This labor of love was painted on a hot June morning during an outing with the Plein Air Painters of the Carolinas. As I was choosing my spot, our state flat popped out at me as the morning sun lit up the front of this charming house. I set up shop and painted until I practically got heat stroke. I had to call it a day and finish it later in my studio. But it calls to my mind the hours my mother, and countless other fine southern women, spend to get their gardens to thrive in the heat and make their houses into a home.
