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| In September of 2011 I did a show in my home area, Uniontown/Colton, in south eastern Washington.The community has rebuilt a historical dairy barn into a wonderful community Art and Music Center called the Artisan Barn. Two othr artists, both raised on nearby wheat farms too, shared the show with me, Nona Hengen of Spangle and Sherryl Evans of Ritzville. Thus we billed ourselves "Three Homegrown Artsts". |
I did several pieces for the show that were of my family, especially my parents, that meant a lot to me and to the people who attended who knew them. The "Heritage of Needlework" was of my mother who was well known for her needlework and she passed it on to me in many years of sewing. Her mother was a dressmaker in the
days before sewing machines so everything was really handmade. She is depicted in the background.
Two pictures were of my father, one in his field checking the crop and one leaning on his tractor enjoying the beautiful green of the Palouse hills as the crops come up. It is a well known time of year to drive down through the area and be astounded at the rolling green hills and is a favorite of photographers.
Doing the show was a very meaningful thing for me. Nona did a number of paintings of old harvest scenes and Sherryl provided her well-known watercolors of work horses.
The opening was Labor day but two weeks later we all participated in their annual
Harvest Festival which featured many
old-fashioned farm events from home-made
ice cream to hand wrought iron tools. A
collectors club brought old farm equipment
and plowed a field next to the Barn. It was
really a fun afternoon and brought back
many memories. Some of the "old-time"
things were actually of my vintage!
