Linda's Farmyard Memories

I want to be in this scene.

It's easy for me to imagine sitting on the back porch swing... watching the chickens peck around... feeling the breeze,.. noticing the windmill turning faster... wondering whether that thunderhead will bring rain or just move along.

It feels like a back-home memory ought to feel.

What a pleasure it was to get to paint this one.

My blog friend Wendy of  Pieceful Thoughts posted a photo of one of my paintings alongside one of her beautiful quilts.  From that, her blog friend (and my new blog friend) Linda of Texas Quilt Gal contacted me about doing a painting for her.

It took me about zero seconds to fall in love with the story her image was telling me.

Before beginning, I asked Linda many questions. Her answers would give me a feel for what was important in this photo and what would be important for her to see in the painting.

Here are a few snips of some of her answers:

... photo taken in the late 1950s, showing the view the windmill..., the chicken house (there are chickens at the bottom of the photo), and the old barn... taken from the back of the house...

... thunderheads were my favorite subject with my Brownie camera... still one of my favorite subjects...

... the coop, the chickens, the tree, the clothes line, the windmill, and yes, the thunderheads - all...  meaningful and part of the picture in my head. 

The chickens were dear to me but they weren’t very smart, and Mom and I almost always had to shoo them into shelter before a storm or they’d just get soaked.

Yes to the blue sky AND the billowing storm clouds, if possible....  white billowing clouds but darker underneath, the thunderheads that develop quickly in Oklahoma...

Haha on the chickens - yes most were white, but my big Plymouth Rock rooster (Rooney) was my pet who actually followed me around. We had a couple of Rhode Island Reds and what Mom and Granny called a "black banty hen"...

I hope I captured most of the important parts of the scene.  If you look closely even Rooney the Plymouth Rock rooster, a Rhode Island Red chicken, a little black Bantam hen, and a few white chickens made it onto the canvas! (Linda's not the only one who has an infatuation with chickens! 😉)

Enjoy a little 40 second video of the process. (And, yes. I did totally screw up the tree and have to wipe it out and try again.)

Thanks to Linda for trusting me to put her memories on canvas.

Thanks to this 40 year old book with a pretty great cloud painting lesson.

Original Oil Painting on 12"x 16" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

Country Mailbox

How do you use your artistic license? 


Sometimes we drive down dirt roads just to see what we can find... you never know when the most mundane thing is just perfect... like this mailbox!  My husband pulled over, and I hopped out to snap a few pictures when, "Um, Honey... you might want to explain to that guy..."  He'd come around the house with a pretty unfriendly look on his face.  "Hi! I'm an artist, and you have a fabulous mailbox!  I'd love to paint it!"  How quickly his demeanor changed!  He was ready to tell me the history of how long it had been there, who put it there... 
Just goes to show you how important it is to carry that artistic license with you!


To enjoy an Etsy treasury (collection of art pieces and vintage items) celebrating Arkansas, click Missing Arkansas.

Grandpa's Smokehouse

This was the little building behind my grandpa's house that the cousins were never allowed to go in; however, I know that when my mom and her brothers and sisters were young, it was an important part of their farm life - the smokehouse.

Just as important as the smokehouse was the garden beside it. I do have many memories of the garden. When I was very small, I got to ride on Prince, the big brown mule, while Grandpa plowed the long rows. (I know that tillers were usually used by that time, but Grandpa and Prince worked the rows just as they had done for years.) My strongest memories from the garden involve dealing with its produce. Strawberries to slice and cover with sugar to freeze... Peas to shell... Beans to snap... Cabbage to shred and salt for kraut... Tomatoes to blanch for canning... Egg plant to, hmmm, I don't remember what we did with the egg plant...

"Grandpa's Smokehouse" was recently featured in an Etsy treasury (collection of art pieces and vintage items) celebrating Pawpaw's Place.

If you would like to purchase a giclee or print of "Grandpa's Smokehouse," contact me.

Lake at Nunnely

So many memories...

Picking blackberries on the bank - tossing rocks into the vines to scare the snakes away and chewing Juicy Fruit to keep from eating the berries while we picked.

Skipping flat rocks from the spillway.

Picking daisies.

Checking trot lines with Grandpa.

Checking the turtle trap with Dad.

Laying out covered with cocoa butter to help soak up the sun - who knew at the time that that was a bad idea?

Eating fried fish under the trees at family reunions or church picnics.

Riding on the tractor to help Dad count the cows or check the fences - the cows would never be still long enough for me to count them!

Taking my good college friend for a walk here the first time he visited my home... he held my hand - p.s. We just celebrated our 25th anniversary.

Original Oil Painting
[SOLD]