Skip to main content

Hay Ride


This painting I call Hayride because the man is bringing a load of hay from a far away field to his farm.  When visiting Woodstock, Vermont a few years back I walked across this restored covered bridge.  I was happy to see that this bridge had been restored for automotive as well as pedestrian traffic.  Also it reminded me of stories I had been told as a child how big over-loaded hay wagons would sometimes get stuck trying to navigate over the bridge.  Sometimes the wheels would fall through the rotting boards from the weight of these over-loaded wagons.  In some instances the heat generated from the hay would ignite a fire and the bridge would be destroyed as well as the hay and wagon.  I came home to my studio with this image in mind and thought it would make a good narrative of times past.
The horses came from images I had from Stonewall Farm in Chesterfield, NH.  The hay wagon I basically made up from memory.  The driver was an old railroad conductor's image I had in my files.  Generally, the horses would not have such a fancy harness system for pulling a hay wagon, but I just love the way that these horses were "dollied up" and after all an artist can take liberties.  You may also notice, in my Profile Picture that this is the work on the easel and you make also discover that I initially had the man walking beside the team.  An old-timer once told me that the man would never fit through that kind of opening with the team, so I painted him out and put him in the driver's seat.  I hope you enjoy this painting.  Any comments are welcome.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

More Horses

CHALLENGER SPOOKED Hello again, these two paintings are basically the same concept.  The Challenger came to me as I was looking at a small Danbury mint model I have of a Duesenberg.  The original idea was the person driving a 300 horsepower vehicle creating dust and smoke in their  wake and also forming the image of the horses and chariot.  Upon completing this work I realized I spent too much time on the anatomy of the horses and made them look less "dream-like".  I still like the painting but it didn't meet my initial visualization of the work.  This is what can happen if I don't take the time to draw the image out and study it before committing to canvas.   So I decided I would work on another piece  only this time plan it out through sketches and drawings to see what would work best to represent my vision of "ghost horses".  I named this second piece Spooked.  
Post a Comment
Read more
HOMEWARD BOUND One more horse painting I would like to talk about is this one above called " Homeward Bound " . This horse team was up at the Rocks Estate in Bethlehem,  NH. The driver  had just unhitched the team and was returning to the trailer where they would be transported home.  The horses seemed to know their job was done and they were eager to get home.  As the sun was setting it began to snow.  As I stood taking the picture you could feel the ground shake from the heavy stomping of the hooves of these powerful animals.  They're massive and powerful yet so gentle.  I added to the background the red barn as it was on the opposite of the road, but I thought it added more interest to the painting.
Post a Comment
Read more