Good Morning, Springboro! An Abandoned Farmstead

My original watercolor painting for this week depicts an abandoned farmstead in April. Surrounded by a tangle of shade trees and shrubs, the neglected house floats like an island in a sea of land soon to be tilled. Nature seems to know that, before long, a tractor will begin preparing the ground for planting soybeans and that she must work quickly, decorating the soil surface with purple deadnettle, the flowers of which form pink bands across the field. The scene is to be as colorful and pleasing as it can be before the beans are introduced to freshly turned earth. Warm breezes from the southwest toss the newly leafed tops of trees toward the northeast.

Abandoned Farmstead Near Springboro, Ohio

Original Watercolor Painting by Robert T. Rhode

 

The house may be empty, but, at this time of the year, it seems cheerfully occupied. Have the spirits of distant generations of family members returned to play games, sing songs, and care for one another amid the rolling pastures they once looked upon with eyes like yours and mine? It certainly appears so! In springtime, the house does not exude the lonely atmosphere of winter.

Bright clouds modulate the light on their steady passage overhead. Everything is expressed in tones of promise for a happy summer, just around the corner.

Springboro retains its small-town aura while hosting numerous subdivisions, all of which are nestled within a vast quilt of farms, woods, and creeks. A short drive from the village brings you to joyfully winding roads that lead up and down over low hills. Delightful views wait around the bends in the byways.

Had the Brontë sisters lived outside Springboro, tourists would come from countries far away to see where the authors had lived, and the travelers would not be disappointed, finding that, by pointing their cameras in any direction, they could frame memorable landscapes. Perhaps it is as well that Emily, Anne, and Charlotte did not pen Wuthering Heights, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and Jane Eyre here; in the absence of droves of tourists, you can go wherever you want without the inconvenience that they occasion. By all rights, though, the alluring scenery of Springboro should have been immortalized in literature as it is most assuredly deserving of such honor.

So you are free to spend April afternoons driving along country routes that entertain your eye with successions of picturesque prospects. As Springboro is celebrating its bicentennial, this would be an excellent time to appreciate the locale by exploring the districts that surround the historic downtown.

If you would like to purchase one of my paintings from this blog series, send me a message through my website at roberttrhode.org or via Facebook.