Justin is a young guy who grew up here in Wachapreague, VA, on the Eastern Shore. Justin has no intention of ever leaving. He’s in his late 20s or early 30s, I think, though I find I’m getting worse and worse at guessing people’s ages. At any rate, he is a whip-thin young guy, tall and strong. He loves fishing. He works at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which is right here in town. And he mows nearly all the lawns in town.

He started the mowing business when he was just a kid. By now, he has big equipment, a big truck with a big trailer, a helper – and a pretty big business for this small town, in spite of charging insanely low prices. In many spots, Justin mows many contiguous lawns, going from one to the next to the next to the next, mowing pretty much the entire street – and then doing all the weed-whacking, too.

I was watching him speed around our yard one day, and decided that I should make a painting of him mowing. It’s such a summertime moment, isn’t it?

As you can see from this painting, and others I’ve been making recently, I am purposely leaving a sort of raggedy edge on the front. I really like this effect – but I wonder about you? What do you think?