Another painting, done a couple days ago, showing the gravel pit on the left and the uphill dirt road on the right. This area in Williamstown, MA is used as a pasture but I only saw 'evidence' of cows for the first couple days. They finally came out of the woods yesterday to examine more closely what a landscape painter was doing. I didn't see them at all today. 9x12 inches, oil on panel.
The gravel from this pit, I'm guessing, may have been used to fill washed out sections of the steep dirt road that I was standing on when I made this painting. 9x12 inches, oil on panel.
This one I painted back on Monday morning. It depicts the dirt road between the corn field and the pasture. The cows came by to watch me, but left quickly when they realized that I had nothing for them. The mountain is Mount Prospect over which runs the Appalachian Trail.
This spot, near the bottom of a gully, is close enough so that one can hear traffic noises coming from town, but the coyote scat reminds one also that it is remote. It has a wild beauty. 8x10 inches, oil on panel.
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.
So the next day I set up more to the left to include the tree overhanging the downhill dirt road. 8x10 inches, oil on panel.
The tractor road goes downhill below a high overhanging tree on the right so that what is visible on the ground when looking back up the road is a mix of grass tufts, gravel, rocks, and shadows. It's hard to have all this make visual sense when the tree is not visible in the painting. Camille Pissarro was criticized for placing across the bottom of his paintings the shadows cast by trees themselves not visible in the paintings. In his case, his shadows are more uniform than my splotchy ones. 9x12 inches, oil on panel.
The dirt road in a painting is a visual cliche, but for me it's still a strong metaphor that transcends its compositional usefulness. Since I walk this road looking for places to paint, it becomes my entry point into the real landscape. It becomes me or anyone. 6x8 inches, oil on pane.
The clouds kept the mountain dark for the most part, while the foreground remained sunny, so I painted a dramatic landscape. I had corn to my left and cows to my right. 8x10 inches, oil on panel.
