Woodward did not keep records of his chalk drawings and unfortunately made to Painting diary entry regarding what must surely be its
oil painting equivalent, The Top of The Pasture, seen to the right. The Top
of The Pasture would be one of Woodward's last paintings of the H40" x W50" canvases. After 1932, he would shift to exclusively using
H36" x W42" canvases for his large paintings.
While it is a disappointment to not have Woodward's comments on this scene. We
do have a wonderful review of The Top of The Pasture:
"'Top of the Pasture' with a pair of luxuriantly-leaved maples bowing slightly in the breeze, silhouetted against a glorious blue sky with fluffy clouds above the distant deeper blue of rolling hills, reminds us of the story of the man who left his New Hampshire hilltop with his view of Kearsarge, Monadnock and other mountains to seek his fortune in a mid-western city, but who came back shortly with the one laconic plaint- --'he could not see off'."
Note the year is the same for both this drawing and the oil... the oil painting would exhibit at Woodward's inaugural show at the Myles Standish Hotel Gallery, in Boston.
"Then there is 'Peru Mountain,' 'From the Heights,' 'The Sea of Hills,' 'From the Pasture Top,' each deserving more detailed account in this group than belongs to what the tourist might call scenery..."
"....From the Pasture Top, presents a delightfully romantic conception of rugged New England."
The Pynchon Gallery Exhibition is one of the few
exhibitions that featured Woodward's "Crayon Drawings." As many as 13 were reported to be exhibited and this website is not aware of
any exhibit that featured more than this number. The Deerfield Academy, 1932 Exhibition featured 10
drawings.
"...the pastel works - they're just fantastic. And I'm afraid that they photograph very well but you don't really appreciate the difficulty of making them until you see them up close. That as you know with pastel, you have to be very very good to make it work, because it hard to correct a mistake. With oil paint it's much easier to cover over the error. But these are really really spectacular."