Tuesday, August 26, 2008


Straw Stack

Watercolor on archival paper, 5" x 7"
$125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US.
SOLD

For me, haystacks have always had an architectural presence. I helped build quite a few of them when I bucked bales as a kid. It was hot, dusty, sweaty work, but it was a satisfying feeling to complete a well-constructed stack.

However, these days I'm perfectly content to just paint them from a safe distance.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Come on Don, buck up and try to relive your youth. It's amazing how heavy things have become since we were able to buck a bale of hay. The youth of today are so physically weak that they now use special tractors to load and stack the hay. The memories asociated with bucking and stacking hay come back every time you paint hay bales or stacks. I agree with you that I am content to watch from a distance and as long as you continue to provoke reverie of the past, I will return again and again to look at your your paintings. Thanks Don.
Mark

Anonymous said...

Hi Don, I like your Painting. It brings back memories of childhood.Kids climb hay stacks and imagine that they are climbing mountains, Hiding between the bales, finding a nest of chicken eggs or baby kittens. Nothing can beat the smell of fresh hay....Dixie

Anonymous said...

Don, you have a way of making the everyday beautiful.

I really like this piece and the house/fence below. Great work.

I remember baling hay in the summer; not fondly.

Anonymous said...

Got back from vacation yesterday and I remember seeing fields with huge hay bales on our drive back. I wanted so badly to stop and set up my pochade box in a field! Those geometric shapes call to me.

I'm really enjoying the cool blue light in the shadowy foreground of this painting.

Don Gray said...

Hi Mark,

I've been trying to relive my youth, but then I get sleepy and need a nap. Maybe I've gone too far back.

Thanks for the note.

Don Gray said...

You're right, Dixie--so many small animals soon turn a haystack into a home. I guess it is architecture after all. Thanks for the recollections.

Don Gray said...

Thanks, Onpainting (Bill and/or Lisa.) At the age of 17 I was saved from what no doubt would have been a longer career in the hayfields by a case of hayfever, which came on with sudden intensity one sunny morning while swathing meadowgrass. The pollen swirled up in great clouds, my eyes rapidly swelled shut and I had to go to the doctor for a shot. That pretty much marked the end of my farming life and the beginning of allergies that continue to this day. But hey, it's gotten me out of a lot of hard work over the years :)

Don Gray said...

Hi Silvina, welcome back! Hope you're rested and ready to wear down some more of those hog bristles. We've missed your posts. Thanks for the kind words.

Alex Perez pintor contemporaneo said...

Don hello,
Excellent result and very well structured painting, reminds me my early years in Kibbutz.
Very well done painting!
Alex

Don Gray said...

Alex--many thanks!