Calendar Editor's Message:
This year's calendar was perhaps our most challenging yet. It is the 17th year and we have
explored nearly every subject of interest one could imagine in Woodward's catalog. As of late August, we still did not have any inkling what to do.
New images and discoveries come in waves and while we had more than enough new painting images to fill a WHOLE calendar last
year. We had not one new image for this year. We feared we had come to the end of the run. It looked like we were going to have to maybe do a "Best
Hits album" (we mean calendar of course). And hey, it would not have been the end of the world. It was a very com-mon practice for Woodward to
re-visit, and re-paint similar subject numerous times. In fact, one critic had knocked the artist for it but softened the blow by pointing out his limited
mobility to get to hard to reach places.
As we started to assemble multiple favorites together to find the best mix. In the span of just a few days we secured two high quality
new images of paintings. These two paintings had a similar vibe to them despite being seemingly polar opposites- one soft and almost dream-like,
the other cold, hard and stark. One suggested com-munity and support and the other austere lonesomeness. What linked them both, we realized, is
the rugged and varied landscape of New England.
And there you have it, a concept is formed much like last year's calendar. So instead of doing a
Greatest Hits album, we put together a "Concept Album," as many artist do when trying to grow and evolve and adapt. But here, once again, you see
how these timely coincidences keep leading us where to go. We hope you enjoy this year's calendar.
Visit the Calendar Gallery page to read Brian's essay on Woodward and Ruggedness.
...our update section. We re-cently discovered new content written by Dr. Mark to be added to his essay on Woodward's Silo Paintings. It is our honor to keep his legacy alive and that he is still giving years after he has passed. ❤
⮜ READ the story in the left hand column about our journey
and its challenges producing this year's calendars.
Welcome to RobertStrongWoodward.com! The website is divided into two main features. First is the
Gallery of Woodward's artwork sorted in themes and then alphabetically. There is also the Scrapbook which contains
collections of stories, memorabilia and specific citations related to Woodward, his life and achievements. It is at once a tribute and historical record of Woodward
and the life and times from which he drew his inspiration.
From April of 2022 to April of
2023, the website received more than 21,500 unique visits. The most meaningful of these numbers are the eighty-seven percent ( or 18,800+ ), of those
visitors who opened us directly from their browser and not through a search engine.
We do not look at our numbers often because we
would be doing this whether we had one visit a year or a million. This pleased us so very much and we are beyond grateful. It is an increase of 89% since the
last time we looked - 2017. That is a growth rate of nearly 15% a year and we couldn't be more appreciative to have your attention. No pressure though, we're
cool...
Recent Website Updates |
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We are looking to add greater depth of insight that fleshes out more context than we have ever had about Woodward's career as well as
his personal values and principles. The stories just begin to tell themselves. And something like that results from processing the information one has
available, turning it into empirical (measurable) data. Once it has been compiled, it then needs to be interpreted and analyzed and you start to see
patterns and connections that are not always obvious despite being right under your nose for years.
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ward's
life we have neglected to give their due. We are now distinguishing some of these individuals as "patrons", "benefactors", and sponsors. One page in
particular will reveal just how critical one women was to Woodward having any career at all.BCM |
10-26-2023
CORRECTIONS 1. The Village in Spring 2. April in North Hadley 3. The Village In April & 4. April in the Village We found an old color image of what we assum-ed to be The Village in Spring (1). Only after a lot of work did we realize: It was NOT. Moreover, it can't be April in North Hadley (2) either because that painting is the origi-nal painting cut down to be renamed The Village in Spring! The chalk drawing, The Village in Spring, (3) was believed to be mislabeled in an article, which we now believe was actually referring to the image we found. Leaving its name to be- April in the Village (4) once believed to be the mixed up name of the chalk and not a real painting. Phew... |
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10-21-2023
NEW PICS The Hungry Little Barn When we began to update and make new discoveries regarding this work of art we also reached out to its owner who we had not had contact with in nearly 16 years. It was a shot in the dark. We weren't sure any of our information would still be good. We posted our changes and promoted them only to receive new images a few days later. Thank you so much! |
10-18-2023
NEW PICS Winter Peace This painting recently appeared on an art website. No name was given for it. It was refer-red to generically as "Winter Landscape." Yet, we had a corresponding sepia print labeled, Winter Peace. Unfortunately, there are 3 paintings by that same name. One is definitely not this painting leaving two others. However, this one does not match RSW's diary comment. Go to the page for more! |
10-15-2023
NEW INFORMATION & UPDATED PAGE The Silo Paintings: New Silo, In the November Sun, and Unfinished Silo In the process of correcting two broken links on the New Silo artwork page we needed to check other related pages, which included
reviewing an essay written by this website's founder, Dr. Mark Purinton in 2006. It has held up well over time. We did not have anything to add to it.
