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| Township Road, oil on panel, 16" x 12", 2011 Copyright Peter J. Bougie |
The other day Nora
asked me what my favorite painting of the past few years was. I replied that I
didn’t have one favorite, but that there are some I like more, and some I like
less. Okay, she countered, can you give me a few favorites? I named a few, and
one of them is Township Road.
It was done on the
last day of July in 2011. That year it was unusually hot in this part of the
world during June and July. That Sunday turned out to be one of the last uncomfortably
hot days of that season. High clouds obscured but did not block out the
sunlight. Standing still and working on the painting in the
tall grass I sweat through my shirt in about fifteen minutes. I stood on a bank
above the road with the coneflowers and the Queen Anne’s lace barely nodding in
the humid air. Bees and deer flies buzzed. Deer flies – aggressive little
biters shaped like F-16’s - are mostly done by the end of July around here. To
my left, the asphalt road turned into gravel, leading back to some secluded
private residences along the St. Croix River bluffs.
It has marks of
civilization; power poles with transformers, an asphalt road, and the corner of
a parched hayfield. The dark wood hangs over the road and seems to press
against it from both sides. This affect is relieved a bit by streaks of light
on the road, and the lighter horizon at the top suggests open spaces, after the
dark wood is traversed.
The sky in the reproduction has much more color than the original.
I saw the view within minutes of arriving, and the picture flew out of
the brushes as if it were just using me to paint itself. That happens
sometimes.
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