"Getting Acquainted" by Richard De Wolfe 18 x 24 alkyd oil on canvas
When I was a very young boy, my father kept a few farm animals, as well as flocks of chickens, ducks and turkeys to help provide for our large family. He had already stopped keeping cattle by that time, but I was very familiar with cows and calves on neighbouring farms in our rural community as I was growing up.
"Getting Acquainted" is a fanciful interpretation of my father introducing a 3year old 'me' to a young calf in the barnyard in spring. For many poeple, it represents a nostalgic memory of life on the family farm in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
I love creating paintings that bring back memories of my childhood in farm country along the St. Lawrence River, in Ontario, Canada. Life seemed so simple then, but that is more a product of the innocence of childhood than the reality of those times. We had polio, World War 2, DDT, the Korean War, Vietnam, the Cuban missile crisis and many more life-threatening situations to cope with, not so different from today. I think the difference is that the past is 'known' and the future must always remain 'unknown'. Enjoy life and tell someone that you love them.
2 comments:
This is a beautiful story and what a great artwork to go with it. Thanks for sharing this with us Richard. Warm wishes Cindy
Thank you Cindy. I find the best work that I do usually has a strong personal meaning to me. I always hope that I convey these feelings to the viewer too, or even better, help the viewer find their own special feelings about the subject.
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