Grandmonther's Whites

This was my first painting using only a palette knife. Where I grew up, on a farm in rural Iowa, my grandmother and mother hung their laundry out to dry on the clothes line just like this one. The days were happy. The sky was wide and bright, bright blue just like this painting portrays. The women from this rural, German farming community were gleefully cheerful while working from sun up to sun down at their chores – often singing and humming while they worked. Everything was always white washed clean and the sheets were laundered often and hung out to dry giving them a crisp, honeysuckle sort of a smell. When I see this painting, I can smell fresh mowed alfalfa and a clean breeze blowing from the north and my heart aches to be with my mom and grandma in the country hanging the sheets once again.