On Highway 197, there is an abandoned piece of farm equipment nestled in the grass
on what looks like an old cattle staging area. James and I often pass this piece of machinery on the way to fish The Deschutes River in Maupin, Oregon. This machine has always made my painting sense tingle.
I am drawn to these old pieces of machinery. Just looking at
them I can imagine all their moving parts, which are typically a series of
simple physics machines like pulleys, wheels and axels' and levers.
All these moving parts in concert are like a playground to
draw, creating quite an artistic puzzle.
In addition, I love the colors of these old machines. I am sure that many of the faded industrial
paint colors that are on these large devices are no longer in production-or
safe for production. I saw an 1800's wooden wagon that was painted with what I think was an arsenic green, beautiful, but deadly. I appreciate how these colors, usually faded, interact with the natural colors of the
landscape.
This is the palette that I want to acquire. Man-made industrial colors dwelling in
a sun-drenched landscape. These machines are going to be my subjects.
So my first evening on the road I pulled into Downtown Dufur. I paid for a site and parked the van at the Dufur City Park which has showers, a creek, and more importantly-not a lot of people.
It was dusk and I walked towards the center of town and was impressed with age of the buildings in the downtown area. O.k., Dufur is old, many of the building erected in the 1800's. Then I came across Dufur Historical Society's outdoor area full of farm equipment that was made in the late 1800's and 1900. Oh, la, la, my jaw dropped at the treasure trove of images that I found. By the light of my cell phone I spent the evening reading about steam water horses, tillers, water wheels. Across the street I found a whole field of machines, more modern, but more accessible.
I 💟 Dufur, I must press on to explore, but I am coming back to you.
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