Gruene Table
on Front Porch

About the Painting

Donna’s title places the scene in Gruene, and the painting offers a front porch view in full sun. A wooden table painted a deep green stands on a pale plank floor, and its long shadow falls toward the lower right, which places the sun high and to the left.

The table holds a row of potted plants in terracotta and wooden boxes: white daisies, yellow green foliage, lavender blooms and tall grasses that lift toward the green shutter above. A handwritten card hangs from the front edge of the table, the kind of sign a porch shop uses to name its plants. Behind the table, the window panes reflect a quiet interior of shelves and boxes in blue and amber.

The left side of the painting opens onto a garden path, where a slender stake leans against the porch post and a vine trails down across the opening in shades of green and blue. Donna paints the far garden in soft, blended greens so that it sits back in the distance, while the near leaves carry sharp edges and darker values. The porch boards are laid in long strokes of warm gray and cream, with cool blue shadows that follow the grain of the wood.

Gruene began as its own settlement at a crossing on the Guadalupe River, three miles north of New Braunfels. The Gruene family bought land there in 1872, and in 1878 Henry D. Gruene built the dance hall known today as Gruene Hall, touted as the oldest operating dance hall in Texas. The entire town is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The painting rewards slow looking: the light on the boards, the shadow under the table and the little card all invite the eye to stay a while on the porch. Donna signs her name at the lower left, among the dark leaves at the edge of the floor.