Robin Brooks, Jon in the Garden, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 in., 2025.
My painting is titled Jon in the Garden. For inspiration, I worked with photos I took last September of my husband, Jon, at the Brunswick High School garden. In my portrait of Jon as a farmer, I wanted to convey something of the setting—gray clouds drifting overhead and plants growing in the field behind him. Interestingly, Jon made a point of growing and cutting flowers to bring into school in the fall, brightening the desks of the office staff, and bringing nature and color into an otherwise institutional setting.
Jon’s students learned to work the land, growing food and flowers through the summer months. No cell phones were allowed—just the sound of birds overhead and the smells and textures of the plants filling their senses. This immersion into nature and growing plants outdoors was a “first” for many students.
When I visit the garden, a student often brings me to see their latest discovery—a monarch butterfly chrysalis clinging to a milkweed leaf or a juicy tomato, ripe on the vine and ready to pick. Jon likes to say that “gardening is a stepping stone to nature, and nature is a stepping stone to the divine.” It’s a life lesson for his students and something we can all contemplate.