You never know what the month of January will bring you in north Texas. Cold, ice, snow, or maybe a nice spring-like day that makes you want to go fishing. Not long after New Years day we had such a day. Several painters were heading out to Ellis county to paint around the Five Points Cotton Gin area. I was able to join them with easel and paint, and like a fisherman, hoping for something I could take home instead of scraping off the panel like I have done many times in the past.
Final plein air oil painting of the Five Points Cotton Gin in Ellis County, Texas.
Five Points Cotton Gin is a unique place. The main cotton gin building is still standing, along with a couple of smaller buildings. This gin was the filming location of the 1984 movie “Places in the Heart” starring Sally Fields and Danny Glover. The movie tells a good story of Texas cotton farming and racism.
Easel setup with Five Points Cotton Gin building in the background in Ellis county, Texas.
I set up my easel in front of the main gin building which proved to be a little challenging as the sun moved across the sky. There were chickens and sheep near by and the beautiful people who lived on the property proved to be very gracious host.
I painted for two or three hours trying to capture the place before the sun drastically changed the shadows, making the painting more difficult. Near the end of my painting session a man and his wife pulled up in a pickup truck to check out the guy with the easel on the side of the road. He chatted a bit and then told me that the little building set up beside the big cotton gin building I was painting was the set of the scene where the characters Sally Fields and Danny Glover sold the cotton in the movie. I took a closer look and what he said proved to be true. Thirty years had passed since the filming of the movie but the building was mostly as it was in the movie.
The building used in the filming of “Places in the Heart” as seen in the movie in 1984, and today in 2014.
