Rosina Finister's acrylic painting fills the white landscape-oriented paper except for narrow unpainted edges on four sides. It shows a scene from the artist's childhood at her elementary school in Louisiana. A warm-feeling house sits on a hill in the top left of the painting. Behind is a light blue sky with a brown-yellow sun and wisps of white and yellow clouds dancing around it. In the center of the blue sky are the handwritten words, Back to School on the First Day, in fine black paint and organic letters. The hillside slopes down and across the page to the right before flattening out about two-thirds down the page. A gray path runs down the hillside from the door of the house before going behind a school building that sits on the right side of the page. The school's black roof has two peaks forming an M shape with Peck Elementary School written on it in white. On the page from the schoolhouse is a small building with an uneven roof. Lunchroom is handwritten above the door. All three of the buildings have consistent dark roofs, white exteriors, and dark green trim around their doors and square windows. The school and lunchroom are lifted just off the ground on cementish gray blocks. The brown hillside soil is interrupted by watermelon vines made up of large jagged leaves painted in olive greens. Oval watermelons with dark blue-green rinds are scattered among the field of large leaves. In the foreground, about 20 students with dark brown skin run among the watermelons toward the large schoolhouse door. The watermelons near them are split open, their insides spilling out in deep red speckled with black seeds. Several girl students are shown wearing different colored outfits and hairstyles. Boy students wearing white short-sleeved shirts and dark blue pants stained in the knees with red watermelon pulp run about or carry entire watermelons or eat red handfuls. A white speech bubble trails down and to the left behind one of the students with the words, here come Mr. Johnson, in the artist's consistent handwriting. To the left of the school building is a man and a woman, which the artist confirmed are Mr. Johnson, the principal, and his wife, Mrs. Johnson. Mrs. Johnson taught first grade at the school. Mrs. Johnson rings a brown bell over her head. Mr. Johnson walks towards some of the boys, their eyes wide open, and looking at him. A white speech bubble emerges from his mouth down to the right with the words, you fellas get into the classrooms, don't you hear the bell ring? The piece captures the moment the student's joy turns to fear as they realize Mr. Johnson is coming. When asked about him, the artist said the students were afraid of Mr. Johnson and that they called him Big Fella. She commented that Mrs. Johnson was a nice lady and that she was also strict.
