#e. pine

Emmett Pine and his sister Irene were both talented musicians and enjoyed performing.  With Irene on piano, Emmett on drums and the third on fiddle, (either Wilfred Minor or Ching LaDeau) they played at many local halls and church socials. 

Emmett Pine’s Orchestra - L to R:  Wilfred Minor, Irene Pine McCormick and Emmett Pine    Collection of TJMM 

Articles can be found in the archives of local papers during the 50′s that mention occasions that brought the group together for a number of fundraisers or to entertain arriving guests at the start of minstrel shows.  My mother told me how Emmett and Irene would ham it up on stage with Irene mimicking Liberace while introducing her brother Emmett.  Another of his relatives remembered Irene performing pregnant with a scarf or shawl draped down her side to mask her “delicate” condition.

There are at least two wonderful paintings of their band performing at dances. Both paintings have crowded dance floors, the band is lined up in the same order on a long stage with the piano in the middle.  

Pine and Ladies Orchestra Courtesy Stanley Ransom

Emmett included a lot of detail in these colorful paintings with their charming “naive”  perspective.  He even added the reflection of the chandelier in the highly polished dance floor in the bottom image.  A viewer could assume the top dance was in the fall or winter with the dancers in more formal, darker clothing.  T’he bottom work could be summer since one of the gentlemen is in white trousers and bucks.

Pine’s Orchestra Courtesy Jan McCormick

Years later with the band a memory Pine continued to entertained customers in his store, drumming on the counter while they made their selections, not in a bored way but drumming to a tune in his head as if he were part of the band that recorded it.  Irene continued performing for many years playing the organ every Sunday at the St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Mission in Clintonville and entertained her many grandchildren (a tough crowd) playing the themes of their favorite TV shows and a few older tunes like Sonny or Wincester Cathedral from her days in the band.

I’m sitting in the audience of my second auction this summer, actually it’s late September, the solstice only a few very hot days ago.  Thoughts of the oppressive heat on the platforms of Grand Central are far away as I watch Doug Martin holding up the second of the two Emmett Pine paintings listed in today’s auction. 

Steve Martin is calling to the audience, pumping  up the adrenalin in hopes of triggering bidding on this painting and once again the bidding is fast and fierce between me and another gentleman with designs on these paintings.

I’m not yet over the shock of placing a ridiculously high winning bid on a small 8′ x 10″ painting by Pine.

In fact the two paintings are both small.  The first is of a home buried in deep snow, windows blazing with light, smoke coming out of the chimney with a full moon lighting the landscape.  One of his nephews believes this is very likely the Pine home in Clintonville.  The house is the same style and coloration and its location on a bend in the road matches the scene above.  If it were a larger canvas the Ford farm would be visible on the other side of the road.

The second painting, slightly larger at 10″ x 12″ is a painting of the Peanut Railroad at Keeseville Station.  This painting of the train has an interesting perspective, moving out of the station passing the artist on his right, leaving him with a diminishing view along the approaching engine down the side of the train.  I bet Pine had fun with this view to the horizon which he did pretty well considering the added difficulty of the small bend in the track.

Bidding was fast between the two of us. I just held my number in the air until I prevailed, but again, at significant expense.  The other gentleman finally realized that I was going to win regardless of price  and finally gave up after driving the price beyond all reasonable value.

The Good:  Two  Pine paintings available only a few months after picking up three at the Moore auction in June.  I believe the prices paid at the Moore auction is getting around and flushing some paintings out of their long time homes in hopes of cashing in on the increasing popularity of these paintings and the high prices they are drawing at auctions..  

The Bad, at least for me:  An experienced auction house like Martin and Son’s doesn’t just take in a clients goods like these paintings and let them sit there until auction day. Steve Martin knows the buyers, he knows what they are interested in and he makes sure a couple or three are at the auction primed to bid the price up. the auction was advertised and a listing was mailed out which included photos of the paintings, so there was little hope of no one bidding against me.  Don’t forget, Steve works very hard for the owners.  For the bidders he insures a good auction, he doesn’t waste time, he doesn’t charge premiums or allow reserves and you can tell it’s appreciated.

