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| Haystacks oil on canvas 8 x 24 x .5 |
The quest in this work was the relationship between the haystacks themselves...and the furrows...a play between the cool and the warm.
While a completed snow-covered scene can be beautiful, it can tend towards sweetness and become a bit Hallmark-y. The rural Pennsylvania scenes that feature both dead grasses along with pockets and dustings of snow a la Andrew Wyeth convey great power and mystery to me. As an Ohioan, I will attest to the fact that most of the winter scenes depict these two polar opposites. One of my current reads is The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard, a French philosopher. I am currently in my second go-through in order to absorb his thoughts that I have chosen to underline. He speaks of the poet's mind which is
touched by the attraction of opposites, which lends dynamism to the great archetypes.
This canvas was toned with orange, which became the base for the furrow. The process continued slowly, as I tippy-toed toward the amount of snow coverage that satisfied my visual. In the earlier stages, the diagonal furrows were more dominant....which lead them into distraction. I did not anticipate just how much energy this problem would require. I am also reminded of a similar horizontal landscape by the late Jack Richard.....it remains in my mind to this day....it was spot on.
Most of the bales we see today are machine-made and coiled. These stacks are the work of the Amish.
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