OH NO! Not Wal-Mart

My husband just told me that WalMart has received the okay to build a new store about 6 miles from where I live.

The little town of Pataskala has changed a lot since I moved here in 1989, and in my opinion, not for the better. Most of the lovely fields where I have painted are now housing developments, car dealerships, fast food places and strip shopping centers. Despite the fact that the first wave of shopping centers was not full, incredulousy, someone decided to extend the existing ones; thereby, taking up even more of the open space. Now Wal-Mart is on it's way. Permission has been granted. I know that it's happeneing everywhere. Even in Ireland.

Having witnessed the onslaught of building that is now going on in Ireland, I was happy to have to stop the car while these two farmers in County Cork walked their two cows down the road to a new field. The painting was completed in my studio from a photo I took while we waited. Titled "Changing Pastures", it is 16" x 12", and is now in a private collection here in Columbus, Ohio. I love the old man in this painting: his "Wellies" and cane, and the feel that he has been doing this same thing for a long time, and that his joints might ache a little, like mine.