The Clark

By John Boudreau, Communications Intern

After Winslow Homer, Fly Fishing, Saranac Lake, 1889. Etching and aquatint on beige wove paper, sheet 53.7 x 68.9 cm. The Clark, 1970.1

One of the great things about visiting Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History is that everyone who looks at Homer’s paintings will react to them in a different way. They evoke different emotions, stories, and sentiments from every viewer. With Your Favorite Homer, we’ll ask some of the Clark’s employees to share their reactions to their favorite work of art in the exhibit.

Geoffrey Hedden, Fly Fishing, Saranac Lake (1889) and Summer Squall (1904)

Although Geoffrey doesn’t typically pick just one favorite piece of work from an artist, he most admires Homer’s depiction of water. He cited the etching Fly Fishing, Saranac Lake and the oil painting Summer Squall as two idyllic examples.

“Water is tough,” Geoffrey said. “Water refracts, it reflects, it bends. It doesn’t have a hard angle, so light and water is really tough to capture. Homer does it pretty well in black and white, but it’s when he starts getting to color that he really shows off his skill.”

For Geoffrey, Fly Fishing, Saranac Lake serves as a good example of Homer’s early approach to depicting light and water. “The defining lines on the reflection aren’t minutely detailed,” he said. “You can see Homer has thought and realized he doesn’t need to have every line. Sometimes it’s a hint of something that creates the same feeling. I get reflection off of that. I buy it.”

The sea is a frequent subject in Homer’s later painting, and Geoffrey wondered if it may have mildly obsessed Homer. “It seems to me that somewhere this idea of water, the challenge of representing water, kind of took over some of his work,” he said.

Winslow Homer, Summer Squall, 1904. Oil on canvas, 24 1/4 x 30 1/4 in. (61.6 x 76.8 cm). The Clark, 1955.8

In Summer Squall, the stormy matte blues and grays of Homer’s palette help set the tone of the painting, but it’s the artist’s work on the foam that Geoffrey finds most interesting. “That foam has got a unique texture to it,” he said. “Capturing it and giving it that little bit of reality is difficult. If you back up far enough from the canvas, the foam is pretty convincing.”

Above all, Geoffrey was quick to credit Homer’s skill as an artist. “A lot of people don’t understand the practice that goes into making art. You train yourself what to look for. You don’t know what it’s going to be, I don’t think, in each instance, but when you look at something and you decide ‘that’s what I want to represent,’ the rest follows from it,” he said. “A painting can be very simple and still evocative.”

Geoffrey Hedden is a shipping and receiving clerk at the Clark. When his wife found a job in the area 15 years ago, he found a position at the Clark shortly thereafter. “I was in the right place at the right time,” he said. When he’s not working, he’s likely to be found in the galleries.