Capturing Farm Dover

A bit over a year ago, our good friend and talented artist Dudley Zopp spent a week at Farm Dover, gathering inspiration for a series of Kentucky landscapes that she intended to paint once she was back in her Maine studio. Last week, a large gift arrived at our front door and inside I found this beautiful oil on canvas titled: Fog at the Farm. I wasn't sure if Dudley had perfectly captured the softness of an early morning scene from our back porch, or, if seeing the painting made me teary-eyed and my vision blurred.

I can't tell you how pleased I am to hang this painting in our home; to know the artist; to know that she spent time here studying the variations of time and season on the vistas of our farm; and that she captured this scene with such beauty and emotion.

Dudley has produced a whole body of work from her residency here at Farm Dover. Each painting I love more than the next. Here are two other large oils.

In a recent interview, Dudley said this about paintings in general. I think it applies to her paintings, in particular.

"A painting gives presence to intangible things like reflections in a puddle of water on the blacktop driveway, or the movement of red maple branches and buds against an overcast sky. To look at a painting is to transcend time; to make a painting is to move differently through space."

She also created a number of smaller paintings on paper. We gave one each to Maggie, Jack and Mary for Christmas this past year.

It pleases me to think that no matter where our kids live, they will take with them a bit of our farm – and know that Ed and I are here, thinking always of them.

If you want to see more of Dudley's work, check out her website, or if you are curious about the other paintings in her Farm Dover series, email her directly at dzopp@dudleyzopp.com.