HIDDEN HOUSE ON HWY 20


 
HIDDEN HOUSE ON HWY 20
24" x 36" x 1"
Gallery Wrapped Canvass 


Hidden House on HWY 20 was a long time coming. Years ago in 1980 I left my family home in California to visit my brother and sister-in-law who lived in Blodgett, Oregon. 
I purchased a Greyhound Bus ticket to travel from Los Angeles to Blodgett. The moment my sister-in-law picked me up in Corvallis and then drove me to Blodgett I just knew I was supposed to see Oregon. Back in those days I really loved travelling, I was enamored by the beauty of America. Oregon was a perfect example of spectacular beauty in the Pacific Northwest.

My brother Mike and his family lived in a 101-year-old dairy farmhouse. The house was very large, and it had an enormous front porch. My family raised chickens, geese, hunted turkey and elk and they also had a huge conifer tree forest directly above and behind their home. 
If you climbed up into the tree forest and sat down on the ground, you could see much of the Willamette Valley below.

The interesting thing about my brother's family home was that the home was high up a very long walkway that led you to that huge country style front porch. In other words, you could not see the house from the road because the house was behind a full grove of conifers.

One day before I was going to return to Los Angeles, my brother Mike asked me if I'd like to go to Corvallis with him to purchase some flowers for his long walkway. I said yes! I jumped into his bright yellow van, then we took off to Corvallis. Once there, we packed cardboard boxes with beautiful flower plants that we used to line both sides of his long walkway that led to the house. Planting all of the planter starts took up the entire weekend; there were so many plants and lots of soil to add into the growing holes. After several days of watering, the plants began to grow. 

As time began to fly by, I realized that I would be returning home very soon. I was really into photography back then, had my camera with me so I took a shot of the walkway and the beautiful flowers. I sent a large print to my brother after returning home.

Decades later, both my brother and sister-in-law passed away. I was asked by my sister-in-law's family if there was anything of theirs that I would like to keep. Immediately I remembered the photo of the Hidden House on Hwy 20. 
A couple weeks later I opened the box that was shipped from Oregon. Inside was the photo without a frame. Immediately, I shopped for the perfect frame. I was so thrilled to hang the beautiful picture of those days with my family and the flowers we had planted together.

As the years went by, I kept telling myself that I really should try to replicate the photo of the hidden house, mostly because after all of those years the photo began to fade.
I want to say that nearly fifteen years went by and then one day I noticed that one of our local art supply stores was having a great sale on gallery canvas. I literally jumped up and said to myself, that's it, you've just got to do it.

After six months of brain freezing details, I finally completed The Hidden House on Hwy 20.
I hope you can see the love of my family in this very special painting. Many people call it my "masterpiece." I just call it love.

-Susie Rosso Wolf


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