Last Farm in Queens
Charles Henry Miller was a Long Island artist who specialized in documenting the natural beauty of Long Island. He was particularly interested in creating an artistic record of the Long Island landscape, which was rapidly changing after the proliferation of the railroad and the growth of development in the western portion of the region.
I love exploring painting up close because there is so much that can be learned from them. At first glance, this painting seems like any other oil painting. It's a landscape and as the title implies a farm in Queens.
Just like the last farm is about to disappear, it looks like the artist is losing access to paint as well. There are so many areas where the canvas clearly shows through. However, sometimes artist allow the canvas to show through deliberately. The texture and color are used to add a certain feel. Here it could be that the artist was after a rustic look.
Charles Henry Miller painted this painting in 1911 in oil. The artwork measures
13"h x 21 1/4"w and is painted on canvas. Since I am working on the painting of the Farm I wanted to see how other artists have tackled painting trees. Here the artist has used a combination of dots, impasto strokes, light swooshes and even the canvas itself to create the impression of leaves on a tree. Another clever trick is the use of very unexpected colors like Lemon Yellow and some sort of a teal. These colors give the illusion of light bouncing off the leaves.
I love the haystack. There is really very little paint. The artist relies on us to fill in all that is missing. In reality, all he gives us is the rounded shape and some highlights he painted on with thick paint. Yet when you look at the painting it looks just like a haystack with beautiful golden hay. What a genius!
