These charming fox statues keep guard at the entrance to the old Clark estate down the street from us (Bridge Street, Hamilton). At one point the Clark family owned this home—a grand equestrian estate of yesteryear built in 1900 with a total of 21 rooms, including 9 bedrooms and 7 baths, in case you were wondering. How fabulous! They also owned a good amount of land on the north side of Bridge Street, and I believe the estate was nicknamed Fox Hollow. The Clarks once held fox hunts on their sprawling acreage and other adjoining properties, and later the estate was the home of the U.S. Olympic Equestrian team.
I was lucky enough to snap a reference photo of this snowy wintry scene back around 2001. I say lucky because unfortunately a delivery truck hit these columns a few years back and broke both of the foxes. Tragedy! So the foxes disappeared for a while but smaller ones have now replaced them. Here in my oil painting of this delightful scene I only hinted at the large brick home in the background, and the original foxes have been enlarged a bit for drama and balance—artistic license and all that—and the trees are much larger now. And so the original foxes live on... in this painting anyway... keeping guard...
It was Fox Hollow and at least 20 years ago now my kids and I used to swim in the pool behind the mansion which also had a clay tennis court and lovely shade trees. It was part of a community group and we were invited to join by a couple you know. When I first drove back into the property it reminded me of an English gothic novel. What a feeling that was like I had been there so many times before - which I had because I always loved Daphne Du Maurier type novels!
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