“Over the Barren Ground.” A Painting About the Weight Nature Carries

What an Artist Sees

“Over the Barren Ground,” 4 ft by 8 ft, acrylic on unstretched canvas.

I live just a couple miles from the farmland, so I see them almost every day. Crop fields, soil, changing weather, fewer birds.. That’s where this painting, “Over the Barren Ground,” comes from.

At first, it looks like a reclining figure. But look again. It’is more than that. It’s land. It’s the weight of what the land is holding. I didn’t set out to make a “statement painting.” I just painted what it felt like. My artist wife was the model for the figure.

A Landscape About Pressure

“Over the Barren Ground,” 4 ft by 8 ft, acrylic on unstretched canvas.

I paint a lot of fields. I walk past them, paint near them, and think about how much they've changed. The soil’s harder. Fewer insects. The weather’s jumpy. It’s all changing.

“Over the Barren Ground” is my way of showing what it feels like when the balance in nature slips. When one part of the system disappears like the pollinators, predators, healthy soil. All of it being thrown off. That figure in the painting? That’s the ground. Exhausted. Flattened. Still holding on.

Not Just a Figure And Not Just A Field

Even though the painting shows a human form, it’s a stand-in for the land. The texture, the color, the cracked surface. That is all pulled from what I see in the fields near me. It’s a landscape of emotion more than geography.

What This Says About Farming and the Environment

I’m not a farmer. But I know farmers, as we have relatives that art farmers, here locally and in other stsates. And I know what’s happening in the environment affects them first. Losing pollinators isn’t just a “nature problem”. It is a crop problem. Fewer birds? More pests. Weird weather? Lower yields.

There’s no “backup” for this. Nature doesn’t reboot. When it’s gone, it’s gone. This painting is a reminder of that. Quiet, but heavy.

It Is Personal

This piece is personal because of my families in farming. It’s also environmental. The painting is meant to sit with you. To feel like soil that used to grow things but now just waits as it changed.