In “Our Rural Heritage” series, we’ve featured barns that sheltered cows, horses, sheep, chickens, goats and carriages, barns that have been used for community dances and pajama parties, for garages and for storage, as a farmer’s market and a repair shop, to house refugees after World War II, and one converted into a museum at Trail Wood. This is the first barn we’ve visited that has been renovated to increase the home’s living space, and the second to use a portion of the space as an art studio. It’s also one of a few that is attached to the house.
Early in its history, the property at 209 Main Street changed ownership frequently. Land records indicate that Lewis Spencer purchased the parcel from Frank Deming, who owned the farm at 211 West Old Route 6, for $100 in May of 1904 along with “the sharing of a well for buildings which may be erected”. In October of 1904, Spencer sold the land, dwelling and barn to Mildred Wetherell for $500. In 1906, the property was sold to May Jewett for $1,300 and it would remain with the Jewett family for many years. Mr. Deming sold an additional strip of land to May Jewett for $1 in 1908, and there was another transaction, though the deed is not specific, between Jennie Chapel, who purchased the farm from Deming, and May and William W. Jewett in 1933, the estate eventually falling to Amy Jewett in 1950. Notably, for those who grew up in Hampton, the Morses owned the place throughout the 60’s and early 70’s, after which time the property saw a few more transactions before the 1988 purchase by current owner, Marny Lawton, who is responsible for the renovations detailed in this article.
It’s hard to imagine, sitting in a room that combines comfort and art so perfectly, that animals were once sheltered here. Hard to imagine that this space accommodated a horse stall and a cribber, and that there was a chicken coop with a pen opening onto the backyard. While renovating the barn, names from around town appeared behind the sheet rock – Wayne + Mary-Lu, Marg + Donald. During the 60’s, this was one of the houses along the “Magic Mile”, where the fifty to sixty kids who lived in the village were always welcomed. Of this particular place, Jo and Alan Freeman relayed their father’s saying in a “Random Recollections” interview a few years ago, “They open a bag of chips and some pop and call it a party!” — a memorable line because of its familiarity to many of us. As are the names on the wall –familiar to many of us.
A cattle trough for water was in the attic of the house, the owners of the property at 211 West Old Route 6 honoring “the sharing of a well” written in the early deed. Plumbing relied on gravity, with water rushing downhill, up to the attic trough, and then down to the bathroom. I remember my father telling me that the well in front of our place once supplied water to the house at the end of the road. Though undoubtedly filled in from disuse, the well is still visible near the street.
Equally difficult to envision is that the backyard was once home to goats and sheep. Now a deck extends from the house to a courtyard, where sun spills in the morning and late afternoon and a shady respite is provided mid-day. Spring’s bleeding hearts, hellabores and azaleas flourish here, boxwood and a variety of hostas provide textural interest, and the ivory lace caps of a hydrangea vine drape over the stockade fence in the summer.
When excavating for the deck footings, Marny discovered a gravestone which was used as a footing for the barn. “Lydia Mariet Fuller, born July 14, 1843, daughter of Lydia and Mason O. Fuller, died New York City” and then the carving trails away. It is not an uncommon find in the yards of the town’s old homes. And perhaps this one is less mysterious than most. The Fuller family informed Marny that Lydia’s middle name was spelled “Mariot”, so perhaps the stone was not used because of this error. According to the family, Lydia died on July 14, 1849, at the age of six, from “congestion of the brain” and is buried in the North Cemetery. Though intact, the stone was cracked when Marny discovered it, which could have also been the reason it wasn’t used.
The view of the house from the street informs us that an artist lives here. The Victorian vernacular painted in three subtle tones of white, the antique lanterns, wicker on the porch, ornamental trees, and gardens that provide interest in every season — all illustrate the artistry. The upstairs of the barn is where the tools of the trade are stored and the skill and the creativity come alive, for the hay loft has been converted into an art studio for the renowned artist who makes this her home.
