Clark Hulings (American, b. 1922), The Road to Los Alamos, oil on canvas, signed and dated 44 lower right, sight 28.5in. x 22.5in. Accompanied by a copy of a letter from Clark Hulings dated September 12, 2004 authenticating the painting. E45000-55000 Provenance: Artist to his father as a gift. Note: With interests in both art and science Clark Hulings studied at the Art Students League and received a degree in physics from Haverford College. Hopeful of being hired to work on the Manhattan Project, Hulings moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico, but his chronic health problems prevented his employment. He turned his attention to painting and had the first one-man show of his landscape paintings at New Mexico Art Museum in the spring of 1945. During a visit to his parents in Louisiana in 1946, Hulings had a well received show of his portraits at the Louisiana Art Commission. The preliminary pastel sketch for the painting Road to Los Alamos was created as part of road trip with a friend to Espanola. Hulings recently wrote a letter about the painting, No one knew at that time what was going on in Los Alamos. As I was painting I often heard loud explosions and saw puffs of smoke. I found out later that conventional bombs later used to trigger the atomic bomb were being tested. My biggest problem was dust. As you can see from the painting, the road was gravel. In this very dry climate gravel roads produce clouds of dust. At that time, very large heavy trucks were traveling in and out of Los Alamos delivering who knew what. As I was perched above the road I got a steady dose. The dust would settle on the fresh oil paint and ruin the work so I was forced to abandon the oils and turn to pastel. Your oil painting was actually painted from pastel original. Ref: Hulings, Clark, Hulings: A Gallery of Paintings by Clark Hulings, White Burro Corporation, 1986.