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FROM DALE GLASGOW'S NARRATIVE FOR HIS NEW SERIES: "The hope of King James was more than just to claim land for England. He was hoping to evangelize the Gentile world through the grace of God and his explorers/missionaries. Jamestown was the beginning of a Heaven on earth. We know the end of the story. We live the American dream 400 years later."

April 28, 2007 12:35 am

By CLINT SCHEMMER

HISTORIANS aren't the only ones excit- ed by the new discoveries about English-speaking America's earliest days.

Jamestown's story, now better understood than ever before, has inspired Stafford County artist Dale Glasgow to undertake an ambitious new series of works.

He's completed the first of them just in time for America's 400th birthday next month. They were unveiled last week at downtown Fredericksburg's Grey Ghost Gallery.

Glasgow, who lives on a Hartwood farm, began the project nearly two years ago, setting aside other work so he could devote his time to what he calls "this amazing chronicle."

Originally an illustrator for the Richmond News Leader, USA Today and National Geographic, the landscape painter was last in the spotlight here for creating a remarkably detailed bird's-eye painting of modern-day Fredericksburg that shows every building in the city. Other works of his, all sharing a passion for history and precise detail, have been reproduced in the Geographic, the Smithsonian Institution's Air & Space magazine and Webster's Illustrated Dictionary.

For this new undertaking, Glasgow devoured 10 books about the colonists, traveled to Jamestown Island six times on research and consulted curators there.

The result is a trio of bold, atmospheric oil paintings that Glasgow said attempt to depict "the birth of our country and its natural beauty, unhindered by modern invention." Using a rich palette, he floods the scenes with early morning and late afternoon sunlight.

"My vision of what those people experienced, when they first set foot on Jamestown's shore, was like no other moment in time," he said. "They were the ancestors who gave us the Christian nation of freedom we have today."

Each piece in the "Jamestown Discovery" series focuses on America's founding settlers, their loyalty to Britain's King James and their devotion to Christ.

The first work, "Divine Providence," depicts the four vessels sailing up the James River for the first time, lit by a May sunrise, with friendly natives on the river bank.

The second, "Jamestown Discovery," shows the settlers landing on the island early on the morning of May 14, 1607, and kneeling before the cross they erected to claim the land for England. Their three ships--the Discovery, the Godspeed and the Susan Constant, with its small shallop--are anchored offshore. In the foreground's shadows, Indians crouch behind a downed tree, representative of the native civilization the colonists would soon supplant.

"Oh, you should see the original! It is so beautiful," said Deborah Miller, the Caroline Street gallery's co-owner. "It's like something you would see in the Smithsonian--very elegant, with an almost fine-art, Old World style to the painting."

The third painting shows the Discovery and the shallop venturing up the James, taking some of the Englishmen to trade with Indians at Powhatan's village.

Future subjects in the limited-edition series may include the "Starving Time" in the winter of 1608 when Indians offered foodstuffs to to the settlers; the shallop riding out a storm on the Chesapeake Bay; the arrival of the Virginia Company's fourth ship, which rescued the settlers; and the colonists' exploration of the bay region's deep forest.

Glasgow was so moved by what happened at Jamestown that he brought back some of the island's soil and mixed it with the paints used in the artwork. The resulting paintings are available as canvas giclees (inkjet, fine-art quality digital prints) and lithographed editions.

Glasgow said his curiosity was initially aroused by the state's Jamestown 2007 license plates, which led him to read one of the new histories on the settlement, which led to traveling there.

"I took the tour with my kids down at Jamestown Island, and had the epiphany that this is the place where it all started," he recalled. "This is the same sun, this is the same water, this is the same land they landed on 400 years ago.

"I felt like I really needed to plug into who those people were. From that point on, I began to understand better the significance of the voyage, their religious commitment, their faith in God, and what they were really trying to do.

"It was like their going out in a spaceship to a place they had never been before."