The page just needed a reform-atting with some of the new tools we use throughout the website. I (Brian) informed Larch what I was doing
and he (Larch) tells me he just came across new material his father wrote to add to the Silo page! |
09-05-2023
NEW PICS Drying Nets; T Wharf We have known about this pastel painting for some time but we had NO idea what it could possibly entail. More than that, we believed the name was wrong. Did you know that there was once a wharf at the end of North Boston's Long Wharf? Or that it was called the "T" Wharf? We didn't. Also, we were under the impression it was made the year Woodward stayed in Bos-ton for a month- nope try again. Enjoy this read. |
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09-08-2023
NEW PICS An October Pasture We are digging deep into the mountains of folders and files collected since the start of the website. The objective is multifaceted, however, one of the primary objectives is to find images once thought lost forever. This is one of those photos. More over, this is one of Woodward's favorite subjects and this piece the prize of the 3 we know and probably the couple of others we suspect exist. |
Unnamed: Greylock from Heath We erred here... the sepia print we believed was an unnamed artwork was in fact the sepia print for
After Rain. |
09-15-2023
NEW PICS Unnamed: Late Summer in Halifax This sepia print of a painting was mislabeled a long time ago as the sepia for a painting named Aged Roofs. We recently found a better scan of the print and realized it was NOT Aged Roofs but an entirely different and unknown painting. Aged Roofs is a spring painting whereas this is a late summer scene. The better pic allowed us to see the sky was very different. It is the only "unnamed" paint-ing of the Halifax House we have. |
09-18-2023
NEW PICS Back of the Village It surprises us sometimes what we lose track of, such as a much better picture of a painting than what is currently on the website. This is one of those times... we recently came across an image of this painting from a few years ago that far exceeded the old, low resolution, image we had on its page. In updating the page we realized some other things missed when we last updated it over a year ago. Primarily, what makes it special in both time and space. |
09-24-2023
NEW PIC Unnamed: Keach's Drama This new image of the 40" x 50" oil painting comes to us from the Southern Vermont Art Center in Manchester, VT. The painting was gifted to them by a close friend of the artist. It is a wintry and dramatic scene of the Keach Farm from a distance precar-iously hanging along the side of the hill. What is great about it is that it shows the entirety of the farm and we created a graphic linking the buildings to various paintings. |
09-22-2023
UPDATED Horizon of Heath As part of our update of the artwork pages, we are adding whatever context we can find connected to the artwork. For this painting we have discovered clue suggest-ing that this painting may be more important than realized. First RSW gives us his most detailed diary entry describing the piece, there is no evid-ence it exhibits, and then he sells it to a VIP just months after his Heath Studio burns... |
09-21-2023
UPDATED The Home Road This 20" x 40" painting has the distinction of being one of Woodward's rarest 1937 to 1945 ex-periments. The artist was toying with assembling paintings using combin-ations of other paintings. He made a series of wide panoramic paintings which had become the fashion of the time to hang on the mantle over the fireplace. This paint-ing is one of only five and his most ambitious that has a link to another that did not work at all. |
09-20-2023
UPDATED Hitchcock Elm This artwork page has been updated and we learn from Woodward's diary comments that it is similar to Out of the Past.
