RSW's Diary Comments

At Haying Time - Oil

• Woodward did not keep records of the pastels he called "chalk drawings."

Editor's Note:

Yes, the picture of this pastel is terrible. Pastels are incredibly difficult to photograph due to them being behind glass. The glass picks up every light source in the room. In well lit rooms, photos come out like this and it is near impossible to sort it out using editing software, however, we did our best to dampen the glare.

To the left is a similar scene, At Haying Time, only it is an oil.

The following is an excerpt from, "An Artist of his Time", a lecture, hosted by the Friends of RSW, on RSW by Peter Trippi, editor-in-chief, Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine, which also did a feature article on RSW. CLICK HERE to view the Article

When Autumn Comes

"...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."

October 4, 2014
Peter Trippi, editor-in-chief
Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine

After the First November Snow

As time has passed Woodward's pastel are as equally admired and coveted by many for their extraordinary beauty and skill and in many cases have out-paced in value their sibling oils. Today pastels are fetching prices 400% above their original price after adjusting for inflation.

⮜ This chalk is one of only two known chalks of the Halifax House. The other, After the First November Snow is a distant view from the rear of the buildings.

It is not that Woodward did not try to make more. We have a few "unfinished" versions of the Halifax House found in a shipping crate years ago. It is unclear to us why Woodward did not finish them.

The above drawing is clearly a Spring perspective of the property. There is a blooming apple tree and all of the other trees have that yellowish-green look of newly sprung leaves from their buds. Of all the seasons, the Spring for Woodward is the least represented. We have learned from sources that is was because of all the New England seasons, Spring was the most difficult to travel. The winter thaw, overflowing rivers that rush in the spring often washed out roads or the roads were so muddy and rutted they were impassable.