Featured Artwork: Unnamed: Great Resilience

Original photo of this painting dated 1947.
There is a question as to what kind of painting this is.
All of the other painting of this subject are pastels RSW
called chalk drawings. If you look closely at the large
version of the picture above you see evidence of a bord-
er like you find around a chalk. Also, the angle and odd-
ness of the picture above suggest it was needed to avoid
glare on the glass- all chalk drawings are under glass.
However, when we check the size it comes out to the
very common oil canvas size of 25" x 30", confusing us.

Because we do not know this painting's name, we cannot link it to a diary comment.

Editor's Note:

We have never had a good picture of this painting. Part of the reason is because the only record we have of it is this photograph you see to the right. Also in the early days of the website (2002) Dr. Mark scanned a lot of pics at ridiculously small resolutions. The smallest being 26 dots per square inch (dpi). We do not even know how that is possible since 26 is a prime number. It was a whole different world back then. Internet speeds were still very slow, and storage space very limited the images needed to be small for quicker downloading to browsers.

Fast forward to today and we are digging through Dr. Mark's voluminous file folders and we find not only the original version he used for the website but we find a better, closer view of it in the picture you see to the right. Today's technology allows us to scan this pic at as high as 10,000dpi but we tried 600dpi first and it was sufficient enough to see its subject. We can also use editing software to correct the perspective and sharpen it up a bit.

Double Victory

What we originally said about this painting was, "We have no information about this scene with what appears to be a Woodward oil painting leaning up against the outside of a house." What we can tell you today is that this is a painting of one of the broken trees found on the Burnt Hill property in Heath (MA). It is hard to identify the trees. There are a lot of birch trees but the bark does not look birch-like. In the picture to the left, you can see the trees and also note the stonewall that runs by them. It appears to be very similar.

We think there are just two trees but we cannot say for certain because Woodward drew them from various angles, some with both trees and others with just one.

From a May Hill

To the right we show an example of the just one of the broken trees seen in From a May Hill. We believe these two paintings are different sides of the stone wall but we have no other context or point of reference than that.

For the artist, these trees, broken but still flourishing, is a symbol of life's resilience to 'go on.' It is represents the concept of perseverance and stoicism. But in the painting of this page, Woodward includes a young tree. This is something he had a great appreciation for- the cycle of life... for every withering thing comes the new to carry the torch of life. But this can also be seen as a message of hope and the artist strong belief in what is everlasting.