McVicker has lived most of his adult life in Stillwater, Oklahoma. This landscape depicts a rural road northeast of Stillwater, in Payne County. The artist acknowledges that "this particular road ... is not of any great significance other than the fact that I continue to find it an exciting subject in its rich earth colors and its undulating forms."
McVicker’s landscape is more forcefully painted than most of the works by members of the California Water Color Society. His dark, heavy palette of blacks, greens, and browns may be a reference to the rich Oklahoma humus McVicker’s blackish coloration and heavy brushwork also reflect his admiration for Georges Rouault (1871-1958). Payne County Road reveals McVicker as a master of technique; he added dark, black, opaque lines over large wet-into-wet passages to delineate the road and houses while applying fuzzy touches of dry brush to suggest plowed fields.
