Summer Breezes

Summer Breezes, 16X20, Oil

Summer Breezes is a painting of a subject I love best, sunflowers. My three sisters and I grew up on an organic farm in East Texas and mom and dad planted rows of giant sunflowers to help attract the insects off the other crops. Dad never let us girls drive the John Deere tractor or operate any of the farm machinery. After he passed away in 1992, I had to teach myself how to drive the tractor and hook up the bushhog to mow the grass in the pastures.

I'll never forget the day I was mowing around one of the giant oak trees. My hat got snatched off by one of the branches and when I looked up to grab it, one of the tractor wheels caught the base of the tree and the tractor started climbing up the tree. I yanked (that's a Texas term - yanked) on the steering wheel and turned it to the right as hard as I could. For a few minutes, it was a tug of war between that big ole (another Texas term) tractor wheel and me. Fortunately, the wheel let go and the tractor did not flip over on top of me. I think Dad was keeping an eye on me that day, and I could just hear him say, "Nanny, now THAT'S why I didn't want you girls driving the tractor!"