The Buckland Historical Society - Robert Strong Woodward 2021 Calendar is available to purchase at the following locations:
Andy's Oak Shoppe
Boswell's Books
The Buckland Public Library
Proceeds from the sale of calendars go to the Buckland Historical Society. You can visit their website by clicking here and purchase a calendar from there or click on the PayPal button below to go directly to the purchasing portal...
Leftover Calendars from previous years are also available for $5.00. The individual prints look beautiful when matted and framed. Contact the Buckland Historical Society Website for more...
All profits from the sale of the calendar benefit the Buckland Historical Society and will help defray costs for the upkeep and repair of two 1775 buildings and their artifacts.
...is a 501(c)3 non-profit. Donations are tax deductible to the extent of the law. You may pay using credit card or by mailing your tax deductible donation to: Buckland Historical Society, Box 88, Upper St., Buckland, MA 01338.
The artwork for the 2023 annual Woodward calendar to benefit the Buckland Historial Society has been selected! While there was no specific theme intended for this year's calendar. One revealed itself to us after it was assembled.
Twelve never-before-used and new paintings will be featured, encompassing a full range of Woodward's work. The chosen title for the
calendar will be...
The name has two inspirations. The first is the title of the upcoming exhibit at the Memorial Hall Museum in Deerfield, "The Living Landscape". A descriptive phrase illustrating Woodward's use of poetic effect in all of his work. The second inspiration is the philosophical principal behind Woodward's objective to portray things as they are without any embellishment.
Woodward held a fascination with evolution, particularly the principles of Darwin's natural selection. So much so, that Woodward once named a mare he owned during his Hiram Woodward years, "Tsune". Tsune (soo-ney) is an ancient Japanese Kanji character meaning, "always" in everyday usage. But in a strict philosophical sense, it means, "everlasting" in a specifically sempiternal and temporal sense. That is, being faithful to time alone and time is always and everlastingly in the present moment.
For the sake of brevity, it means that while a leopard may evolve and change its spots, it is still at its essence a leopard. The same can be said of New England. As much as things appear to change, they also unequivocally stay the same! In assembling the paintings for this year's calendars we realized that each scene is one, which on any given day driving through Western Massachusetts, can be found seemingly unchanged from Woodward's time.
This is critically important to understanding Woodward. Audiences in his time, as we still do to this day, look at his work through the
eye of sentimentality. We view his work as "pastoral", a time gone by and passed. Woodward was actually capturing New England, as it is and always
will be... The everlasting and constant present moment. The now and future that endures because New England can't be anything else than what it is.
No more than Woodward can be anything other than the artist he became. You are what you are and one's acceptence in that true is not only comforting, it permits
you to embrace the tradition (from whence you came) and the resulting evolution (where you will go) in growth, well-being and joy just as Woodward found on his
journey.
A quote from Thomas a Kempis, the namesake
of Woodward's other horse at Hiram