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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

The Beauty and the Hardship

Yankee Farmlands № 39 (Wolcott, Connecticut, USA)
“Yankee Farmlands № 39”
Barn and pastureland at dawn, Wolcott, Connecticut
© 2015 J. G. Coleman

In my latest piece, “Yankee Farmlands № 39”, dawn breaks over weathered barns beside a chilly pasture where dew-speckled grasses shimmer like a verdant, green sea.

In an era such as ours, when most of us are no longer tethered to our land for crops and livestock, it’s understandable that farming would be romanticized to some degree. An intimate relationship with the soil, bucking cubicles and corporate bureaucracy: sounds great, right?

There are myriad things that can be said in praise of the farming life, but the labor is often hard, the money is sometimes uncertain and the work can be quite dangerous. Consider the bitter case of the Rufus Norton Farm, which is seen in this piece. “Rufus was killed in the 1930’s by one of his bulls,” recalled a Wolcott historian. “His wife kept the farm going by working as a school bus driver.”

Purchase a Fine Art Print or Inquire About Licensing

Click here to visit my landing page for “Yankee Farmlands № 39” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing this image.

Want to See More?

Be sure to check out all of my work from the on-going Yankee Farmlands collection.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases

Happy New Year from the Mad River Valley

Mad River Lullaby (Mad River, Wolcott, Connecticut)
“Mad River Lullaby”
Mad River near Scovill Reservoir, Wolcott, Connecticut
© 2013 J. G. Coleman

“I saw, as for the first time, what a severe yet master artist Winter is. Ah, a severe artist! How stern the woods look, dark and cold and as rigid against the horizon as iron!”

-John Burroughs
“The Snow-Walkers” (1866)

What better way to kick off the New Year than celebrating the quietly beautiful snowscapes that are a hallmark of wintertime in New England? My new piece, Mad River Lullaby, was produced only a few weeks ago and portrays a broad bend on the Mad River as it snakes through snowy woodlands just down the road from my home in Wolcott, Connecticut.

The Mad River is impounded downstream of this vista to create the 120-acre Scovill Reservoir, so the serpentine meander featured in Mad River Lullaby is typically inundated. In this rare instance, however, the reservoir had been drawn down several feet, allowing the Mad River to briefly reclaim its more natural footprint. Freshly-fallen snow, courtesy of a December storm, delicately frosted the bare trees and “tidied up” the muddy cobble left behind as the reservoir receded.

Throughout 2013, I managed to travel all over Connecticut and Western Massachusetts and even enjoyed a couple jaunts into Vermont and Eastern New York. Nature was not so shy during many of these travels, presenting several opportunities to capture rare and intimate glimpses of her beauty wherever I set off into the landscape. But, as nature photographer Moose Peterson once said,” The real prize is what you bring home in your heart, not on your memory card.” Indeed, when I browse through my work from this past year, I recall countless fulfilling days of being out in the wilds. Those experiences… those memories… are the reason that I love this art form so deeply.

To all of my viewers, I wish you and yours a bountiful and memorable new year in 2014!

Categories
All Things Connecticut New Print Releases

Home Sweet Home

Sunset Over Wolcott (Scovill Reservoir, Wolcott, CT)
"Sunset Over Wolcott"
Scovill Reservoir, Wolcott, Connecticut
© 2013 J. G. Coleman

As someone who loves experiencing and photographing fresh, new landscapes, I spend plenty of time traveling all over Connecticut, even crossing the state line and heading elsewhere in the northeast whenever I get the chance. And yet, from the beginning, I’ve also placed a good deal of importance on seeing familiar landscapes with fresh eyes. I challenge myself to approach every landscape as if I’ve traveled a thousand miles to see it for the first time, even if I drive by it routinely or have conducted several photo shoots there in the past. In fact, my latest collection of fine art prints features Scovill Reservoir, a small lake near my home that really is part of my day-to-day life! I’m excited to introduce to you these new prints, for they are a celebration of just how beautiful, varied and surprising the familiar landscapes around home can be, just so long as we’re willing to see these things with fresh eyes.

Scovill Reservoir is a 120-acre lake nestled amongst the forest that lies right down the street from my house in Wolcott, Connecticut. How close by is it exactly? Well, suffice to say, I can walk to the nearest stretch of shoreline in just a few minutes or, alternatively, drive there in a matter of seconds. Anytime I leave home headed east, its shallow coves or densely-wooded shorelines are some of the first sights I pass after a few stop signs and a half-dozen neighborhood houses. Ever since my wife and I moved to Wolcott late last year, this small lake has been an ever-present part of our everyday lives.

