Field & Farm Series
Field & Farm, Series 1
This collection of paintings is part of an ongoing endeavor to capture a unique perspective of life in agriculturally based regions like Lowville, NY.
The paintings depict several farms; located on a step of the Tug Hill before it descends into the Black River valley. A slice of land that receives some of the highest volumes of snow per year in the nation and is home to over 200 industrial wind turbines. Visual proof of the juxtaposition of preserving the farm lifestyle and modern industry is an everyday occurrence.
Visually the paintings combine an abstract linear approach to landscape with almost folk-art placed structures on the land falling under the category of 'hard-edge' painting; a seeming plainness draws attention to form.
"Farmhouse at 8013 State Route 26"
Immediately after the tornado's destruction and the following clean-up, I remember driving by this farmhouse, struck by how lonely it looked. Its barn gone, and the old-growth maples that the storm had mangled cut down, leaving the grand farmhouse alone.
Excerpts and photos from the news article below explain in more detail.
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"LOWVILLE, N.Y. -- Scenes of wreckage, disbelief, and resolve filled the rural area of the village of Lowville today as community members worked to repair the damage from a ... tornado Tuesday night (July 8, 2014).
Michael Tabolt, chairman of the Lewis County Board of Legislators, said possibly the worst damage in the county happened to the residence at 8013 State Route 26. The house's barn collapsed at around 7 p.m., trapping 53 cows under the debris. The owners of the property, Dan and Tonya O'Brien, worked with family members throughout the night to free the cows. They used chain saws and other equipment to release the trapped cows one a time. The couple's son, Jake, said four or five cows died as a result of the collapse, 15 were euthanized, five were taken to a neighbor's farm, and the remaining cows driven to a farm in Croghan.
An atypical architectural landscape scene.
I had the idea to do a series of local paintings a couple of months ago - fields and farms outside the village. A day of high winds knocked this lone old shed down on Willow Grove during that time.
Willow Grove, a seemingly insignificant place, is an intriguing overlap of history - traces of early farms, modern wind turbines, and simple Amish farms exist side by side. According to one of my grandfather's stories, a 'Microburst' storm down in these fields blew the roof of a nearby brick house off. This shed would have survived that, standing for another 30 years. Following a larger trend of small farms shutting down and renting land to larger farms, this shed fell into disuse, slowly battered by the weather and eventually collapsing last month.
Field & Farm is on view at Cafe Z in Lowville, NY February 2022
