Freshly Gathered Hay

What is it about hay that makes me want to paint it? The most obvious reason, I suppose is the fascination I had the first time I say Monet's famous haystack series (Monet was truly the master at using color temperature to suggest lighting and time of day!) 

It could also be that, unlike cows, horses or other animated life forms, these heavy masses of hay don't move or walk away while you are trying to paint them to eat, well, hay! Hay bales to me represent that same kind of pastoral quietude though, and I love the way they catch the sunlight and shadow, and often cast a cool shadow of their own. Here is a little vignette I painted the other day en plein air. I was driving out to paint a beautiful garden at the Tuckahoe Plantation and I saw these hay bales along the way:

"Freshly Gathered Hay" Oil on Canvas, 8x10" $425 unframed or $495 framed