The Mill on Brookshire Road

Giclee Print on Mounted Canvas
Edition of 300 S/N
Image: 20″ x 24″
$300

When I began painting in the early 1970’s I lived in the mountains of western North Carolina, and for nearly 20 years a good deal of my subject matter came from the barns, country stores and old mills in  the countryside around Boone.  I loved the winters (I was younger  then!) and many of my paintings were snow scenes.  After I moved to the Carolina coast in 1989, I rarely painted snow scenes.  Recently, however, I felt like doing something different, so I dug through my files and sketchbooks and decided to paint one of my all-time favorite subjects  just one more time.

The old mill in the painting was actually called the  Norris Mill; there was a huge stone under the mill with “A.D. 1860” carved into it in beautiful script.  The mill stood on Howard’s Creek, just  off Brookshire Road, but has been gone now since the late 1970’s.  I  had tried for years to buy it and restore it for use as my studio, but the  owners at the time wouldn’t consider it, and it fell into such a state of  dereliction that it was eventually torn down.  Within a few months  there was no evidence that this marvelous old mill ever existed.  I  haven’t been out there since then.

While painting the mill, I realized how much I loved that  old place and I really tried to capture the feeling and atmosphere of a  cold winter day at a favorite place as I remember it.