About a month ago, I received an invitation in the mail to attend a presentation sponsored by the New Braintree Historical Society, scheduled for this afternoon at 2 pm in the New Braintree Town Hall.  From previous events I attended there, I knew it was about a ten minute drive from my house, so I decided to go.

Lots of other people also decided to attend, because the room was full.  I know there’s a science to estimating crowds, but I’m not an adept; still, I’m guessing there were close to 300 people there (in case you’re wondering, that’s a lot of people).  And what a treat it was to see the artwork on display and to hear the artist talk about his life and his latest work which he completed earlier this year.

Russell Buzzell grew up on Bates Street in North Brookfield and graduated from North Brookfield High School in 1960.  Following his graduation from the Art Institute of Boston in 1966, he worked as an illustrator for Massachusetts Audubon for many years; he also freelanced for the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and for Gray’s Sporting Journal.  He currently works on privately commissioned paintings and drawings of New England farms and history; you can see samples of his work on his etsy site.

Those few sentences convey next to nothing about Mr Buzzell’s amazing life.  For almost two hours he regaled us with stories of his adventures and observations about art and history.  He said that for a boy, growing up on a farm in North Brookfield was like living in paradise: he rode horses, fished, took care of the cows, and drew all the time.  He credited teachers and mentors for helping him become an artist and eventually make a living at it.  Drawing, he said, is the foundational skill, and he worked hard at it.

Mr Buzzell’s skill and dedication to accuracy is apparent in the painting he unveiled today: a depiction of Wheeler’s Surprise, the ambush of an expedition sent out by the Massachusetts Bay Colony at the beginning of King Philip’s War.  On August 2, 1675, or 339 years ago today, Captain Edward Hutchinson led about twenty men on horseback to what he hoped would be a parley with the Nipmucs, who were debating among themselves as to whether they should join with Metacom’s forces to fight the English colonists.  As the group proceeded single-file across a swamp, which most historians today agree was somewhere in New Braintree, they were attacked by Nipmuc braves.  A number of soldiers were killed outright, but with the help of the Natick Praying Indian guides, the others managed to escape back to the garrison at Brookfield.  A year later, in 1676, Captain Thomas Wheeler, a member of that expedition, published an account of the attack and the subsequent siege of Ayers’ house.

Mr Buzzell spent about five years researching and then working on this painting, using photographs, tracing paper, washes, then charcoal and pencil.  He read a number of books which treated that time period in American history; he consulted historical re-enactors and Native American descendants of the Algonkians; he scouted for the exact geographical location and imagined what the landscape might have looked like at that time of day in that month and year.  I had not thought much about those kinds of details which a historical painting needs to get right: horses, saddles, bridles, attire, guns, trees, vegetation, sunlight, shadows.  I’m grateful to people like Russ Buzzell, who with his scrupulous attention to detail and clarity of vision, can present us with a new understanding of our past.