Martin and Sons did such a great job getting word out that I had several relatives call to tell me about the auction, not knowing  Steve had already let me know about  these paintings and the upcoming auction back in August.  He even made arrangements for me to view the paintings while I was vacationing in the north country, so it was already on my calendar and I had been fending away any possible conflict for weeks.

Six months ago, the price of a small Emmett Pine painting would have been between $75.00 and $150.00.  At the auction there was a gentleman bidding against me that wanted the painting regardless of price and the two of us drove the price over $1,000.  It really was a ridiculous amount to pay for this small work.

Two auctions with abnormally high results, driven by only two bidders, creates a false market and inflates the price of the artwork and the owners expectations.  If the value were solid, other people would be bidding along with two collectors. 

So here I am at another fun auction with my brother, Steve and Doug Martin taking turns shaking the dust out of peoples wallets, what could be the Ugly? Funny you should ask!

I was talking to my brother when I heard bidding start.  I looked up and saw a nice little antique bench on the stage and quickly threw up my number.  I had seen the bench during the preview and thought I’d bid.  By the end of the bidding, I turned to my brother and said:  “I can’t believe I got that bench for $75.00.”  

Paintings are fragile creations requiring special handling and care beginning literally from the time they are finished.  A painting lives many lives as it’s passed on through the years, from family member to family member or passed out of the family to a friend, sold to a dealer, or as in this case, sold at an auction.  And, as with most works of art, value is in the eye of the beholder and the painting may find itself in various environments that are less than ideal for its preservation.

This painting was completed 75 years ago. We don’t know the number of owners or how they cared for it. Was it hung in a good environment or did it end up on a pile in a dark damp basement? From the condition it is obvious that at some point it wasn’t properly cared for and wasn’t kept in a good environment. Without conservation Pine’s vision of “The Old Mills of Keeseville” would disappear, denying generations from seeing a painting of Keeseville’s industrial past long gone from its landscape.

Paintings typically are made up of various layers.  Paint applied to a supporting backing like a board or canvas, primed with a ground layer then finished with a coat of varnish.  It is common in Naive or Folk art for the artist to skip one or two of these layers which make their paintings more fragile.  This type of canvas art board is usually pre-primed with a white ground before it is attached to the cardboard backing but it does not have a final varnish coat.  The varnish coat is a protective coating that saturates the paint layer and acts as a barrier from damaging and corrosive particles in the atmospheric.

The question for a collector is what are the options?  I’ve already passed the first and most important hurdle. I bought this badly damaged painting, recognizing its importance as one of Pine’s early works and that it had to be saved.  At this point I have two options, the minimum is to stabilize the painting and stop the damage from progressing further.  The proper action is to have it restored to a level as close to the way it was when Emmett Pine finished the work and placed it on the shelf in his store to be sold.  Either action needs professional help, which is why the painting finds itself undergoing Michele Kay’s careful examination at her busy restoration studio in Elmsford, NY.  

For an experienced conservator like Michele most of the damage is visible under close scrutiny occasionally confirming her diagnosis with the magnification visor she uses for close work.  Also placing the painting under different types of light help her to build an outline of its condition and the work that will be necessary to restore this painting.

Raking light illumination with its play of light and shadow show the distortions in the canvas plane and the backing label.   Her examination confirms most of what she saw when the painting was left for conservation.

Michele’s analysis:  “The painting is on warped artist’s canvas board, a sign of storage in a damp environment.  Excessive moisture has caused the cardboard backing support to separate from the canvas along the lower half and develop wild distortions in the canvas plane and the backing label.  The original label on the verso of the panel identifies the art material distributor and manufacturer.”

