CRAFTSBURY – “The Creative Works of Francis Colburn and Gladys LaFlamme: was the title of a fascinating talk by granddaughters Adriane Colburn and Celine Colburn given at the Craftsbury Public Library late Friday afternoon, August 1.
For some 50 years, the family were regular summer residents at their log cabin camp on Little Hosmer Pond, and Craftsbury was certainly an inspiration for both of them, Francis as a painter and Gladys as a poet. Colburn had roots in the area, for his father was headmaster at Craftsbury Academy in the 1890s, though he himself was born in Fairfax in 1909 and grew up in Burlington. Gladys was from Bennington, born in 1910. They met in the 1930s and shared a long life together, Francis dying in 1984 and Gladys in 1995.
Francis decided by his 20s that he wanted to be a painter, although he also had a strong interest in music and played piano for silent movies and practiced the violin. Later in life he became one of the judges for the Craftsbury Fiddler’s contest. He went to the University of Vermont, majoring in history, then to Bennington College for painting, where he met Gladys. Toward the end of the 1930s during the Depression he was in New York City working in the W.P.A. and attending the Art Students League. Gladys’ job at the time was in trying to increase people’s literacy and encouraging them to self-educate by going to libraries. In 1942 Francis started teaching in the art department of the University of Vermont, a position he held until 1974. Gladys became a much-loved teacher at Burlington High School. All the while she was very active as a writer, friends and a correspondent with many nationally known poets, publishing three volumes of her own: “Through Severing Winds” (1955), “Poems” (1975) and “Within Bounds, Poems 1953-1983.” Her work has great observational power, rich in the visual delight of nature, celebrating the changing seasons, but also can be narratives about people, poems that stand on their own without the need for over interpretation.
Adriane Colburn showed numerous slides during her talk about Francis’ paintings, tracing his evolution as an artist over more than 40 years. He was always a landscape painter in a long Vermont tradition, and he strongly believed in the importance of being rooted and having a sense of place. Yet he often included village scenes and human activities as well as political commentary in his subjects. Though he was quite aware of contemporary movement in modern art and was certainly influenced by Cezanne’s use of intersecting planes, he always went his own independent way with consistent originality.
What is most striking about his paintings is their bold compositions. The way he sometimes breaks up a perfectly realistic view into what almost look like separate stage sets is very intriguing. It gives a dynamic quality to the overall structure rather than a static rhythm, giving more interest for our eyes to explore, hinting at the cubist effects of looking at things simultaneously from different angles. While early in his career he did a lot of plein air painting, in the 1950s, he shifted to using photographs as helpful references, giving him more time to develop a painting in his studio, freeing his compositional style in some ways. His paintings are treasured in homes in Craftsbury and around Vermont, and the Fleming Museum in Burlington seems to have a large collection of his works.
Besides being a significant painter and inspiring teacher, he also had a great sense of humor. His satire of a typical graduation speech is a classic, both in book form, “Letters Home and Further Indiscretions,” and as a record, all of which can be seen at the Craftsbury Historical Society Museum. Six of his original paintings and two replicas made especially for this exhibit are on view now there through August 9, giving representative examples of his work. The museum is open on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon in the summer. For more information, go online at craftsburyhistoricalsociety.org.
David K. Rodgers
David K. Rodgers is a writer, mason and card carrying dilettante, who dabbles and babbles in art. He has lived in East Craftsbury for the past 40 years.
