16x20
Oil on Linen
On Display as part of the
St. Mary's School Head of School Artist Series
Dec.14-Jan 30
St. Mary's School Head of School Artist Series
Dec.14-Jan 30
The red sharecropper / tenant house dominated the rural Eastern North Carolina landscape for most of the Twentieth Century. Typical of its occupants was a farmer and his family partnering with the landowner to plant and harvest mostly peanuts, tobacco, and cotton. In lieu of paying farm rent, the tenant farmer would split the profits with the landowner on a predetermined percentage - usually thirds or halves. A four or five hundred acre farm would have several of these houses scattered about in different fields that were separately farmed by the different families. As farming became more mechanized with tractors and implements this way of life slowly ended, but some of the families and their descendants remained in the old houses. Most, however, were abandoned, torn down, or burned to clear the fields for more acreage. Of the few remaining in Bertie County is this red house at Heckstall Corner on the Grabtown Road just outside of Windsor. It is abandoned now, but until just recently it was occupied by Larry Mitchel, owner of Larry's Appliances, who has since relocated his operation of front yard refrigerator and washer machine sales to Highway 17 across from the ABC store. Once he left and cleared the yard of white boxy floor plan, the red house became visible again from the road. I have passed this place thousands of times, but last Saturday after helping my brother plant soybeans, I pulled in the shady dirt path for the first time in my life and got out the easel while the early afternoon sun lit up the side of the house and the high weeds overtaking it.