Most important - the label has the title, date and signature in Pine’s own hand and must be preserved.

The small losses in the paint layer in the lower right quadrant were set down with an appropriate adhesive and mild heat.  The painting was then faced with a gelatinous glue and Japanese tissue paper to protect the front while work was carried out on the back of the canvas.

With the front stabilized, the label was removed mechanically from the board with moisture and gentle teasing.

Specialized tools like scalpels and small spatulas are used to gently separate the label.

After the label was removed, it was soaked in a bath of distilled water and hydrogen peroxide to remove stains and yellowing.

Now the painstaking work begins to remove the cardboard panel in small sections.

Michele’s assistant Moira Yanuck carefully strips away the cardboard backing, strip by painstaking strip.  

Look how the pile has built up while Moira’s work progresses.  With the backing removed the residual glue was softened and scraped from the back of the canvas.

Once freed from the cardboard backing the canvas was flattened over time with slight moisture and flat weights.

They now have a clean canvas ready for the next step.  Michele attached sized linen canvas strips to the inner fold of the tacking margin.  This was to increase the length of the margin in order to facilitate stretching the painting over a new custom-made stretcher.  The strips were attached with a heat activated adhesive film.

With the verso nearly completed it was time to begin work on the paintings face, beginning with the removal of the protective Japanese tissue paper.

The small areas  of paint loss were filled with gesso putty and leveled.  Also missing impasto texture was added to create the continuous flow of rushing water in the lower right corner.  These retouches were carried out with gouache and Gamblin restoration colors.

With the restoration of the face complete the canvas is carefully stretched over its new stretcher.

One of the simplest and most important preservation steps you can take is to have a protective backing board attached to the reverse of the stretcher. Michele attaches a Fome-Cor backing to the reverse which will reduce exposure of the canvas to rapid environmental changes, keep out dust, foreign objects and protect against damage during handling.

And the finishing touch - the original manufacturers label, reinforced  with an inert, non-fiberous material, is slipped into a specially made mylar sleeve and attached to the back.

With the restoration complete and the painting properly hung it is ready to enjoy another 75 years.  Scroll up to the start of the post to compare the beginning photo with the finished one below.

Working on this project with a professional conservator like Michele Kay who carried out the meticulous work on this painting, treating it like a masterpiece, and taking no shortcuts was an amazing experience for my first restoration.  And now this small 9 X 12 painting will continue to be part of the history of Keeseville, a record of its past now preserved for many to enjoy.  History recorded through the talent and vision of Emmett Pine.

A very special thank you to Michele Kay, not only for her fine work, but also for her help while I was writing this post, answering questions, providing the photographs of her work as it progressed, advising and reviewing.  My post like my painting is in a much better state due to her.

Michele S. Kay Studio, Elmsford, New York www.FinePaintingsConservation.com    [email protected]

Old Mills of Keeseville, Courtesy TJMM

On the surface, and in the photograph above, Pine’s painting looks pretty good. Of the three recently acquired at last weeks auction, two nicely framed paintings are already hanging.  This one, however; needs help before going to the framers.

Difficult to see in the photo this painting, canvas-on-board (cardboard), is badly distorted and rippled across the front with visible signs of moisture damage. 

Turn it over and the damage from moisture is very easy to see.  The back is peeling away, spotted with mold and the tacking margins are not attached.

Further inspection shows the mold is through the back and into the cardboard backing, whether it stops there I cant tell.  The paint layer is very friable, in fact what looks like white ripples on the water above the dam in the lower quadrant is actually where the paint has lifted off the canvas.  This needs to be seen by a conservator.

Conservation services for a work of art, is not for the faint of heart. Conservators are highly educated and a good one has trained with experts and has years of experience.  Conserving a work of art can take hours, days and weeks of painstaking work, and the charges reflect the work of the conservator and in this case, well above the value of the painting.  Whether a painting is worth conserving or not is up to the owner of the canvas.  In my case, this small painting is dated 1940, soon after Pine began painting so a very early work by him.  Paintings of the old mills by the upper dam in Keeseville are rare so in my judgement - it must be preserved.  Luckily, a very talented conservator is located close to home.  

