Featured Artwork: Big Maple At Sugaring Time

Woodward did not keep records of the pastels he called "chalk drawings."

Against the Evening Sky

Editor's Note:

In what may be Woodward's most curious subject, we could not help thinking of the giant, gnarled maple of the large canvas, Against an Evening Sky made in 1941. Otherwise, we do not know what is "a big maple" to Woodward. Even going through the Sugaring Gallery, we only saw a couple of trees that would qualify as "big" to us. In just the little research we have done, the tree to the right mostly likely did not produce the sap to make syrup due to the dead branches seen in the painting.

Still, we wondered if Woodward's favorite maple tree, the one in the Griswold pasture was the subject. Was it considered large? There is also a pretty large maple next to the Harrison Keach sugar shack seen in Early Sugaring #2 and number three... the 1918 canvas In the Sugar Bush has a very large maple in the second row of trees. We hope this pastel painting is located someday. We would love to see it!

At Peace, (Woodward's favorite maple)

Early Sugaring #2