New: “Tobacco Rows”

In Western Massachusetts, between the college towns of Amherst and Northampton, the lowlands of the Pioneer Valley are home to many farms, as the soil along the banks of the Connecticut River are ideal for farming. When I was in college there, I often visited these farms, many of which featured unique-looking barns, whose walls were vented slats, allowing air to freely pass through. These structures were built to allow tobacco leaves to dry after being harvested. Quite a few tobacco farms still exist all up and down the valley, from Hadley down south into Connecticut, and the leaves grown there were generally used for cigar wrappers…not the tobacco itself. It’s been decades since I’ve been to one of these farms, and while I did some quick drawings of a few of them, many years ago, I’ve never painted one. Until recently. “Tobacco Rows” 48 x 30 o/c