The room accommodates shelves filled with texts on art and personal notebooks on paint formulas, vast collections of pigments and of paint brushes, portable and plein air easels, test panels and canvases, and works of art in various stages of completion. Natural sunlight, as well as fresh air, pours into the room through the Palladium windows.
Marny is a representational painter working in oil and egg tempera; she first clears up a common misunderstanding – egg tempera is not egg tempura. You cook with and eat egg tempura, which means frying with a batter, but you paint with egg tempera. There’s further confusion in that most people remember tempera as the type of paint they or their children used in kindergarten. This is accurate, but tempera paint describes a water-based paint that cleans up with soap and water and is produced to be non-toxic.
“All types of painting media need a binding agent for the pigment. For tempera paint it is typically water, starch or cellulose, calcium carbonate, and pigments. The binding agent for the pigment in oil is typically linseed, walnut or safflower oil; for watercolor or gouache it is gum arabic; for encaustic it is usually beeswax, etcetera. But the pigments for all are the same vast array of magnificent colors both natural and synthetic,” Marny explains. “The binding agent for egg tempera is an egg yolk. Just as in baking, you separate the yolk from the whites — a lot of painting means a lot of meringues or omelets, but then you must pierce the yolk sac to release the pure yolk into a jar. This then is what you use for painting, mixing it with water and pigments. Painting in egg tempera is not as forgiving as working with oil and takes considerably more time.”
The color of the yolk is derived from the hen’s diet and ranges in color, but it oxidizes as it dries, or cures. Many think it is more fragile and not as long lasting as an oil painting, Marny says, reminding us, “If you’ve ever had your car egged at Halloween you know how tough dried egg yolk can be.” Egg tempera paintings in museums date from the pre-Renaissance, 13th, 14th centuries and earlier, and with proper care, are as brilliant as the day they were painted, she says. “Egg tempera is no more fragile than oil and generally does not yellow with age like oil, although both can still be dented, scratched, ripped and otherwise destroyed if not handled properly.”
According to Marny, there is no odor to the yolk while painting. As long as the egg was fresh it should last one to three days depending on when the hen laid the egg. The painting has no odor at all, she says. The surface must be rigid so egg tempera paintings are found on wood or other rigid surfaces since egg yolk can crack when bent. These surfaces are also organic so they must first be treated with hide glue, then about six to twelve layers of gesso that absorb and hold the pigment. Marny uses an ancient gesso recipe using marble dust instead of chalk, noting, “When completely dry, this is as durable as, well, marble.” She says the whole process gives the artist a sense of being an alchemist in the ancient tradition, almost like working with the Old Masters.
The focus of Marny’s work is contemporary realism with abstractions found in her realistic subjects. She has received recognition in numerous national and regional exhibitions: Salmagundi Club and Allied Artists of America in New York City, the Guild of Boston Artists and Copley Society of Art in Boston, New Britain Museum of American Art and Connecticut Academy of Fine Art, to name a few. Her work has been featured in popular publications such as American Art Collector, Southwest Art, as well as the Minneapolis-St. Paul cultural magazine, TOSCA Twin Cities. Most recently her egg tempera painting, Pear on Granite No. 2, pictured, was chosen to be included in the journal Inside AWA-Advancing Women Artists that was also part of a separate presentation of contemporary female artists from around the world in collaboration with the Giovanna Garzoni exhibit, a 15th century painter, at the Uffizi Galleries and Medici Archive Project in Florence, Italy.
Visiting with Marny Lawton is a lesson in possibilities. The transformation of a horse stall and a corn crib into a cozy den, a pen for sheep and goats into a charming garden, a hay loft into an art studio, and an egg yolk and a bit of earth into a magnificent painting. A lesson in possibilities, in creativity, in magic.
Dayna McDermott
For more information about her artistic process see Marny’s “Backstories In Art” blog (see 2018). The link can be found on her CV at the web site at: https://www.marnylawton.com/