Sheet Size: 13 3/4" x 20 1/2"; Image Size: 10 3/4" x 18"
"Backwards turn backwards, O time in your flight Make me a child again just for tonight!"
Who among us has not longed to experience once again the brief-sweet wonders of our childhood? To walk in the freshness of a summer day, when the land lay lush and green and heat demons leaped into the air around us? Unfortunately we can't do that, but Paul Sawyier's paintings so often serve to console us--to invite us into his world if only for a little while.
In "Yesterday's Summer" the eye focuses on the little girl--clad in her Sunday best, she had just left her mother's kitchen. There is a purpose in her walk--perhaps her small basket is filled with teacakes or other goodies destined for a neighboring shut-in.
This brilliantly executed painting is an example of Sawyier at his finest. The split rail fence which pierces the atmosphere in its crisp walk around the pasture was executed with time-consuming skill and excellence, reaffirming once again that the artist never hurried to complete his paintings.
The little saltbox house and the rolling landscape leave little doubt that this is a Kentucky River farmhouse painted during his houseboat days on the river. Perhaps the painting, like many others, was completed with the aid of a photograph. But one likes to believe he lingered in the meadow on this pleasant day, reluctant to leave its gentle peace.