Orchards Ago by Marc Hanson

There is something compelling about anything that has been around a long time, an old farmhouse, a large metropolitan structure, old boats.  I've always been fascinated by farmsteads, probably coming from my family roots of prairie pioneers who lived in sod houses and built farmsteads out of the limited supplies that they could wagon in on their own.  This painting was painted after a stroll through and old orchard, the trees past their prime, and on their way to enriching the soil with their remains.  Yet they seem to hold stories about what has blown through and past, their leaves and branches through the decades of producing for us.  I can imagine a farm family spending their days in it, picking wooden baskets full of fruit that would have eventually been preserved and put into the basement for winter use.