My parents lost the little farm in Navelencia, the place where memory began for me. Dad got the place by buying out another man’s interest in the farm and assuming the mortgage, a deal done without the original owner’s permission. When Dad couldn’t make the mortgage payment at the end of the grape harvest, the … Continue reading Chapter 2: The Christmas Tree House
Paul Buxman paintings
Chapter 1: Memory
“The only observations worth making are those that sink in upon you in childhood. We don’t know we’re observing, but we see everything. Our minds are relatively blank, our memories are not crammed full of all sorts of names, so that the impressions we gather in the first 12 years are enormous and vivid and … Continue reading Chapter 1: Memory
Young Mother
Paul Buxman painting: "Winter Vineyard" Winter is the rainy season in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Some years the rain is sparse; other years it rains and rains and rains. And when it isn’t raining, and the sun tries to come out, the dreaded tule fog rises from the wet ground and turns everything a uniform, … Continue reading Young Mother
Harvest Festival: Sweet Home Ranch
"Pomegranate Jelly," 14"x16" oil on canvas "Our early foothill pomegranate tree yields more than enough fruit to make at least a hundred half pints of Jelly. Well, it would if we didn't eat so many of them fresh." Paul Buxman November 1, Dinuba, California The trees and vines are tired and dusty now, … Continue reading Harvest Festival: Sweet Home Ranch