American Collection

The controlled brushwork in Wood's paintings of the 1930s was achieved through careful, systematic preparation involving preliminary sketches or studies from nature followed by drawings in pencil, chalk, or charcoal. At each stage Wood edited the composition and the elements of the painting until all of the "excess" information was eliminated. The final painting in 1932 of Autumn Oaks, in the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art collection, keeps the basic composition of the center group of trees, the trees that "frame" the composition on either side, and the horizon line and palette but considerably simplify the details and clarify the light source and viewpoint.

This study is much closer to the finished painting than some of Wood's other preliminary studies. The differences in composition are slight. Some trees have been re-arranged in the middle ground and a John Deere plow replaces the tree in the sketch and takes up much of the foreground.

Stone City is best known as the site of Wood's short-lived art colony, where he headed a small group of teachers (including his friend Marvin Cone) and students for two summers in 1932 and 1933. This plein-air study, loosely painted, flattens the landscape while its high horizon line forces us to negotiate our way past the houses and up the road. The outlines of the trees have been done by scratching through the paint probably with the end of the brush. Wood simplified the composition and added considerable detail to the finished painting.