What is the Catskills Landscape?

T uesday, February 10, 2015

People express their feelings about the landscape through a variety of media. Some tell stories about it, some phtoograph it, and others paint pictures of it, some even depict the landscape in their quilts. Tonight on my radio program at 7 p.m.on WIOX 91.3 FM or wioxradio.org, Catskills Folk, I will ask you to think about what the Catskills landscape means to you and I'll describe examples of folk and fine art that show the landscape in different ways.  But you can see the paintings yourself, here on Catskills Folk's blog!

Robert Mead Farm, West Settlement, Roxbury, NY painted by Nellie Bly Ballard

Nellie Bly Ballard was a self-taught painter from Roxbury who painted farm portraits in the mid-20th century.  This is an example that shows a dairy farm that still has open fields, but the buildings are all gone today.  She could be called the "Catskills' Grandma Moses" because she paints in the primitive manner that represents what she knows is there (and some things that aren't) rather than painting the scenery the way it would look in a photograph.   To someone who lived on that farm, it would be satisfying to see all the outbuildings in their relative positions and the house with all its parts displayed, somewhat as they remember it.

Do you own a Nellie Bly Ballard painting?  If so, I would love to see it.  I'm trying to record all of them I can find and hope to be able to show some of them in an exhibit next year that will bring together narratives, photographs, paintings and - yes - quilts that show the Catskills landscape.  If you have a folk art landscape, expecially one by Nellie Bly Ballard, please contact me at 607-326-4206 or vscheer@juno.com.

Another landscape painter from Roxbury was attorney Ralph Ives, Sr.  He worked at about the same time as Nellie Bly Ballard, but painted in way that seems to reflect the French Impressionists.  I don't know if he studied painting at any time, but he was known in the community as an artist and also as an amateur archeologist.  This painting is more about what the eye can see, including the increasingly hazy distant mountains shown with aerial perspective.

Both painters wanted to depict the Catskills landscape, one to make recognizable portraits of local farms and the other to engage the onlooker in the beauty of the view.  Does anyone recognize this view?   It makes me think of the view from Old Clump, looking west, but I'm not sure.  I don't know if there any other examples of Ralph Ives, Sr.'s work, but of course would be delighted to hear from anyone with information about his paintings.

Listen to Catskills Folk  tonight for a discussion of what we mean by "landscape," how that meaning has changed over time, and how the term applies to these two paintings.