Monday, March 26, 2012

Cricket Flat Poplars


Watercolor on Yupo, 10.5" x 8"
$275 plus $8 shipping in U.S.
Click image to enlarge
SOLD


Winslow (our dog...also known as "the boss") and I took a drive Sunday afternoon and ended up roaming around the Cricket Flat country, about thirty miles from home. It's not really flat here at all but a remote high prairie of gently rolling hills; the outer edges break off into steep-sided pine-covered canyons. The region has always held a special place in my heart because ancestors of mine homesteaded out here in the late 1800's.

Taking a walk we came across this clump of poplars, lonely sentinels along a country road. They likely once marked the edge of a homesteader's yard--the wooden buildings long since rotted away. With a shock of recognition I remembered painting this same group of trees long before. We're talking maybe thirty years! I knew immediately I had to do another painting. The first version had drifts of snow. In this one the snow has only recently melted--the grasses remain matted down from its weight. Underneath, there's a hint of the new green on its way.

It would have been nice to post a photo of the first painting as well--I must have one somewhere; but three moves and multiple mini-storage units later, it just seemed too daunting a task to find it.



10 comments:

Aubrey said...

Nice. Love it. Feels nostalgic and makes me laugh at the same time.

Anonymous said...

This is a beautiful painting, it holds so much in so little space! Your description of the land, its background and your personal ties also add a very special element.

juliefordoliver.blogspot.com said...

This has a beautiful classical quality to it.
Love your story!

Anonymous said...

This one captures that moment on the cusp of winter's starkness and spring's green growth. Lovely work.
Anne Thrower

Don Gray said...

Thanks, Aubrey.

Don Gray said...

Rahina, thank you for your thoughtful words. I always appreciate hearing from you.

Don Gray said...

Thanks a lot, Julie!

Don Gray said...

That "coming spring" quality is hard to catch in a painting. Glad you feel it's successful, Anne.

Pierre Raby said...

Impressive. Don,the rendering of your watercolor is so fluid and perfect. Something melancholic in those trees remind me of the french painter Jean-Baptiste Corot, yet the composition of this awesome piece would be closer to some Gerhard Richter landscapes.
Great work!

Don Gray said...

Thank you, Pierre! I'm so delighted (and humbled)to have this piece compared to such amazing--and amazingly different--artists.