 Michele S. Kay - Fine Paintings Conservation and Restoration  www.finepaintingsconservation.com

Michele Kay at work in her studio.

Michele S. Kay graduated from Tyler School of Art at Temple University. She received her classical European training in the craft of paintings restoration in Florence, Italy where she worked for several years in the studio and workshop of Ennio Regola. After returning to the United States in 1981, Michele continued to develop her technical skills and gentle-handed approach while at New York Conservation Associates, Ltd., The Brooklyn Museum of Art, and at Dianne Dwyer Studio, Inc. Ms. Kay established her own conservation studio in 1992 and continues to work on traditional easel paintings of different periods and schools.

Michele examines the extent of the damage.

After examining the painting Michele’s proposed treatment:

“The painting would be consolidated and set down with appropriate adhesive.  The soot and grime would be removed with water dampened cotton swabs.  The face would be protected with Japanese tissue paper and starch glue.  The canvas would be gingerly separated from the board and residual glue and paper would be mechanically scraped from the verso.  The painting would be flattened over time with slight moisture and weights.  The mold stains would be disinfected and bleached.  A custom made stretcher would be fitted to the painting and the tacking edges would be reinforced with linen strips and adhered with Beva 371 heat activated glue.  The losses would be filled  and retouched. A foam core board would be attached to the back of the stretcher and the original canvas board label would be attached to the back of the board.” 

The highly anticipated auction of George Moore’s collections of art and antiques began on Saturdy morning for my brother and me at 9:15 AM when we arrived to view the auction items.  The auction, scheduled to begin at 10:00 AM, was managed by Martin and Sons Auction Sales. Steve Martin, President of the Company, began by explaining how the auction would proceed and promising to shoot for a 6:00 PM finish. 

Steve Martin addressing the crowd.

There were hundreds of attendees, in fact when we arrived and signed in at 9:15 I was the 119th person to register.  Considering the accompanying spouses, friends, and spectators not planning to bid there had to be more than 200 people present with more arriving every minute.  By the time 10:00am rolled around, the auction tent was full, with many people sitting in their own chairs outside the tent, and tons of others standing on both sides.

The auction began with smaller items that were placed on a table inside the auction tent.  Bidding was active, and Martin kept the mood lighthearted occasionally lobbing a few wisecracks and rib-ticklers into the crowd.  After a short while Martin called his assistants to start bringing some art into the tent.  

George Moore had a large collection of art and in the middle of it all were three Emmett Pine Paintings.  Two I knew about, the third one a bucolic spring farm scene I saw for the first time when the Martins published photos of the auction items online.

The first paintings to hit the block were of two young Native Americans, one a brave and the other a maiden.  This pair was part of a collection of several paintings by AD Fletcher, a local artist of some renown who lived in Keeseville from 1840 until his death in 1902.  Fletcher’s paintings were very popular at the auction and bidding became fierce, climbing well above the norm for one of his original works, with one in particular topping $10,000.00.

 Bids climbing beyond recent auction results seemed to be the order of the day, including when the three Emmett Pines finally made their way to the block.  The first was of the Peanut Railroad at Night:

Once again fierce bidding led to a final result well above the typical price range for a painting by Emmett Pine, in fact some may say two to three times the normal rate.  Even Steve Martin claimed it had to be the highest ever paid for one of Pine’s works. 

The second painting, somewhat longer than normal, 28 ½ inches long, 15 inches high, painted in May 1948 is called Springtime Farm.

