Pat Barkman, Fine Art, Paintings of the Newtown, Connecticut

"Deep Brook Road" — Oil Painting

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The cobalt sky with tiny touches of turquoise suggests more warmth to come on this late-winter day. The sun filters through the trees onto the opposite bank. Some of the tree branches capture the rays. The ruts in Deep Brook Road make attractive patterns of shadows and light. The barn in the distance is the one in the Ram Pasture on Main Street.

"Birches" — Oil Painting

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Birches are fun to paint. They divide the spaces behind them as a crooked white fence with unevenly spaced posts does. Imagery from Frost’s poem “Birches” of ice storms, of going and coming, and of girls with flung hair come to mind as I paint birches.

Pat Barkman painting, "Avalanche Mountain from Avalanche Lake"

Rock faces and sandy shoals edge the Pootatuck, sometimes one, sometimes another as if determined to get things settled. I get a deep surge of happiness working on and painting the many facets of Al’s Trail, which for a few miles runs along the Pootatuck. Here a mist filters the low sun. Primary colours, blue, yellow, red became muted into pastels. Should I try this painting in pastels for you?

"Dawn's Mist on the Pootatuck" — Oil Painting

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all works © patricia barkman • for more information, email: pat@patbarkman.com

In spring low sun blends subtle hues of Red Maple buds and old Burnt Sienna leaves into rosy taupe at the confluence of Tom’s Brook and the Pootatuck. On a few trees emerges new-green growth. Al’s Trail crosses Tom’s Brook here. There are stones so you don’t get your feet wet. Al’s Trail is an eleven-mile trail that I’ve been developing for eleven years. See the web site link on my home page.

"Tom Brook" — Oil Painting
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Al’s Trail crosses the snow-blanketed, once-used Mill Stream. Winter’s orange warmth in the trees in low light, cool shadows in the snow and the steep slope above The Glen make a design like a quilt. Hikers who have walked that steep bank beyond know that the vista above is one of the most spectacular in Newtown.

"Rocky Glen State Park" — Oil Painting
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Pat Barkman painting, "Aproaching Tree Line on Ascent to Mt. Marcy"

"Early Spring Freshet" — Oil Painting

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I first painted this freshet in watercolours. Betty Christensen and I took advantage of the first warm day in late winter when snowmelt created this freshet behind Sedors’ Farm on Currituck Road. I revisited the image in oils. Water never flows in a straight line in nature, and here it makes its way among hummocks and under a fence designed to enclose cattle. The grasses flattened by the snow promise to make way for future grazing.

Pat Barkman painting, "Chaple Pond Birches"

"The Green Boat House on Taunton Lake" — Watercolour Painting

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One early winter day in 2012 before ice in, I sat at our dining room table and painted this view across the lake. The crimson glow of the bare trees on the opposite bank reflects warmth in the lake. A cool blue sky creates a contrast. Where the wind touches down on the lake creates a disturbance in the surface of the lake called “Footsteps of Thisbe.” These light spots are ever changing. Sometimes, as one comes near, you can feel it lift on you.