Reluctant Pickers

This is the first in a series of paintings honoring the days when Healdsburg was the “Buckle of the Prune Belt.” It’s from a photo of my Dad (right) and his friend from school days, Guerdon Miller, picking prunes in about 1985. My Dad liked farming but he hated picking prunes. I imagine they were picking the beginnings or the tail-end of the crop, when there weren’t enough prunes to call in the professionals.