Autumn Hay Wagon

The word I was given for this month's WordSpark challenge was "Rectangular." The world is full of rectangular things... buildings, doors, windows, boxes, crackers, dollars, books... My mind kept returning to those rectangular hay bales that I grew up with. 

Now days it seems that most farmers have switched to the big round bales, but the hay bales of my memories are the small rectangular ones.

I learned to drive in a hay field... Didn't every kid? At least nearly every kid I knew did. When you were too little to hoist the 60 pound hay bale from the field into the truck bed an onto the stack, you got put behind the wheel.  You could sit on the very edge of the seat to reach the pedals. There wasn't much you could hurt if you got it wrong... Worst case scenario, you ran into a hay bale or got hollered at by your brother for going too slow or too fast. Who needed driver's ed when you had a hay field!

I combined the ideas from a couple paintings I did over a decade ago and used a palette knife to make an old-time autumn scene that felt charming to me. I wonder if the farmer put the little sister at the reigns of the hay wagon.

For the complement piece, I moved the scene up a few decades. Modernized the house, brought in a pick-up (Ours was a red GMC.), chopped down the big tree, and built a road.

I've been trying to draw more lately.  I rarely draw.  I'm good enough at it, but I'm trying to find some joy in doing it. (Was that more positive than just saying that I hate drawing.) I'm getting better.

I don't know that you'd automatically know that "Rectangular" must have been the prompt, but it will do. There are many rectangles in each piece. You can count them!

Also, my Weekly-ish challenge was "Wheels," so this painting did double duty!

Original Oil Painting on 9"x 12" Wrapped Canvas.

Click Autumn Hay Wagon if you'd like to purchase this painting.