The Weldon Prehn Homestead
Fredericksburg, Texas. 1953-1971

The Homestead is a painting of the artist's childhood home where she lived the first seventeen years of her life. It is named for her father who died in in the year 2000. Trish lived an idyllic childhood, being allowed to roam freely across the family farm as well as up and down the country roads that passed the homes of caring neighbors. No doubt the childlike happiness and innocence characteristic of her paintings originated during these years. The following passage was written upon completion of the painting as a tribute to her loving parents, to the beloved land itself, and as a timeless gift to her dear sisters and brother:

There is a twenty-acre patch of land on the outskirts of Fredericksburg, Texas that remembers a family named Prehn. Remembers a young farmer and the woman who loved him. Remembers first a little girl, then another, then a boy child, and one more girl child. Remembers bare feet running through grassy waterways and the soft warm furrows of freshly plowed fields. Remembers quite easily, does that dear small piece of earth -- because when they all went away, they left behind in its heart, their hearts.