Painting the Past

NC tobacco bar by M Theresa Brown. Pastel 16 x 20

All through the south, down any country road, are the remains of tobacco barns. They all go back to the time when tobacco was king and the best paying job in the south for the average worker and teenager!
Some, like this one that I created in pastels, are the oldest and made from logs. Others are cinder block, tile and wood siding covered with tar paper. All were built under or in groves of huge shading oak trees. 
Talk to someone about "putting up tobacco" and you will hear of one of the hottest, dirtiest jobs a kid could have over the summer!
As artists, it's important to recognize areas and structures as history and although I am not, by nature, a landscape artist, even I could not resist painting the echoes of history while watching the play of light and shadows across this old time capsule!