In the painting, viewed from a distance near an apple tree fully laden with blossoms you see the farmhouse and barn across a river with a cow and a couple of horses in the pasture.  It is a wonderful painting by Pine.  His early works really have great perspective.  The river looks good, the animals seem to be in proportion with the painting.  His most valuable works fall in the Naive genre; colorful works celebrating life with little regard for the norms of proportion in art. Not necessarily the case in this example, but will it effect the bidding?

Once again - wild bidding driven by a Lake Placid dealer ended with another record breaking price.  Emmett Pine had to be smiling gleefully, enjoying the continued appreciation for his lasting talent.

Finally the last Pine came up.  Now this was going to be interesting.  A small 9 x 12 in rough shape, canvas on cardboard with visible mold all the way through the cardboard in a couple of places. The badly warped and somewhat rustic painting with its fragile canvas peeling away from the moist cardboard might not draw such high bids.  The title, in Pine’s own hand, written on the back was Keeseville’s Old Mills .  The date is very hard to read, some thought 1910 but it couldn’t be.  Pine would have been 12 or 13 in the year 10 and he didn’t start painting until the late 30′s. My brother, looking through a magnifying glass thought it was 1940.  Pine once told a reporter his first painting was of Keeseville’s Mills.  We know he started painting in the late 30′s , Could this be it?

The painting was of a factory and the saw mill on the upper dam with a couple of logs gliding along the sluice way towards the saw.  On the hill looking over the scene sits the Irish Church perhaps winking at the French Church on the hill high above the opposite bank of the river.

Bidding started quickly with Martin’s brother Doug calling for bids, and ended quickly at the more reasonable sum of $300.00.  This was still more than 3 times  the expected price for a rustic painting in very rough shape.

All in all it was a good day.  Martin and Son’s ran a very fun, very well organized, very well staffed, professional auction.  More than once they were rewarded with ovations from the crown for no buyers premiums, no reserves, keeping the show moving along at a good clip and keeping the mood light and festive.  You could tell by watching them in action that they must have been a real pleasure for the Moore family to work with on this auction.

All the proceeds from the auction were earmarked for the George and Shirley Moore Foundation which supports the education and well being of children. 

So even though some high prices were paid, it all went to a good cause, and I went home with three new paintings to add to the collection!  

Roses and Bible, Courtesy of Connie Hamilton

Still Life paintings are generally described as paintings or drawings of an arrangement of objects which can typically be fruit or flowers with objects that contrast with these in texture, such as a bowl, vase, glassware, books, dead rabbits or birds, basically “anything that does not move or is dead”.

Traditionally the objects chosen were likely to have been selected for their symbolic meaning, for instance cut flowers or decaying fruit symbolized mortality.

The painting above does have a very funereal or memorial feeling to it.  In fact I believe it may have been a special commission.  The pink roses and matching vase placed on a mahogany table next to a bible definitely feels  more formal than the typical still life’s by Pine which have a country feeling to them.

Apple Blossoms in a Blue Vase, Courtesy of Bill Bowen

This painting looks like a simple county arrangement of newly opened apple blossoms. These blossoms when picked never last long, in fact hardly a day.  Emmett was probably in his garden, noticed the blossoms on a old apple tree in the woods, and before long they were picked, arranged and painted.

The style of these two paintings differ significantly.  Such care taken to get the mood right in the top painting, while the Apple Blossom seems more of an experiment, perhaps testing new waters.  While the vase and flowers seem in Pine’s typical style, the circular plate, with an almost coin like like background including a textured edge is a new design element.  I also find it interesting that Pine’s usual signature is missing from the painting but can be found on the back, why?

Roses in a Yellow Vase, Courtesy of Bruce Sullivan

This painting with the deep red roses tumbling out of a yellow vase has the “naive” style typical of Emmett Pine.  In this painting he uses bright colors and works very hard at detailing the layers of petals in these fat lush roses whose stems can hardly support the over-sized flowers. 

