Tom Moses’ Trips – West Virginia, 1885
“In looking over our sketches of this wild territory we were impressed with the wonderful amount of really good material that is so essential in the making of a good picture; fine composition and color everywhere. Color values are strongly emphasized by the combination of dark pines and hemlocks, the light birch and beech, red sand-stone and dark grey granite, bits of broken limbs bleached to a warm grey dropped on a bed of dark moss and the dead brown leaves, and are bound to make a color value and balance so that one does not have to study very long nor go wandering away from the sketch in Virginia, with the picture quality, at every turn. In these woods no big expanse of space can be found; simply lovely vistas, either looking toward the sun, with lovely bots of sky showing through or as one turns about the charming forest interior, framed on either side with beech and birch trees; a colorful foreground of rocks and dead leaves, fading away into a dense blue green backing, with only a bit of sunlight sifting through the tree-tops and making a glistening high light on a rock or a cluster of foliage.
The range of light toward sun-down is very interesting, and how often have I sat and watched it, and then had to pick my way out of the forest, where it becomes dark very soon after the sun sets, and the awful tangle of the underbrush and moss covered rocks makes it difficult to walk and carry a heavy load. It is also very easy to lose one’s way. The screech owl will always assist you with his mournful hoot.
There is so much in Virginia forests that we will fail to find in other states, that I could be satisfied to go back there each year if it were not for the fact that I have made up my mind to get sketches from all over the country; so far I have succeeded fairly well.
We left Schell for Piedmont, changed cars and took the B. & O. R. R. for Chicago. We again passed through Deer Park, which is more of a summer resort than we had thought from a casual glance from the train. We all agreed that we had a good time, our sketches would repay us for the time and money expended and we all desired to repeat the dose.
Some years after this trip we learned that our congenial acquaintance, Mr. Murphy, had been caught red-handed by the revenue men and that before he would surrender was literally shot to pieces. We regretted learning this, as Murphy was a good story-teller and liked our cigars – ten for twenty-five cents. Some smoke!
Back to the hustle, bustle, dirt and smoke of a large city, with a lingering taste of the woods which will last for some time, we take up the big landscape painting again and begin once more to turn our ability and labor into the big dollars.”
Concluded
Side note: When I was restoring the Scottish Rite scenery in Danville, Virginia, we were able to take some trips into the Blue Ridge Mountains. One of my favorite trips was with my folks and son, Aaron, as we ventured into the mountains and stayed for the weekend. I had previously driven the length of the Blue Ridge Parkway with husband and son after traveling from a scenery restoration job in McAlester, Oklahoma, to a family gathering of my in-laws in Delaware. I never felt like an outsider in the region and the Danville Masons who hosted me announced that I would never be considered a “Yankee.” In kindness, they explained that their designation often referred to an attitude, or a state of mind, rather than a geographical designation. Even those who had nothing to do with the project or the Fraternity were so very kind and welcoming during our stay. I loved the area and the people, so much that it was hard to return to the Midwest.
In ending this segment I think of the lyrics from John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads:”
“Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains
Shenandoah River,
Life is old there
Older than the trees
Younger than the mountains
Blowin’ like the breeze.
Take me home, country roads, to the place where I belong, West Virginia, Mountain Mamma. Take me home, country roads.”
Here’s the link for a video with some lovely pictures to accompany Denver’s song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNoZtIPWpyE
