The commission called
for two panels which, when hung, would read as a single
scene. The painting was to show an elevated view, the
garden area, the house and barn, the horses in the front pasture
as well as the avenue of trees along the entrance to the
property
- I took photos as reference material from
which to derive a composition.
- No aerial view is available from this near
center of a meteor crater some five miles across.
- The horses were spread out in a line along
the farthest pasture fence.
- Many trees blocked a frontal view of the
property.
- Some requested elements were behind the
house.
- Flowering trees were out of season.
I could have been out of sorts as well.
The mountains, I needed no photos of them, indicate that the view is to the west.
The valley is fed by three large streams. The shadows are a kind of sundial
indicating the time of day when the sun may first begin to break
thru the heavy morning fog trapped within the valley's walls.
The fog burns off between 10 and 11 o'clock
in the morning.
The lower ridge in
the right panel was my 'playground' some forty-five years
ago. It was there, on the great sandstone outcrop, that I
learned to see as I watched time pass and the slow, subtle but constant
change of color and marveled at how the cloud shadows revealed
the contours of Earth.
Long dreams for a small kid of a
boy.
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