Three paintings of the same view: A dark mountain in the background, the ess curve of a river on the left, a risie of road on the right, and, between the river and the road, a red barn and pale farmhouse.
One View, Four Ways
Red barn, river curve, rising road,
a mountain of many moods.
Years of morning walks brought
me to the view, taught me a few
of those many moods
as January’s bleak, stark profile
melted slowly into June,
warmed to October flames
doused by the first fall of flakes.
Red barn, river curve, rising road,
and the mountain looming,
shadowing, shading,
sometimes so fog-erased and as if
it never was, nor ever had been.
Now, from my gallery seat, I look left:
A dramatic mountain as thick with white
as the fields between the river curve and rising road,
the red barn bright yet isolated
by March’s brilliant, blinding light
finds an echo
in the softer light of overcast skies
the yellow-greens of reborn hay,
a mountain brooding over spring
in the valley with the red barn, river curve, rising road.
To the right, the river falls away,
leaving only red barn, rising road,
and the mountain, nearer now,
a not-quite silhouette of snow and stone
a sleeping woman, hair spread wide
arms thrown back in dreaming ecstasy.
The Paintings, all from “Forty Years Together” at the Bryan Memorial Gallery
Susan Termyn, “March Color, Jeffersonville”
Cate Hunter-Kashem, “The Bend in the River”
Lynn Van Natta, “Majestic Mansfield”
“Forty Years Together” runs at the gallery until August 25, 2024.
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