Behind the “Plough”
“Plough” oil on canvas , 58” x 39” Chuck Rose, 1986
Originally, I painted this for my mother. She was raised on a farm.
Georgeanne Rose was the most genteel person you would ever want to meet, but when I was a kid, she would tell me stories about how as a young girl she would have to kill and prep the chicken for Sunday dinner. Everyone in her family had a job. They were a farm family. It seemed so far away from the suburban life we were leading at the time. But how it made me respect and love her more.
She loved a good drive in the country just to look at the farmland and the homes that occupied them. She had a particular admiration for the Amish culture and design, and that carried through in how she decorated her home. It was always beautiful yet warm and welcoming at the same time.
When I was 25 years old, I was fresh out of art school, newly married, and starting a creative career in the Washington DC area. My wife Carolyn and I were newlyweds and lived in our first 2-bedroom apartment. One bedroom served as my studio. It was tiny.
Christmas was coming and I wanted to do something special for my mom. However, as most newlyweds, we were broke. But I could paint her something! Something just for her that I hoped would capture all those good feelings she taught me about as a child. Many sketches later I came up with the idea for this painting. But what makes it special in my mind is that the person at the reigns is a child. A young boy commanding four work horses. “Everyone has a job in a farm family”.
My studio wasn’t big enough for my easel to hold a stretched canvas of this size, so I stapled the raw canvas to the wall and went to town. That would come in handy later.
The holidays approached and my wife and I were not going to be able to make the trip to Yardley, Pennsylvania, where my mother and father lived. I was going to have to ship the painting to her for the holiday. However, the cost of shipping the stretched canvas was prohibitive to my budget. The painting was dry and still stapled to the wall.
After removing it I rolled it up around the stretcher bars I purchased and packaged it in cardboard tube. Much less expensive to ship! My older brother Richard was going to be with our parents that Christmas and generously offered to stretch the canvas on the frame in my absence. That way my mother could at least hang it on the wall.
Christmas 1986
Georgeanne Rose unwrapping her present, the canvas straight out of the mailing tube before it was mounted on a stretcher frame.
Christmas day came and how I wanted to be there. But I do have this photo from that morning in 1986. She was thrilled, and I think it shows on her face.
The next time we visited, the painting was hung at the landing on the stairs between the first and second floors. The placement provided a great view going up or down the staircase. My mother seemed very happy with it and that warmed my heart to no end.
Decades went by and the painting moved with them to several homes. My mother passed away in 2002, and my father eventually moved to Boone, North Carolina, where he displayed “Plough” over the stone fireplace.
Dad lived to be 94 and eventually moved into an apartment that did not have the space to accommodate a painting of this size. After 33 years it found its way back to me.
It was my oldest brother, Linwood, that made the connection between this painting and where it hangs now. The Plough Restaurant, at the Marriott Hotel, 25 S Queen St, Lancaster, PA 17603. He and the owner of the restaurant had been friends for years. And when he heard “Plough”,, the restaurant, was opening he suggested I reach out and see if there was any interest in buying the piece.
I must admit I was torn. The sentimental value to me was, and still is, significant. The painting was also in disrepair after being moved so many times and had a nice layer of smoke on it after being hung above a fireplace for so long.
Restoration
After 30 years of traveling, and hanging over fireplaces, “Plough” was due for a good cleaning, stretching, and varnish.
Let the restoration process begin! With great care I cleaned the surface of the canvas and removed the years of dust and chimney smoke. I then re-stretched the by now sagging canvas and applied several coats of varnish. The cleaning and the varnish brought the painting back to life as the original colors and sheen were now visible again.
It was hanging in our dining room, and my wife and I loved it there. But in the end decided that my mother would be pleased (and hopefully proud of her boy) if it were displayed in a place where others could enjoy it. I reached out to the owner of this beautiful restaurant to see if there was interest, and indeed there was. Given the subject matter, the location of the restaurant and its name, this was a natural fit.
My wife and I delivered the painting on March 17, 2023. The interior designer for the establishment took it to the framer and did a wonderful job choosing materials. On April 10, the framed picture was hung in the restaurant where it can be seen today.
This is a story about a painting. But it is also a story about family. The love children have for their mother, the help older brothers give their younger sibling, and how it all comes together to transform what was a gift for one to a gift for many.
Many thanks to everyone involved in making this journey happen.
