Old Massie, Blue Ridge Landscape oil painting.

by Delmus
(USA)

Flemish technique on masonite paneling. Original was 12"x36". This painting come with a nice story. Raising a large family, one of my greatest pleasures has been to help train my young teenagers how to drive! Now you can understand why I don't have much hair!

On one of our longer training sessions in which I took my son Alexander (now an E-5 in the United States Coast Guard saving lives for a living!) we did the usual 40 mile loop to the mountains near our home. This was an early morning run because I wanted to capture the long cast shadows and cool mountain mist rising from the valleys just below the mountains.

As we passed several farms, I noticed this red derelict sitting out in the open field, so we pulled over to investigate. It was an old Massie Tractor that had seen better days. I guess once it quit that spring, the farmer decided to just leave her where she lied. I felt a bit saddened by it, as I like tinkering with old things to make em run better, and I didn't quite see the justification of leaving this old tractor in the field to rust away. Surely a collector somewhere would have wanted it. I decided then and there to paint it. So here we are with my tribute to Old Massie.
(The picture size really limits your ability to see the red tractor at the crest of the hill)