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(Enlarge) The Youghiogheny River has served as an inspiration for a number Fred Peacock’s oil paintings. The river is a 15-minute walk from his Garrett County home, but he says he paints mostly from reference photographs. (Staff photo by Sarah Nix)

Buying a log cabin near Garrett County's wild and scenic Youghiogheny River and retiring there with his wife, Erin, in 2003 couldn't have been a better choice for former Columbia resident Fred Peacock.

"He's an extreme introvert," Erin notes. "He needs a lot of alone time."

So living in the woods, about six miles outside of Oakland, fits his temperament well. It's icing on the cake to have spectacularly scenic Yough -- as in YOCK-o-GAY-nee -- nearby to serve as a source of inspiration for Peacock's oils. He has honed his artistic skills by creating painting after painting of river landscapes.

Clad in hemlock and rhododendron and flowing due north into Pennsylvania, the Yough is famous for its tourist-worthy Muddy Creek and Swallow Falls. But in recent years -- thanks to Peacock capturing its rocky slopes, falls and runs under different light and shadow conditions in meticulously painted oils -- the river has acquired a new following of admirers who can't get enough of its enduring beauty.

"His landscapes reflect his personal feelings about the environment he knows, loves and paints," Garrett County watercolor artist Arwana Schoemer says of Peacock. "I consider this a key element to meaningful work, a painting that has the capacity to draw another into the scene in a unique and memorable way."

For its new hospital opening later this month in Cumberland, the Western Maryland Health System purchased from Peacock four river landscape paintings as well as 68 petite still-life pictures of pears and peaches, which will be hung in two large groups in a dining area. Peacock had undertaken the six-by-eight-inch oils as a way to perfect his rendering of "the edge between light and shadow."

He initially viewed the latter as a mere exercise to learn how to paint, but with several of them lined up one day on rails in his home-based studio, he realized they would make "a neat display as a group." Sure enough, at a one-man exhibit at Garrett College a year ago, 66 pairs of pears, hung together as a group, became a show-stopper, along with his other paintings of the woods and river.

He had a solo show and regularly exhibits his work at the Garrett County Arts Council's Gallery Shop. He has also hung solo shows at the Slayton House in Columbia, the Garrett College Gallery and at the Adventure Sports Center International (where a man-made river is the attraction).

Peacock, a former economist who commuted by bus from Columbia to Silver Spring for work with the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission, had only "dabbled in painting" before his retirement. Though he misses the convenience of walking to the grocery store and church services he enjoyed while living in Columbia, the trade-offs for the move to Garrett County have been worth it, he says.

Be it painting or splitting five cords of firewood a year, he notes, "Working with my hands is much more satisfying. And no one is second-guessing what I do."

Largely self-taught, he says he experienced an epiphany of sorts discovering "the different quality of light" on a trip to Provence, France, in 2000, switched from using acrylics to oils and immersed himself in learning to paint well. He enjoyed 30 years as an economist, but declares of his life now: "This is what I was meant to do."

While some artists experiment with different media or subjects, Peacock adheres to oils and familiar subject material because he enjoys an in-depth art experience.

"I just love it when I'm intensely focused," he says, adding that it's taken him a long time to figure out who he is and his approach to painting. He estimates he paints about two to three hours every day, as part of a disciplined routine, which also includes morning stretches and yoga, using interactive Wii software on a flat screen that's deliberately not hooked up to television cable or satellite.

Peacock is not interested in watching television, nor would he have time for it.

"I'd be a much better painter if I painted eight hours a day," he says. Because the more he paints, "the better the work is."

He laments that a "busy social schedule" of late has made it more difficult for him to get motivated on painting and maintain his "flow." When he's totally engaged, using all his skills, "time just disappears."

On a recent autumn morning, Peacock stood at his easel, using a palette knife to coax his oils into images of rough water. He most always stands, he explains, because "It's important to step back from a painting and ask what the painting needs next." He allows his work to emerge slowly, with many layers bringing out the rich interactions of colors.

Though he paints from his photographs (because light changes so quickly in a scene), Peacock says he never knows at the outset "how a painting will unfold."

Listening to his beloved Celtic music, Peacock works unhurriedly, carefully judging a work in progress and responding in paint. He puts down strokes that illustrate form defined by light. It's his specialty and yet, he says, "This always seems miraculous to me."

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