{"id":6993,"date":"2023-08-31T12:52:27","date_gmt":"2023-08-31T19:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/?page_id=6993"},"modified":"2023-08-31T12:52:28","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T19:52:28","slug":"mountains","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/the-poster-project\/mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Charles
Charles Heaney (American, 1897-1981)\nMountains, 1938\nOil on canvas\n33 3\/8 x 38 inches\nCourtesy of the Fine Arts Program, Public Buildings Service, U.S. General Services Administration. Commissioned through the New Deal art projects.\nPublic domain\nL45.3.4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Download poster (English)<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Download poster (Espanol)<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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View Mountains<\/em> in our permanent collection<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Charles Heaney was one of Oregon\u2019s most-admired artists of the twentieth century. As a painter and printmaker, he devoted himself to portraying the regions of Oregon from the cityscapes of North Portland to the vast deserts and mountains in the east.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heaney was born in Octonto Falls, Wisconsin, and moved to Portland, Oregon, with his mother and sister at the age of 15, after his father\u2019s death. Instead of continuing high school in Oregon, he went to work at various factories, eventually settling on an apprenticeship at Brandenburg Engraving Company. There, Heaney learned to engrave jewelry and flatware\u2014skills that would contribute to his printmaking and would provide a means of support throughout his life. The company\u2019s owner recognized Heaney\u2019s talents and encouraged him to study at the Portland Art Museum School (now the Pacific Northwest College of Art). Heaney befriended influential Northwest artists, such as Henry Frederick Wentz and Kyuzo Furuya, and particularly admired C.S. Price (see the poster of Price\u2019s Winter<\/em> [1940]<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Price, Heaney found work during the Great Depression as an easel painter for the Oregon Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The Federal Art Project was one of many New Deal programs enacted by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt\u2019s administration and designed to create jobs. Heaney later observed, \u201cWhen the WPA art program came along, it gave me a freedom I had never known before. They bought all the materials and simply told us to paint, or etch or carve\u2014whatever we did. When your stomach starts to get full and you get paid for doing what you love, you can shed a lot of the severe disciplines of the work world and express it as you see and feel it.\u201d Between 1937 and 1939, Heaney completed 64 paintings, including Mountains<\/em> (1938), reproduced here, as well as The Mountain<\/em> (1937), painted for Timberline Lodge and on view there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though he lived in Portland, Heaney captured different parts of Oregon and its diverse regions. As he traveled throughout the state, he chose not to create his paintings on site. Instead he would take notes, sketch, and photograph a scene, then return to his studio and paint from memory, aided by these records. He favored the landscape of Eastern Oregon and particularly focused on the rich, warm desert palette. Heaney\u2019s Mountains<\/em> occupies most of the canvas, accentuating geological formations and bold contrasts of light. Houses and trees in the foreground further exaggerate the difference in scale to the mountains. His fascination with geology and its layered evidence of history can be seen here as well as his sense of awe of the natural environment in relation to our smaller, human scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heaney was an active artist whose career spanned nearly 60 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discussion and activities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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  1. How many geometric shapes can you find in Heaney\u2019s Mountains<\/em>? Choose four or five shapes that you feel are the most important. Create a simplified sketch of Heaney\u2019s painting that emphasizes these fundamental geometric shapes. Cut out the shapes and re-assemble them into a mountain (or mountains) of your own. How is it like or unlike Heaney\u2019s painting? Why did you put the shapes together the way you did?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Look closely at the foreground of the painting. Why do you think Heaney chose to include the tiny houses and trees in this image? What relationship do they have\u2014visually or conceptually\u2014to the mountains? What is Heaney telling us about nature?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Art historian Roger Hull argues that, while Heaney was inspired by the world around him, \u201chis depictions were not straightforward documentations\u2026 Rather, his images evoke a sense of place that goes beyond the physical reality, filtered through memory, imagination, and personal vision.\u201d Do you agree with Hull\u2019s assessment? In what ways does the painting Mountains<\/em> differ from a realist style? How does it suggest emotion, memory, and imagination?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Artists often idealize landscapes to create invented worlds for themselves. If you were to reinvent this scene where would you live in it? Would you change the arrangement or sizes of the different elements? How would those changes affect the overall feeling of the work?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Artists often ask us to travel through their works, especially when their works portray landscapes. How would you travel through this landscape? Write a brief description of your journey. Include all of the smells, sounds, sights, tastes, and touches of your journey.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Compare Heaney\u2019s painting to Wendy Red Star\u2019s Indian Summer<\/em> (2006)<\/a>, also included in the Poster Project. These artists have both chosen to depict Western United States mountain scenes\u2014yet with very different materials and intentions\u201475 years apart. If these artworks could have a conversation, what do you think they would say to each other?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Recommended resources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n