Insipiration - Bath New Hampshire

Acrylic on Canvas Board 12"x16"

My earliest memories of covered bridges were on family trips to see my Aunt in North Conway, New Hampshire.  I was always fascinated by the construction of the bridges.  I can still hear and feel the car on the wooden planks of the bridge echoing throughout the bridge.  Being surrounded by darkness and large wooden beams was a stark contrast to the sunlight outside.  On stormy trips, the sounds changed from rain on the roof of the car to the muffled sound of rain of the roof of the bridge.  You can still see the foundations of the covered bridge on the way into North Conway on Route 302 - over the Saco River.  I have a vague recollection of the bridge being damaged by a fire.  There was some hope that it would be rebuilt, but that proved to be too steep a financial committment and the bridge was eventually demolished as the route into North Conway was redirected.

I've also been fascinated by the old industrial buildings alongside New England rivers.  I used to play in an old abandoned mill in my hometown.  It stirs my memory more today than it did at the time. The memories may not be fully accurate, but they are mine none the less.   The massive floor boards, frosty windows filled with imperfections of early glass  all combined with the heart pounding  excitement of being somewhere you weren't supposed to be, doing something you weren't supposed to be doing.  So many of these buildings were allowed to fall into disrepair as manufacturing jobs disappeared or moved on to other locations.  It's nice now to see that restaurants and other businesses have been rehabbing these buildings that were once the bedrock of so many communities throughout New England.

This painting is an example of what I've written about in the past.  It's a studio painting based on memories and emotions from my experiences.  The original idea for the painting came from some on location sketches from trips to Bath New Hampshire.  It is one of the largest covered bridges I've ever seen.  It's a beautiful village and a must see if you are travelling to New Hampshire.

Below are a few examples from my trusty sketchpad.  I started with some compositional ideas around the border of the page - pretty much from the upper left - clockwise around the page.  I then sectioned off the remaining center of the paper and once I'd sketched in this new perspective I knew that was the one I wanted to pursue.

Below is the first and second pass at the painting.  I started by toning the canvas with a warm earth tone and then preceeded to put in the sky and then blocked in the bones of the painting (the river bed, walls, and surrounding buildings.  The bridge was then put in next with no windows till the end.  This was a new type of canvas board for me.  It was prepped for watercolor - so I found that working in acrylics, these was very little tooth or bite to the canvas, so I had to adapt my style of paitning until I'd built up enough paint on the canvas.  Below I've shown the (Nearly) finished painting.

Fairly subtle, but important changes I think.  What are your thoughts?

One of my favorite artists, Aldro Hibbard, did at least one painting of this area from up above (to my right looking at the painting) and looking upriver.  It was breathtaking to see.