Woodtick Majesty & Sunset Over Wolcott

Woodtick Majesty (Scovill Reservoir, Wolcott, CT)
"Woodtick Majesty"
Scovill Reservoir, Wolcott, Connecticut
© 2013 J. G. Coleman

But the ordinary can sometimes prove surprisingly extraordinary; that was precisely the case when I headed to the northeastern shore of the lake on a misty Spring morning in May. I scrambled down the banks into a small pocket of wetlands and planted my tripod amongst the sedges, totally in awe of the dazzling light show materializing over the water. The scene possessed an almost incendiary beauty as the Sun rose over the horizon, piercing the evergreen canopy with heavenly beams of light that seared through the fog and cast a warm glow on the gently swaying reeds before me. My piece, “Woodtick Majesty” (photo above), was born of that remarkable morning and remains one of my most dramatic and luminous pieces from Scovill Reservoir.

“Sundown Over Wolcott” (photo at top) draws upon yet another moment in time during which nature conspired to produce a fleeting masterpiece. Having just slipped beneath the forested horizon, the sun boldy bid farewell with a radiant crescendo as it cast massive columns of light into the shadowy clouds above.

Although the lake is technically known as Woodtick Reservoir, it is almost universally referred to as Scovill or Scovill’s Reservoir. This nickname derived from the fact that the waters of the reservoir were, starting shortly before 1920, used in the production of brass by the highly influential Scovill Manufacturing Company. The Scovill name has remained attached to the lake ever since, even long after the company moved elsewhere. Eventually the unused reservoir, which had been slowly reclaimed by nature over the years, was sold to the Town of Wolcott in the 1980s.

Snowy Dusk on Scovill

If “Woodtick Majesty” features the reservoir in its most energetic light, then “Snowy Dusk on Scovill” (below) emphasizes the quieter, more subtle beauty of the lake on a serene evening during winter.

Snowy Dusk on Scovill (Scovill Reservoir, Wolcott, CT)
"Snowy Dusk on Scovill"
Scovill Reservoir, Wolcott, Connecticut
© 2013 J. G. Coleman

The cool colors of “Snowy Dusk” really impart a visual sense of the winter chill that was in the air on that frigid evening, even if the bluish tones actually resulted from the fact that the scene was only faintly illuminated by the blue sky of twilight. As we peer into this piece, we find a shadowy, snow-laden forest where evergreen pines and hemlocks are unmistakeable amidst the leafless branches of dormant oaks, maples and birches. Wispy clouds skate across the dimming sky, which is still just bright enough to cast reflections from the cold waters of the lake. In the distance, the broad, forested slopes of Tame Buck’s Hill rise gradually from the surrounding landscape south of the lake.

Tame Buck’s Hill was so named for an injured fawn which, probably at some point during the 19th-century, is said to have limped out of the woods beside the hill and strayed into the farmland of the Upson family. One can only imagine that the Upson children were thrilled about this and they took to nurturing the young animal like a pet until it was healed and capable of setting back off into the countryside. For years afterward, though, the deer reportedly made regular visits to the farm, having become somewhat domesticated as a result of its unusual upbringing. For the rest of its days, this “tame buck” must have been quite a beloved creature around town, for it remains immortalized in the name of the hill where it stumbled from the forest well over a century ago.

Woodtick Quietude (Scovill Reservoir, Wolcott, CT)
"Woodtick Quietude"
Scovill Reservoir, Wolcott, Connecticut
© 2013 J. G. Coleman

Woodtick Quietude

We’ve seen a couple different views of Scovill Reservoir already, from the warm, dazzling displays of dawn and sunset to the relaxed tones of dusk on a winter evening. “Woodtick Quietude” (above), however, draws us into an altogether different atmosphere of contemplation and tranquility. A light veil of mist has settled upon the still waters of the lake in the early hours before dawn, imparting an ethereal softness to the successive layers of dimly-lit woodlands. Peering into this meditative waterscape, our minds almost instinctively fill the visual space with a soothing silence.

Mad River
"Mad River’s Dominion"
Mad River, Peterson Park, Wolcott, Connecticut
© 2013 J. G. Coleman

Mad River’s Dominion

It’s sort of ironic that I’m presenting my piece, “Mad River’s Dominion” (above), as the final work in this new series, because the story of Scovill Reservoir didn’t even begin until the Mad River was dammed in central Wolcott shortly before 1920. Only then did Scovill Reservoir emerge as the Mad River flooded 120 acres of farmland and pastures that were purchased from Wolcott residents.

“Mad River’s Dominion” brings us about two miles north of the reservoir to the banks of the Mad River in Wolcott’s Peterson Park. Lively and energetic, the stream can be seen tumbling over submerged stones and dodging mossy boulders as it meanders through dense woodlands. There was a time when the full ten-mile course of the Mad River would’ve looked much like this, but these days only about two miles retain a truly wild and scenic character. After flowing south through Wolcott and into the neighboring city of Waterbury, the river becomes almost unrecognizable. It is funneled unceremoniously through densely populated areas for nearly five miles until being squeezed out into the Naugatuck River amidst the brick and asphalt surfaces of an industrial park. This hardly seems like a fitting end for such a handsome and vigorous woodland stream, but at least the Mad River can still lay claim to a proud dominion in the forests of northern Wolcott.

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