The Kimble Farm
11" x 14" watercolor
The Kimble Farm
11" x 14" watercolor
One very special painting of mine is "The Kimble Farm", which I created from an old and tattered photograph and lots of memories. It portrays a farm that my grandmother was raised on deep in the mountains of West Virginia. My grandmother was born on that farm on February 27, 1898 (that makes her 103 today, and she is still alive and well.) When I was a child we used to visit "the farm" on Sunday's. They were magical days spent playing in the fields, chasing the sheep, hunting for the 3 feet high anthills, and catching salamanders in the stream. When we were at the farm, it was incredibly easy to imagine it really was 1898. The nearest house was 3 or 4 miles away and the only sounds were the sounds of nature. I remember being careful walking back from the stream, because the secluded mountains were prime snake country, and more than once we came upon a rattlesnake or copperhead on our walk back from the stream to the farmhouse.
The farmhouse portrayed in my painting has long since been gone, as has just about everything else man made that was on the farm. The only thing left is the land itself, looking very different than it did when I was a small child 35 years ago. But the special memories and the spirit of "the farm" have not been lost, as I was able to capture it in my painting. I presented framed prints of "The Kimble Farm" to my grandmother, my parents and all three of my sisters this past Christmas as a surprise, and to watch their response you would have thought I had given them pure gold. I understand, because I would not trade that painting or those memories for gold itself. :-)
Original photo
