Victorian Deadwood

Victorian Deadwood (8 x 10) $75.00

This is another painting from the cemetery above Central City, Colorado.  Most of the graves there date from the Victorian era.  This is typical of the monuments.  They were cast concrete rather than stone and carved to look like wood and stone.  The “wood” portions sometimes look like rustic logs and sometimes more like vines creeping on the stone.  Could they have had rose or grape covered bowers in mind?

But whatever the intent, to my mind the monuments are so ugly as to be strangely compelling.  The are overly complex and intricate yet striving for rusticness.  The more I look at them, the more I wonder what they were thinking and what if anything the fake wood roofs and beams meant to them.

The palatte here is cerlulean blue and burnt sienna for the sky.  The monunent is raw sienna and cerulean blue on the lighted portions and burnt sienna and Prussian blue on the shadowed sides.  The foliage is cerulean, cobalt and Prussian blues mixed in various combinations with raw sienna, new gamgee, and burt sienna.

Prints may be purchased from my BubbleSite.