(1960)
Oil on board 61cm h x 51cm w
In this early picture (1960) there are motifs that come to be important in Alan’s work. One tree provides a vertical pivot and another (the nearest) has the simplified form of a common symbol for all embracing growth rooted in the snow-covered ground.
There are more houses than became usual in the later pictures and, a promising but later undeveloped image, the abstract shapes of the washing line. RG
Alan lived in and studied in Edinburgh for one year as part of his theological degree. Because he came from a presbyterian background in the USA, he studied at New College, University of Edinburgh, the major seat of presbyterian learning in the UK.
This view looks out the back window of his tenement lodgings, which, as the painting suggests, he found somewhat cold! Painted at the age of 24, it is the earliest of his work to survive. TD
