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Thursday, November 12, 2009

Waving Wheatfields


At last we had open skies and took the road inland. We passed through Malmesbury with its giant wheat silos where the country's breakfast cereals and cake and bread flour originate. And then, what I was hoping for: as we started out from Malmesbury to Piketberg, there was field upon field of golden wheat , softly stirring in the breeze as far as the eye could see.


Wheat conjures up many associations and symbols. I see the biblical Ruth bending to gather the fallen ears of wheat behind the harvesters. I see happy folks dipping hunks of fresh bread into olive oil and forever-famished little boys with their peanut butter sarmies. Is there anything else that springs to mind? Please leave a comment and we can all spend the weekend with log fires, cheese, wine, soup and bread. And a few thoughts or discussions on the staff of life!

16 comments:

  1. At last the wheat fields and it is SO lovely Marie! WOW! Love the little green patch in the centre of the painting - a beautiful focal point. And the farmhouse is beautifully off-centre, leading the eye around the landscape. Now, how big is this? :)

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  2. Thank you for following the wheatfield saga, Maree. I used an unexpectedly large amount of white for this painting, because the field is very blond.It is painted on commercial canvas board 450mm x 600mm

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  3. Hi Marie! Such a gorgeous painting! I love seeing the wheat fields out in my part of the world too. They remind me of an old American song of patriotism:

    America the Beautiful
    Words by Katharine Lee Bates,
    Melody by Samuel Ward

    O beautiful for spacious skies,
    For amber waves of grain,
    For purple mountain majesties
    Above the fruited plain!
    America! America!
    God shed his grace on thee
    And crown thy good with brotherhood
    From sea to shining sea!

    O beautiful for pilgrim feet
    Whose stern impassioned stress
    A thoroughfare of freedom beat
    Across the wilderness!
    America! America!
    God mend thine every flaw,
    Confirm thy soul in self-control,
    Thy liberty in law!

    O beautiful for heroes proved
    In liberating strife.
    Who more than self their country loved
    And mercy more than life!
    America! America!
    May God thy gold refine
    Till all success be nobleness
    And every gain divine!

    O beautiful for patriot dream
    That sees beyond the years
    Thine alabaster cities gleam
    Undimmed by human tears!
    America! America!
    God shed his grace on thee
    And crown thy good with brotherhood
    From sea to shining sea!

    O beautiful for halcyon skies,
    For amber waves of grain,
    For purple mountain majesties
    Above the enameled plain!
    America! America!
    God shed his grace on thee
    Till souls wax fair as earth and air
    And music-hearted sea!

    O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
    Whose stem impassioned stress
    A thoroughfare for freedom beat
    Across the wilderness!
    America! America!
    God shed his grace on thee
    Till paths be wrought through
    wilds of thought
    By pilgrim foot and knee!

    O beautiful for glory-tale
    Of liberating strife
    When once and twice,
    for man's avail
    Men lavished precious life!
    America! America!
    God shed his grace on thee
    Till selfish gain no longer stain
    The banner of the free!

    O beautiful for patriot dream
    That sees beyond the years
    Thine alabaster cities gleam
    Undimmed by human tears!
    America! America!
    God shed his grace on thee
    Till nobler men keep once again
    Thy whiter jubilee!

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  4. Hi, AutumnLeaves, thank you for your comments and your kind thought of leaving the poem. I was in tears long before I reached a quarter of the way through reading it. Yes, wheat is a mightily emotional topic.

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  5. This painting really took my breath away! It is STUNNING!!! Okay - the first thought that popped into my head when I saw it - is Matthew 6:30 "If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire (work with me - it can mean baking bread!) will he not much more clothe you..."
    Thank you for yet another inspirational, beautiful painting-post! : )

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  6. Marie, this piece is beautiful. You've achieved a lovely feeling of depth and distance.

    Your comments about wheatfields had me recalling our 2008 crossing of the United States on a tandem bicycle. We rode through the wheatfields of Kansas as they were being harvested. For as far as the eye can see, there were fields with combine crews working the harvest. The appearance is somewhat different than in your country -- we could not see mountains from the wheatfields, having left the Colorado Rockies some hundreds of miles behind us. We were very aware that we were riding through breadbasket of our country.

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  7. Oh Marie, this is great. And time I took a drive up the West Coast to get away from this totally unseasonal rain here in CT.

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  8. What a gorgeous piece, love the colors.

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  9. Absolutely beautiful! Marie, you are such an ambassador for our country, especially the wild West Coast which so few people know. It is truly the most rewarding area to visit, our time there has been spectacular and we can relive that now through your stunning paintings.

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  10. This is one of my favorite pieces from your beautiful collection!

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  11. Thank you once again, all my wonderful blogger-friends, for the comments!

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  12. Hi Marie, I can just feel the wind in those wheatfields of yours.

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  13. Hi Marie, a beautiful painting ..sounds like a beautiful place too..

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  14. Hello Marie - found you through Diane's blog from one of your comments on her acrylic workshop. Had a wonderful five weeks in South Africa in 2007 with friends who live at Port Elizabeth, and they planned a 3 week sketching tour for me along the south coast to Cape Town, up the west coast to Namibia border and back through Kimerbley home. So what I am getting at is how wonderful to see your south African landscapes. The wheatfields work is particularly emotive.

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