Only this version was sent to his friend Harold Grieve on the West Coast to sell. This was something the artist did when he had a subject
worthy painting and the original was bought by a highly regarding VIP. |
09-20-2023
UPDATED The Hungry Little Barn The advantage to going back and lending a criti-cal eye to each and every artwork page is just how much a fresh look can reveal. This pastel is a great example. Not only were we able to connect it to another, better known pastel and the same farm but the two paintings appear the same year, exhibit to-gether at the same show, and follow a similar traj-ectory across the country to land in the same state through different owners! |
08-27-2023
NEW PASTEL! Where the Stonewall Joins the Ledge This chalk drawing comes to us from its own-er with a story that it was a wedding gift, given in 1915. There is no reason to doubt the story. For one thing, Woodward loved personalizing his gifts. For another, al-though oil paintings dom-inate our attention, the pastel paintings were there from the beginning in 1918 and getting more praise. |
09-02-2023
NEW PICS The Lone Tree A trip to Stockbridge to visit their public library, and have some lunch at the country store of the Rockwell mural of Main St. fetched us a new
picture of this painting. It also revealed some other things that clears up some confusion and confirmed other things. |
08-15-2023
PAINTING STORY Heart of New England If it has not become ob-vious yet, it soon will. We are making a concerted effort, in part as tribute to Paul Harvey's, "... and now you know The
REST of the Story," feature of his radio program to look at the backstory of certain paintings for greater context. |
06-21-2023
UPDATED The Three Barns This was updated a couple of months ago as part of our efforts to bring together and link exhibitions with their articles. This is one of those paintings that because we do not have the greatest of pictures, it gets neglected. If you do not know this, Woodward did not like neglect and so we gave this page some love. We connect it to another, better image we have of the same barns from a different angle along with the praise it got in a newspaper clipping. |
07-09-2023
UPDATED Opalescent April With no image of this painting, it is one of the overlooked but its name is important, or rather we say opalescence is important to Woodward. But that is another story for another time. What is of import on this page is its role in drawing our attention to Woodward's handling of the situation AFTER his Hiram home and studio fire. On this page is the article where he addresses the rumors and misinformation being published in defense of his reputation. |
06-28-2023
CORRECTION Gray New England Since the beginning of the website, this painting's name was listed as "Grey NE" due to contradicting inform-ation. The evidence was looking us right in the face but it was from a traditionally inaccurate source. It took us a while to comb through all of the information we have and found enough evidence to change the name and we share the story with you. |
06-27-2023
A GOLDEN RULE The Golden Month & The Golden Slope We have long suspected that the names of both these paintings are related to the Golden Ratio more than the season of autumn
(though still related). But the Golden Ratio (based on the Fibbiaci Sequence showing the natural proportions of distribution found in nature).
Proportion is important to composition and you will find the aspect called the Golden Spiral in a large number of beautiful art work. Woodward
is no exception to this, only with these two paintings the spiral is notably intentional, thus the name. |
06-15-2023
PAINTING STORY Grace of Years Another one of those painting stories that has an odd journey... from being bought by the new owner of the Halifax (VT) House, to being returned to Woodward, it's exhibition record, being part of the October 1946 issue of American Artist, to selling again at the Founder's Show of the Grand Central Art Gallery in New York City. |
06-20-2023
SOME CONTEXT Great Faith in God Alone We are making an effort to offer some greater context to Woodward's early work. One of those facets is his interest in making Illuminations. It is an art form with a long history and tradition tied to the undercurrect of Woodward's faith and aspirations. It is important not to underestimate how powerful its draw is to him. It is primordial in its origin. |
01-19-2023
A NEW STORY From a May Pasture This painting's story is almost comically tragic. It is a personal favorite of RSW's. Its buyer dies just days before its comple-tion. It exhibits at a show with another painting of a familiar subject by a fri-end of Woodward's that gets more attention as well as RSW's ire. It is the first incident of RSW's defense of his brand from being co-opted by others. |
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05-01-2023
