I started this painting early in the summer but could never get back to the site at the same time of day to finish it. Yesterday I finally went there but all the colors had changed so I had to turn green into gold. Clearings like this are a common sight around here; logging is constantly in progress. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Vermont was large cleared land for farming and sheep. But after so many people left for richer, less rocky soil, the state has become largely forested. A good thing Vermont does is to give a tax break to people who keep a certain number of acres in either forest or farmland so there’s less incentive to develop this beautiful part of the country. We’re in that program since our place is all wooded. We have to have a forester so periodic cutting is managed properly to keep all the trees maturing in orderly fashion. (It tickles me that we have a forester–sounds like having our own gamekeeper!)
The Clearing 12 x 17.5 oil on birch panel $350
