The Sentinal
I grew up on a small farm situated in the geographical
center of Western New York. For those of
you not familiar with this part of the state, it is called the Finger Lakes
area. If you look at a map you will
immediately know the reason it has that name.
When the glaciers retreated 12,000 years ago, it appears as if a giant
ice age hand reached out and carved huge swaths into the land with its finger
nails in an attempt not to let go. Over
time many of these long parallel valleys filled with water and the land teemed
with wildlife. The lakes vary in size
from a modest three mile long Canadice to the lengthy thirty-five mile long
index finger of Seneca, whose 600 foot depth reaches below sea level. In time the Iroquois Nation of peoples evolved
and claimed this land as its own. They
are the people who gave names to these crystal blue lakes, Iroquois names like:
Conesus, Honeoye, Canandaigua, Keuka, Seneca and Cayuga.
Our farm was situated high on a hill that closed off
the end of one of these long valleys. From
our vantage point we could track approaching storms for twenty miles as they
moved up the valley toward us. We could
accurately estimate how much time we had before we needed to clean up our tools
and get in the house before it started to rain.
Memories
of these spectacular views were the inspiration for my latest picture – “The
Sentinel.” I dream about returning home
and renting a cabin on one of these lakes for the summer, and use it as a base
from which I would go out into the countryside to capture the beauty of this
unique land on stretched canvas.
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| "The Sentinal" SOLD 16x20 Acrylic on Canvas |
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