Basil Biggs, Step 5

Shortly after I photographed this work-in-progress at its last stage, it occurred to me that it just wasn't realistic to have so few people on the streets during the time this scene would have occurred. This was early afternoon on July 1, 1863, as the morning's casualties from the battle to the north and west of town began working their way to the makeshift hospitals in town, but before the Union retreat to Cemetery Ridge would have really gotten into gear. Civilians would have been off the streets at that point, but injured Union troops would be in evidence. So in this stage I've begun to indicate them. I feel like I'm finally getting some momentum going with this composition and hope to maintain it so that I can complete this piece sometime in September.

Back to Basil - or - Basil Biggs, Step 4

Despite the fact that this piece isn't as far along as I had hoped it would be at this point, I guess I have made some progress since I last posted about it in -- I'm embarassed to admit! -- October of last year. But research on the buildings which would have been standing on the south side of the first block of York Street was painstaking and time-consuming. Still, I wouldn't have felt right continuing on it without being thorough and as accurate as possible about the setting, so I'm glad to have given it the time it needed. Maybe now I can move along a little more quickly!

Basil Biggs, Step 3

Progress has been slow for me on this project. I'm doing a lot of teaching right now and have a number of commissions that I need to devote time to, so I don't have quite as much time to give to my series projects. But that's OK -- I enjoy the variety!

Before the end of the month I need to finish my research on Basil Biggs at the Adams County Historical Society, because they will be moving out of their building while it's under renovation and their collections will be inaccessible during that time. And I still need to determine what buildings are known to have been standing on the south side of York Street from Lincoln Square to Stratton Street. At least I've made a little progress on the horse.

Basil Biggs, Step 2

Made a little progress -- at least it's easier to tell this is a horse! So far I've not been able to find photos of the buildings on the south side of the first block of York Street. Next week I hope to get to the Wills House where there's a new diorama that shows the buildings that were standing on streets close to the square in 1863, and it sounds as if it's very well-researched and accurate. In the meantime I'm working on some small landscapes of the Gettysburg battlefield that I may post. If we get the fringes of Hurricane Irene here in Gettysburg over the next  two days, I may have a lot of time for blogging! Who would've guessed we'd get an earthquake and a hurricane all in the same week?

Battle of Gettysburg/Gettysburg Civilians Series: Basil Biggs

Not much to see with this composition, yet -- in fact, you may have to look at the enlarged view to understand what it is. The only portion that shows color, at this point, is the -- um --"hindquarters" of the horse. The scene is a depiction of an event which occurred prior to and shortly before the Battle of Gettysburg: the evacuation of the town's black population, among them a farmer by the name of Basil Biggs. Understandably fearful that the invading Confederate army would take them prisoner and send them south into slavery, the local African-American residents either hid or made their way out of town to presumably safer locations.  Biggs fled town, on a borrowed horse, heading out York Road as he could see the Confederates filling the town square from the west.

I have a little more research to do, to determine what buildings were standing along this stretch of York Road in 1863, besides the Lutheran Church that I have roughly indicated to the left. But I thought that posting this very early stage would help jumpstart my progress on this piece. The composition is 16" x 20", rendered on museum board with colored pencil using a traditional dry layering, sharp point-scumbling technique.