In fact all three paintings exhibit “Naive” elements.  The colors, his close attention to the soft borders and the intense backgrounds

I don’t believe Pine worried about any tie to symbolism.  I think he found beautiful subjects and painted them.  The back of the canvas above has an illegible credit that the flowers came from a particular person, perhaps his sister Irene whose garden in AuSable Chasm did have a similar rose bush. In any case this painting was done for fun or as a reward to the person that grew these beautiful roses. 

Treasure in The Garage Loft

When Dan and Sandy Senecal bought their house on Ceder Court in Keeseville, like any new home owner - they were excited. Sandy had fond memories of the property, formerly owned by Mr. Coolidge. She remembers the gladiolus lining his driveway and the beautiful strawberries lined up in their wooden quart containers in his street side garden stand. At that time, his garden took up almost his entire property.

Like any new home owner there was work to do, and the Senecal’s dug in. When they began to tackle the garage, they started in the loft sorting through the typical detritus left behind until they came across somthing not so typical.

The treasure they discovered was a painting of a strawberry in a frame with two hooks at the top. The painting was by Emmett Pine and had his well known signature in the lower right corner.

The jucy looking berry painted on a white background must have been commissioned by Mr. Coolidge to advertise his home grown strawberries. Pine who occasionally dappled in “still life’s” really caught the jucy goodness of a fresh strawberry in this painting.

In today’s high tec world of business and marketing a 24 year old would probably be able to tell how the strawberry hanging by the garden stand increased sales. But in this case we can only assume that this bright red strawberry brought neighbors out of their cars and yards to sample what were probably the best strawberries in Keeseville.

Stanley Ransom, The Connecticut Peddler

In 1975, Stanley Ransom (Director of the Clinton, Essex and Franklin County Library System) walked into the Keeseville Free Library. This was one stop on his continuing tour of the 25 North Country Libraries that made up the three county system he supervised.

Librarian Ann Garcia had a small “tag sale” to benefit the library and a small painting of children skating caught Ransom’s eye. Intrigued, he bought the painting of District School #8, now the warming hut for the Keeseville Skating Rink and discovering who the artist was, decided to pay him a visit.

Keeseville Skating Rink, From the Collection of Stan Ransom

A vist led to a friendship that lasted more then 10 years. Over the course of their friendship, Stan fell into a regular routine of visiting Pine’s Grocery whenever he passed by on his tour of Essex County Libraries. He would stop in to see what paintings were on the shelves and on occasion commission paintings of subjects he felt warranted special attention. In 1979 Stan thought a painting of the Saranac River, in Plattsburgh with the Macdonough Monument in the background, would make an interesting subject. In the back of his mind Stan was ruminating on another use for the painting. He took some photos of the scene and went to visit Emmett.

Saranac River at Plattsburgh from the Collection of Stan Ransom

In addition to his day job Stan is a folk musician who specializes in singing and playing the hammered dulcimer, the mandolin, autoharp, and six and twelve string guitars. He also plays bowed psaltery, tenor banjo and dombek. In 1951 Ransom took the stage and performance name of “The Connecticut Peddler” and for more than 60 years has continued performing, writing, playing and recording folk music.

Stan recorded the songs he had written and performed about Plattsburgh and sent the tapes to a local radio station. To Stan’s surprise the radio station played his music and requests for copies started rolling in. In 1991 he produced a cassette called “Down the Saranac” and the cover art came from a painting he had commissioned from Emmett 12 years earlier in 1979.

In 1994 Stan worked on a Christmas album called North Country Christmas. Once again one of his favorite paintings would be perfect for the cover art:

Winter Long Ago, from the Collection of Stan Ransom

You couldn’t ask for a painting more suited to the job. The painting had almost everything you would want in the cover art for a Christmas album, it has snow (a definite must have for the Christmas spirit) horse drawn sleighs, a church in the background and a country village with shoppers on the sidewalks. As perfect as the painting was, Stan thought it lacked a very important element - Stan would have to use artistic license and alter the painting for his cd. I’m sure he wasn’t the first musician to add a special touch or minor alteration to a painting being used as the art needed to catch the eye of a browsing shopper.