AN ESSAY The Evolution of the Window Picture Painting, Part 1 In the first of what will be 3 parts, we introduce to you the evolution of Woodward's well-known and highly recogizable Window Pictures Paintings. Part I is primarily a build up, revealing the first "window" drawing we know of and how the letter that accompanies it holds many of the traits and values RSW will incorporate into his Window Picture Paintings nearly twenty years later. But that is not all! We will share with you who we believe is their inspiration and how she literally and later figuratively appears in the original paintings perhaps as a tribute to her if only unconsciously so. We will also connect RSW's early commercial work and intimate Redgate paintings as the being precursor to the art form. |
06-03-2022
PAGE UPDATE August Shade When we heard that the Deerfield Academy was going to level the "little brown house" on Albany Street we took another look at this page and introduce
the artist romantic tendencies. |
10-18-2022
PAGE UPDATE December Farm This is an important scene for Woodward only we are not entirely sure why. We suspect it holds an underlying poetic irony, a tragic one. Its story has prompted us to begin an essay exploring its mysteries but for now... enjoy our page update featuring Jeanette Matthews beautiful reviews. |
04-14-2023
A NEW STORY When Drifts Melt Fast In this story, we call Woodward out on being misleading. He claims "it never sold" but the truth is that he never found the right home for what maybe one of the most celebrated and beloved paintings in his entire oeuvre. Read the story of this award-winning painting and see if you agree... |
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03-12-2022
NEW DISCOVERY From My Studio Window Woodward made a num-ber of small errors in his Painting Diary. He didn't start the diary until the early 1940s and so a lot of it was from memory. In regard to this painting, however, he may have made his most egregious mistake. It was the wrong painting entirely! More surprising is who OWNS this painting. |
03-15-2023
CORRECTION The South Window, 1928 It all adds up... the size matches, where it exhibited matches, and the good fortune of discovering a photograph from the 1928 exhibit where this painting is hung next to a known 40" x 50" painting is all we needed to prove this painting is the one on the cover of Country Life Magazine. |
09-17-2022
NEW PAINTING Unnamed: Haying Time in New England We have received a few newly discovered paint-ings through their owners who graciously send us their pictures. This signed but unnamed painting is an early 1920s oil on canvas. It is very unique in that it shows a slop-ing field being hayed and you can just make out the work horses and cart use to do it. |
08-03-2022
EXPERIMENTAL The Chambered Nautilus In our greatest indulg-ence yet, we explore what this painting could possibly be since we have no image of it. Furthermore, we also speculate on the sym-bolism that may be ap-pealing to Woodward that holds great meaning to the artist. It is part of our effort to explore a more intimate look inside his interest. |
07-06-2022
A NEW STORY An Autumn Song Our work in processing all of the news clippings and articles in Woodward's scrapbook is producing opportunities to reveal some things about paintings for which we have no images. This is a great example, and we offer two insights of import to its name and month. |
04-19-2023
NEW CONTEXT God's Quiet Acre More on our effort to get all the article in RSW's scrapbooks to the web-site, here we paid special attention to this chalk drawing. Jeanette Matt-hews of the Springfield Republican is a great art reviewer and one of our favorites. Note what she says about this painting... |
01-23-2022
IN TRIBUTE Miss Mabel Raguse We are making every effort to update many of the Scrapbook pages originated by Dr. Purinton. Here we add some new perspectives on Miss Mabel touting her as one of Woodward's best customers despite her limited resources. Something RSW's greatly appreciated. |
12-22-2022
NEW PICS Unnamed: Guilford Farm; Conway We had the great plea-sure to be invited to take new pictures of this un-named and unsigned painting. There is a ques-tion as to if it is a finished piece. There are missing details RSW would have normally filled in. It was sold after his death by his family. |
07-01-2022
NEW PAINTING Unnamed: Barnyard Blanket You may have already seen this painting of Woodward's Hiram Woodward Place barn and yard just after a snow storm because it appear-ed as the featured art-work for the month of February in this year's Buckland Historical Society's calendar. |
04-04-2023
ADDED INFO Full Bloom If you want to know how special a painting was to Woodward- look at where he exhibited it. In one of the best examples of a painting being over-looked, this is it. This page best illustrates how important our work to fully vet and add all the in-formation we have on where a painting hung. |