“I find myself often curious about the story of the building: who built it and why; the many people who have lived or worked in the building; how the landscape may have changed around the structure over the course of years. I find that the curiosity I have about the building intertwines with the creative process in my interpretation of the architecture and landscape in one image.”
-Peter Batchelder
With so many great Pumpkin farms around the Toronto Area, Art in Action was inspired this week by Harvest moons, pumpkin patches and Peter Batchelder’s art whose paintings are based on the simple, wistful images of barns and rural old homes as well as the landscape around the old buildings. Peter Batchelder uses light and shadow coupled with soft unique colours to connect the viewer to the subject. He paints in oils, watercolours and occasionally works with soft pastels. His art is greatly influenced by his imagination and curiosity around the landscape and it his hope that a viewer will be challenged by the image to create their own story as well – is that barn long abandoned or just waiting for its inhabitants to return? Is there a perfect pumpkin waiting there for you to take home and carve out a Halloween masterpiece?
Peter Batchelder was born in a small town called Beverly in Massachusetts and has since lived throughout New England; Cape Cod, Marthas Vineyard, Vermont and currently lives in New Hampshire. He went to school at the University of Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Art in 1987. After establishing himself as a successful graphic designer, he began to work on his artistic career in 1992 where he has become a very successful artist; his work is shown in many galleries across the United States.
In today’s class, after the initial sketch was drawn, students used a wide variety of art materials including; oil pastels, liquid watercolours and acrylic paint. Students experimented with using fan brushes to blend the watercolours and used different brushes to paint in the barn, driveway and fence. Here are a few examples of the art….
The hilltop fence shines saffron o’er the still
Unbending ranks of bunched and bleaching corn,
And every pallid stalk is crisp with morn,
Crisp with the silver autumn morns distil.
Purple the narrowing alleys stretched between
The spectral shocks, a purple harsh and cold,
But spotted, where the gadding pumpkins run,
With bursts of blaze that startle the serene
Like sudden voices,—globes of orange bold,
Elate to mimic the unrisen sun.