Jane's Brood

Living in the same countryside from which Grant Wood drew inspiration for his remarkable regionalist paintings, my husband and I often find ourselves traversing the landscape either by car or on foot. It is in the late afternoon or early evening when we both feel the need to be "outside for a while" just to know we have truly given the day its due. It was on one of these adventures that we came across the Wickham family farm. The next day I found myself pulling into Jane's driveway, asking for permission to paint what I felt like was a memory of my grandparents life – her farm. The most unusual thing about Wickham farm, perhaps because of it's location at the end of a gravel road, is that the animals are able to roam free. So, a day painting one of my numerous studies might find a kitten crawling up my leg while I'm painting or a goat licking my permanent yellow green clean off my palette. It was in the transfixing colors of this farm life at sunset that Jane and the girls posed for me. They enticed the chickens to stay in the scene by spreading feed. I did numerous larger studies from life, progressively focusing on Jane and her family, with all of them together within this painting, which we have decided to call "Jane' Brood." I started this life-size Jane in the studio and then returned to the the farm on several occasions to give to it the energetic harmony that blows in the wind at Wickham Farm.