Ruins of Crop Fields After a Storm: When the Earth Gets Too Much of a Good Thing

A Walk Through the Aftermath

“Ruins of Crop Fields After a Storm” oil on unstretched canvas.

I went out to the fields last winter like I sometimes do. I spend some of the time out there because they are only about a mile from where I live and easy to get to. I like to paint them and sometimes just walk. Sometimes both. This time, it was after a storm. A big one. The kind that makes you stop and just stare at the ground, wondering if it’s still a field or if it’s trying to become a lake.

Painting What the Land Can’t Say

“Ruins of Crop Fields After a Storm” oil on unstretched canvas.

The painting is called “Ruins of Crop Fields After a Storm.” It's textured, heavy and chaotic. It is how the soil looks after the downpour. You can see the thick strokes of paint pushing up against each other, like furrows that used to be clean-cut but got washed by too much water. It’s a mess and that’s kind of the point.

I wasn’t trying to paint something sad. I was trying to paint what happens when the balance tips. The land wants water. But this is too much all at once.

Rain, Drought, and Everything in Between

In the last few years, we’ve gone from barely any rain to more than we know what to do with. One winter storm after another turned flat farmland into standing pools. And crops? They can hold their breath underwater for about two days. After that, things go downhill fast.

It’s frustrating to watch. Farmers do everything they can. They try to drain the fields, dig ditches, and prayers. But at the end of the day, nature runs the show. You do your best, but Mother Nature wins in the end.

Painting as Witness

This painting isn’t just about farming. It’s about what happens when nature, humans, agriculture get overwhelmed. But the farmers keep going anyway. They have a way of adapting, replanting, trying again.