Farm in November 1936

Pierre Sanford Ross made this lithograph print, Farm in November, in 1936. I wonder if the printmaking process felt at all like the cold, bleak scene he depicted. It probably involved a lot of erasing. I can imagine Ross standing at his lithography stone, scraping away at the surface to create these gray tones. The horse, the chickens, the farmer – they all emerge from the stone as he removes material, a process of patient revelation. Maybe he was thinking about the changing seasons, the cycle of life and death on the farm. I notice that the bare tree branches reach across the sky like veins, connecting everything. It is full of feeling. Ross’s focus on rural life reminds me of other American artists like Grant Wood, but his printmaking technique gives it a unique flavor. Artists are always in conversation, you know? Each one building on what came before, transforming it through their own experience and perspective. And in this case, it is so beautiful and bleak at the same time.