Monday, September 24, 2012

Kelly's Farm by Bruce Newman




Kelly's Farm is  pastoral and painterly in style.  There's a certain sense of nostalgia about it for we are living in the era of the end of the barns.

Bruce takes us on a visual journey along a country road to an unknowable place in the upper right quadrant. This is the darkest area of his painting and its a place of  mystery where the road disappears and imagination begins.

I like how Bruce boxes this area in with of a  suggestion of a grey sloping roof and a larger building.
Notice how the horizontally placed barns, point strategically in that direction.

The painting is divided into horizontal thirds. There is an atmospheric zone with its blue sky and blue-green background hills. There are lightly colour fields and road and there is a middle zone with buildings and a windmill. 

We find within it a  progressive gradation of tone from the top and bottom and from the left towards the right,  where we find the the darkest area.  The movement of vision from right to left is blocked by the vertical windmill.

Bruce's work  is loaded with atmosphere. The blue sky gives way to blue green hills which move horizontally across the panorama and downward into the line of undulating hills. The long flow of landscape across the painting creates a beautiful feeling of peace and serenity. The softness Romantically supports the overall mystery of Kelly's Farm..

 Bruce's red barn is appropriately weather aged and the hue is perfect for it doesn't drawn unnecessary attention.

The brushwork and application of paint suits the mood and when all the pieces fit so perfectly together as they are in Kelly's Farm, you have a beautifully painted work. 

If you would like to see Bruce's other works, please click here to visit his site.


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