Forgotten times

I've been working on this painting for the last couple of days. I'm still not sure if it's done, I may be poking at it a little more. I think I've repainted the sky about 5 times, the windmill was repainted 3 times. Just a tough one to get right!

I took the photo that this came from a couple weeks ago. I chased some really beautiful clouds into more Southern Iowa really early one morning. Never did really get the clouds, but South of the town on St. Mary I pulled off on a gravel road and saw this. A lone windmill sitting down in a little valley, the only thing left of what was likely a homestead at some point.  It's an interesting image. So many little farms were abandoned during the Great Depression, and unless you know what you're looking for, the signs of their existence are just about invisible. the 'ring' of trees around this area is a pretty good indicator that this was the drive up to a farmhouse at one point. 

I wonder what the windmill remembers.