Tobacco Road 1944

Philip Burnham Hicken made this print, Tobacco Road, which seems to hum with a muted, dreamy energy. The colours are like twilight, that moment when day is done, and the world softens at the edges. I can imagine Hicken layering colors, maybe wrestling with how to capture that quiet, rural landscape. See how the house tilts ever so slightly, as if sighing into the landscape? There’s a touch of folk art here, a simplified way of seeing that tugs at something deep inside us. The sky is a gentle wash of blue, with that lonely cloud drifting along - maybe Hicken was feeling a little lonely himself. I get it. Painters have always looked at each other, borrowing and improvising, trying to find their own voice in the big conversation. Each of us wants to capture something true, something fleeting, and make it stay.