July 4 14-1/2 x 20 oil on birch panel

Strafford is a picture-postcard Vermont village. No house located around the town green is more recent than the 19th century and many of them older than that. July 4 (celebrated on the Sat. nearest the 4th) is a huge celebration here with a kazoo band, lawn chair ladies in formation, floats, firetrucks and lots of entertainment for the kids. On the actual 4th I was painting at the house of a friend who lives on the green. It was a spectacular sunny but cool summer day and I had a wonderful time standing in the shade looking across the green to my subject. The house in the painting was built in 1797 and was originally a stagecoach inn. People around here hang big flags on their houses for the 4th and you can’t have a much better focal point than that spot of red, white and blue!

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