MOSCOW - The local John Deere dealership is an unlikely art gallery but farmers picking up parts for their tractors are the people Moscow artist Anna Brewer wanted to see her work.

Many area farmers are familiar with Brewer, having encountered her in their fields in northern Idaho and eastern Washington. She watches them from her car and when she sees them descend from their machines, she approaches, showering them with questions in her English accent about what they are doing. Their answers become elaborate, watercolor drawings of modern farm equipment and practices.

"They're intrigued," says Delbert

Reisenauer, the parts manager at Columbia Tractor in Moscow where Brewer shows her work. "They can relate to it. ... They come in here and a lot of these farmers recognize their own equipment. It's received very well."

A former San Francisco bike messenger who pedaled "in the days when only sissies wore helmets," Brewer was raised in England and moved to California in 1987 with a degree in fine art. Her mother lived in New York and Brewer says she always felt more at home in easygoing America.

She's worked as a muralist, teacher, illustrator and cartoonist. For awhile she worked as an animator creating TV commercials and computer games for kids, "but my heart was not

really into Barney and I hate to think of kids on computers when they could be out digging in the dirt or eating worms," she says.

Brewer moved to Moscow on Halloween 2006 with her husband, Larry Brewer, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Washington State University in Pullman. Newly married and a homemaker with the "luxury of time" she began exploring the area.

"I got completely enchanted by the landscape," the 45-year-old says. It was fall and the swirling patterns of the naked rolling hills mystified her. Spring came and she was hypnotized by the mechanical behemoths roaming back and forth in the fields. She watched farmers from afar and, when she got bold enough, started asking questions, receiving detailed answers about things like seed drills, moldboard plows and no-till drills. She finds the discussions "riveting."

She keeps a diary in a sketch pad. Her thoughts are elucidated by a small frog, a reptile she adores for its "perky manner" and "alertness." She draws in pencil, followed by ink and paint. She works from photographs to get the placement of numerous cogs and wheels exact. When finished, she scans her work into a computer and tweaks it in Photoshop. Her cartoons can be seen on her blog at www.annabrewer.com.

Brewer has a black-and-white cartoon called "Palouse Report" published in the Moscow Food Co-op newsletter. The cartoon has explored her questions about farming along with others, like where local drinking water comes from, snow removal and how sewage travels in a small town. In 2008, she approached Columbia Tractor about having an art show at the business. She planned it for April because it's the busiest month for local farmers.

"They're less likely to be at an art gallery than to be at the dealership," she explains.

Her second show at the dealership opens today and features her large pen and ink watercolors. Bold colors evoke the evolving hues of the landscape as well as John Deere's signature green.

She has sold a few pieces of work at the dealership - a 16-by-20-inch drawing sells for $55 framed or $35 unframed - but that's not the point, she says. She just wants the farmers who have answered her questions to be able to see her work.

Most often, she says, "they're tickled by it, that somebody might take an interest."

Bauer may be contacted at jkbauer@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2263.

If you go

What: Palouse landscapes, farms and farm machinery by Moscow artist Anna Brewer

When: Opening reception, 4 to 6 tonight

Where: Columbia Tractor, 1906 S. Main St., Moscow

Admission: Free

Of note: The exhibit runs through April 30. Store hours are 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 7:30 a.m. to noon Saturday.