The painting “Long Shadows on the Short Farm” was purchased by Farm Credit Services of America.

An oil painting by Paul Marlow that won 3rd place at the 2019 Iowa State Fair has been acquired by an Omaha-based company. Long Shadows on the Short Farm, the second work by Marlow to enter a corporate collection, was painted in 2019 and depicts the colorful, sun-washed landscape surrounding a Century farm in Eastern Iowa.

“Farm Credit Services has an extensive art collection, and we are currently in the process of constructing a third facility on our Omaha campus,” said Sharlyn Konfrst, Vice President of Corporate Services. “Our preference is to ensure diversity in representation, and if possible artists from the five states where we have offices.” An employee at the Omaha office saw the painting at the Iowa State Fair this past summer and sent it to Ms Konfrst as a possible addition to their corporate collection.

Long Shadows on the Short Farm is the most ambitious depiction of the world that was the central setting in Marlow’s art of the rural Midwest. Based on a photo taken from a drone that the artist flew above the Phil & Jan Short Farm, north of Troy Mills, Iowa, Marlow looked to the northeast, 10 minutes before sunset on September 23, 2018. The grain bins and silos, near the left-center of the composition, give a sense of scale in the context of the panorama; the country road running east-west follows the gently rolling landscape.

The whole composition is suffused with warm light and with an array of colors, from reds and oranges through the dominant yellow-gold hue to shades of green, blue and violet.

This was the second of Marlow’s work to be acquired by a corporate art collection. The first was Water Tower Tryptic, a series of three paintings purchased by TrueNorth Wealth Management in September, 2017.

Farm Credit Services of America is a leading provider of credit and insurance services to farmers, ranchers, agribusinesses and rural residents in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.