlight. I couldn't fit the whole house on my panel.  9x12 inches, oil on linen panel.

Every Angle

An old farmhouse in Williamstown, MA. My first time painting it.  I'll have to do it again from another angle.  Every angle has its rewards.  9x12 inches, oil on linen panel.

Changing Shadows

The farmhouse on Sloan Road in Williamstown, MA which I've painted at least a couple dozen times from much higher up at the top of the road looking across the valley towards Mount Greylock and The Hopper.  I love its changing shadows as the sun moves across the sky.  9x12 inches, oil on panel.

Structures

This year when I've visited Sloan Road in Williamstown, MA to paint, I've confined myself to pastures and hay fields.  Lately I've wanted to include structures in my paintings, so I set up on the side of Sloan Road yesterday where I can see this farm house and its driveway.  The tree was nice too.  9x12 inches, oil on panel.

No Mas

For the first day of summer, this morning I painted a driveway.  The breeze was gentle and persistent with the sun going in and out.  I pretended that I was in Provence painting on a country road, except the building alongside the driveway doesn't look like a mas, the Provencal farmhouse, but is a Federal style house in Hoosic, NY.  9x12 oil on panel.

Creeping Shadows Full of Light

This morning I went back to the old farm house at the end of the dirt road.  The shadow was creeping down the side of the side porch, so I marked off where it was, and painted real fast.  By the time I was done, the shadow was all the way down like a curtain to the floor.  But I managed to capture where it was when I arrived on the scene.  It helped to have done the preparatory watercolor a few days ago.  What I found interesting to deal with was that the shadows were full of light.

Side Porch

This 9x12 watercolor and gouache study shows a view of the whitewashed side porch of the old farm house.

The Shadow Side

Another plein air painting, an 11x14 oil on multimedia board, showing the old farm house at the end of the dirt road in the middle of the afternoon on a bright sunny day.  The white washed side is now the shadow side.

Whitewashed

Yesterday was another gorgeous day at the end of the dirt road.  I was attracted to how flat the whitewashed side of the old farm house appeared in the sunlight.  I got far enough away from the building to have the mountain in the background frame the roof.  An aspect of painting landscapes at this time of the year is dealing with grassy surfaces that are in the process of changing over from brown to green.  Because of where I was set up, there was a lot of grassy area to deal with.

The peculiar thing about this 19th century building is that it has a relatively new roof.  I learned yesterday (from the man who put on the roof, of all people, who I encountered at the old farm) that it was to preserve the building until the owners could decide what to do with it.  This painting is a 12x16 oil on panel.

A Different Perspective

This morning's 12x16 oil on panel painting of the old farmhouse was done from a different perspective.  I walked around it and found a different view.  The seldom seen back part of the house shows greater disrepair.

In any case, to get a different perspective on what it means to paint, consider this:  I've been reading about one of my favorite 19th century painters, Eugene Boudin.  In 1874, he was invited to show in the first Impressionist exhibition, though the participating artists were not yet called 'impressionists'.  What got my attention is the following sentence:  "Besides the painters who would become famous--Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Degas, Sisley, Pissarro and Berthe Morisot--the first group included the names of Lepine, Guillaumin, Bracquemond, Cals and de Nittis, not to mention another seventeen artists who are almost unknown today" (E. Boudin by Jean Selz).   Imagine for a moment that you are one of the seventeen.  You might think you now have it made.  I'm going to be famous.  Of course, none of them probably actually did think that since they all really wanted to be in the academic exhibitions, and in 1874, no one knew what would happen.  But they probably didn't think they would disappear.  In the end, one has to work/paint for a different reason, especially since one cannot control what will happen.

At Least It's At The End Of A Dirt Road

This morning I painted an old, empty farmhouse on site.  The painting, an 11x14 oil on multimedia board, is nothing great, but at least the location is at the end of a long uphill, dirt road.  The last time I saw this building it was surrounded by snow, so the dark windows were more impressive.  I hope to do more painting at this place as the spring and summer months evolve.

Clapboard Brilliance

This drawing depicts the little farmhouse at Haley Farm at the end of Hopper Road.  I thought that I could draw it faster than I could paint it.   The afternoon sun seems to move more quickly now that the day light hours are fewer.  I've been told that the farmhouse will be torn down at some point.  There's a big hole in the roof suggesting the end is near.  But it still has a clapboard brilliance in the sunlight.

Haley Farm Duo

This morning I arrived at Haley Farm close to 9:15.  First I did the 9x12 oil painting of the small house, followed by the 9x12 drawing of the tree,  after turning about 45 degrees to the left.  In between, in the 45 degree angle, there's a small corn field.