11 x 14
Oil on Wood Panel
Plein Air
Painted on location as quick draw practice at Sans Souci Ferry, Woodard, NC
A couple of weekends ago, I ventured over to the library which is only a half a block from my house. I wasn't really looking for anything in particular other than something "arty". Tucked in tightly on an old wooden shelf was the "The Privilege To Paint: The Lives of Francis Speight and Sarah Blakeslee". With self-diagnosed A.D.D., I could only muster through a fraction of the written stuff as I, just like a child, was more interested in the pictures of the paintings - especially those by Speight who was a nationally known landscape painter in the early Twentieth Century and a Windsor, Bertie County native who painted many of the subjects and landmarks that I try today - whether it be cypress trees in the Albemarle Sound, farmscapes in Indian Woods, still reflections at Shipyard Landing, or all of the above at Sans Souci. I really love his paintings of the dirt road that dead ends into the Cashie River facing the Woodard side of the river at Sans Souci and was inspired to give it a go after studying some of his works in the library. Unfortunately, the lead in road was flooded in swamp water from the recent rain, so I had to hammer down on my horn and wake up Mr. Baker on the Woodard side in the Ferry Office for a ride across. I felt I could at least paint the Ferry from the hill top above facing back towards that dirt road that Speight painted so many times in his life time.
Sans Souci
Francis Speight
North Carolina Museum of Art
Some of the words I did read in the book that stood out to me were in a reference to an essay in the 1938 Spring Edition of the Magazine of Art in which the author writes about Speight, " All that he asks of life is the privilege to paint." I really liked that because that is exactly what it is - a privilege no doubt. Strangely this trip to the library coincided with a conversation that I recently had with an old friend and fellow artist about how painters physically "see" things differently after years of painting. I somehow got sidetracked on another point with the ADD kicking back in and didn't get a chance to respond to this one in particular, but would have totally agreed and would have added that constantly seeing everyday objects and scenes within the artistic context of color, temperature, value, light and composition is in itself a privilege awarded to those after years of grinding it out time and time again on the canvas or panel.
After Mr. Baker checked a couple of his fishing lines dangling off the bow of the ferry, he walked up the hill to take a look at my painting and really liked the cypress tree line. I explained to him the warmth needed in the first line and the coolness needed in the second line to give the illusion of depth and distance and how I only needed to paint a few abstract cypress trees to give the illusion of a whole cypress swamp. He was really taken aback by that and now, for at least that one cypress tree line at Sans Souci, he has the privilege to look at something that he has seen for years in a whole different and fresh way.
Capt. Eldridge Baker
Sans Souci Ferry