See if you can find his small alteration that turned a great painting into perfect cover art. Try - don’t peek ahead for the answer.

Stan’s later CD called North Country Memories was produced in 2005. Once again he used a wonderfull painting by Emmett Pine. This time it was a fall scene with a family harvesting pumpkins amid bundles of corn stalks. Very different from his usual fall scenes, a sunny autumn day with a horse harnessed to a wagon, the horse is watching skeptically as the daughter plays with the family dog. Behind her an older brother dutifully hands pumpkins up to his father in the wagon. As is typical of the Naive Genre, a colorful, happy scene from a bygone time painted in a simple child like manner yet glowing with the depth that is typical of Emmett’s best work.

Pumpkin Harvest, from the Collection of Stan Ransom And the CD cover:

In September of 1979, a month after Stan’s wife Dorothy passed away, he asked Emmett for a painting as a memorial to her, perhaps of a local church. Emmett painted his 26th rendition of Midnight Mass at the Irish Church. In this work, Emmett included Stan, his Wife and their three children attending. Emmett also included an elderly man with a cane as he had in the 25 previous paintings of the Irish Church on a cold December evening.

Midnight Mass at the Irish Church from the Collection of Stan Ransom

From the first painting purchased in 1975 until Emmett passed away in 1985, Stan amassed one of the largest private collections of paintings by Emmett Pine. Some of his paintings are currently on loan to the Anderson Falls Heritage Society in Keeseville, and are on display in their Emmitt Pine Exhibit which runs through September. Stan has also helped with E. Pine Exhibits at the Clinton County Historical Society and TAUNY in Canton NY.

It is interesting that during the course of their friendship neither Stan nor Emmett ever talked about music. They both loved music, loved performing and were both very talented musicians. Emmett had been the drummer in a band he and his sister Irene played in, his sister on piano and at times King LaDieu was the fiddler and at other times they had a lady fiddler.

Many people remember fondly how Emmett would stand at the counter drumming with his hands while they looked around the store or worked up to a decision on what candy they would leave the store with. Stan knew Emmett was a musician, he had purchased a painting of Emmett and his band playing a North Country community or church hall, but he didn’t really know what instrument Emmett played and never realized the extent of Emmett’s talent or the years of experience he garnered performing with his band from the 1930’s through the 1950’s.

Emmett Pine’s Orchestra, From the Collection of Stan Ransom. Emmett on Drums, Sister Irene on Piano and King LaDieu on Fiddle

Emmett’s drum set was always just through the curtain separating the store from his home, tucked away in a closet, a bit dusty, unused for many years but adorned with a beautiful spring birch lined stream, painted on the front of the big center drum. It could have been dragged out of retirement if Stan had arrived with his guitar or banjo, but it never happened, and Emmett passed away long before his paintings were used as the covers of Stan’s wonderful cassettes and CDs. Emmett would have been both proud and pleased as punch to see his paintings used for Stan’s music, but an opportunity to play along with Stan would have been an experience neither would have forgotten.

Stan continues to work on his music and serves on boards in his adoptive but long time home town of Plattsburgh. On the Board of Plattsburgh’s Transportation Museum, he donated one of his E. Pine paintings of the D&H back in the day’s of steam, one of Emmett’s favorite subjects. If you visit the museam you will be able to view this fun painting and get up to date on the history of North Country transportation.

Now, the answer to the quiz:

For his Christmas CD Stan wanted something that really honed in on the Christmas Season, after all, in the North Country the painting he chose could represent any day between Halloween and Easter. To make it work, Ransom took some green construction paper, cut out a small Christmas tree and gingerly taped it into the back of the sleigh making the turn in the center of town. The photo was snapped and the tree removed with absolutly no damage to the wonderful work.