Summer (Conway Pool)

This is the first of several paintings I’ve made of the black walnut trees in the field across the street. In May the lush grass and wildflowers is soft and rich and inviting. The tree trunks are always changing their colors in the shifting shadows and light. For many years my neighbor, who passed away in 2022, mowed this hayfield with a scythe. Black walnuts have been planted by the family, and the field is still mowed for hay (though now with a noisy tractor). I love watching the field and its trees change day by day and season by season, and I’m grateful to the Hardigg family for keeping it as a place for growing things. It’s a good place for watching bats flutter about at twilight, and every so often you might see a fox pass through, loping or dashing, depending on what’s going on.