Take Me Home, Country Road

I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE A TENDER STORY with you about family and roots and a bucket list painting.

Let's go back in time to November, 1986. I was married a couple of years when my husband and I took a road trip with my father-in-law to visit the Fink Family Farm in West Virginia. I met aunts and uncles and cousins. The farm is where my father-in-law grew up in the early 20th century. It was a step back in time. Pastoral, bucolic beauty that was quiet and real. I listened to stories of past times, laughed and got to know family. My husband and I came home with good memories, a few rolls of film to be developed, and a cat that had wandered up to the farmhouse.

There was one photo of the Fink Family Farm that we enlarged and framed for my father-in-law. He displayed it proudly in his home until his passing in 2001. Then the photo came to our home. We have displayed it ever since. But over the years the photo has faded. And I'm really not sure I could locate the negative to have it reprinted.

I thought how lovely the scene would look as an oil painting and decided to put the project on my bucket list. Finally, last week, I demonstrated my plein air process to my artist daughter and decided to use the photo of the farm as my reference since it was raining. This work of art has been years inside my heart and I am happy that it has finally come out and on to the canvas for all to enjoy.

Thank you for reading. I welcome your comments.

Always make time to follow your dreams,

Leanne