RSW's Diary Comments

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

The Lone Tree, c. 1920

This piece was once the earliest known work from the Heath Pasture. It was unseated by the painting seen to the right, The Lone Tree (c. 1920) which was selected to be added to the Stockbridge (MA) Public Library Collection through a subscription campaign by its members.

Although we do not have an image of this chalk drawing we can guess that it was a similar vantage point as Heath Horizon above and features the hills in the background. Heath Horizon is actually the best and cleanest image we have of the view.

The Heath Pasture on Burnt Hill in Heath, MA, was Woodward's most favorite places in the world as evident of how frequently it was the subject of his work. Even before he purchased the 160 acres of pasture in 1938 and build a studio (completed in 1940) he called the "Pasture House" he would camp out there often through the 1930s.

There are two other known works with the same name (both oils), The Sea Of Hills, 1932 and The Sea Of Hills, 1939. If we had better pictures of either of these paintings we would have used them. Below are two more, nice and clean pictures of the "sea of hills" surrounding the pasture seen in other pastels. ⮟

November Light

High Pastures