Unburdened

Unburdened - Oil on canvas - 24" x 32"

by Greg Newbold

Reference photo- one of several that I chose to work from

I rarely if ever work from a single photo

I use information from many pictures and create a composite.

Unburdened final drawing - black prismacolor on paper

After the 51's sketch, I knew that some of this imagery would filter into my MFA thesis project, but I wasn't sure in what form. I reevaluated all my sketches as well as photos and chose a few pictures to work from. I grew up helping take care of the family "farm". My great Aunt Mame lived there until her death at age ninety-nine. She was born and grew up there (along with my grandmother). After her marriage to my Uncle Henry, they bought the place and lived out their lives there. She was widowed in her her seventies and having no kids of her own, it fell to us to take care of things. One activity that I always enjoyed, despite the hard nature of the labor, was taking care of the animals. Each spring the shearer would come and relieve the sheep of their winter coats. I took several rolls of film on two different occasions and this is what I based this painting on, ten or more years after the fact. This ended up being a breakthrough project for me as it was the first major scale oil painting I had attempted. Up to this point, I had spent fifteen years painting in acrylic and it was a big jump for me to pull the oils back out. I am pretty pleased with the results and the subject matter is close to my heart. I am sure this was just the first of many pictures revolving around this sort of subject matter as I reach back to my roots for picture making fodder.