Dispatch from Derry, New Hampshire
The New Year has already been host to some good things, against the backdrop of ugliness that was 2020. Among those good things are the new and beautiful works our artists continue to create, notably these two idyllic New England winter scenes from Harley Bartlett – straight from The Robert Frost Farm in Derry, New Hampshire!
Harley is (of course) among our favorite contemporary artists creating landscapes in the American tradition, and these two new pieces are among our favorites for the new year. What arises from Harley’s brushstrokes is as much a symphony in color, pattern and texture as it is a perfect homage to the picturesque aura of Robert Frost’s poetry.
The cool-hued patchwork of snow and warm winter sunlight glimmering on the stream’s surface in ‘Hyla Brook’ evokes a refreshing New Year’s day stroll while the earthier tones and textural background in ‘The Distant Mending Wall’ transport us back to Frost’s own time, when good fences made good neighbors.
The only thing cozier than these new paintings right now would be to curl up by the wood-burning stove, hot cocoa in one hand, Robert Frost’s poems on these famed landmarks in the other. (And, of course, these two new beauties hanging on the wall.)