Portrait of a Barn

This is "my" barn, the poor old beauty. I can't fix it, so I keep on painting it.

The initial sketch-in:

Then, blocking in the colors, especially the highlights and shadows:

 More detail, and blocking in the sky (and catching a few gnats in the wet paint!)

 The finished painting:

9 x 12 inch, plein air, oil on linen/hardboard. May 26, 2017

I started this one pretty late, and used up every minute of daylight. Studying and painting the weathered wood and knots that still hold red paint on the faded north face, the milkhouse, the feed room, the lean-to. The long grass that surrounds it in the spring time, the beautiful old cupolas, with their touches of rust, that always catch the last of the light in the evening.

Here's looking at you, Barn.

Suppertime

"Suppertime", 6 x 8" plein air, oil on linen/hardboard.

This afternoon, after so many gloomy days, the clouds at last broke and the sun peaked through, casting long shadows and illuminating the seeding dandelions and the fields, lush from all the rain. The cows grazed in the long grass.

I had a fine time, but the dogs were bored to sleep.

The chickens, after some suspicion, decided I wasn't a threat.

A Windy Rainy Day in May

It's been so rainy and wet lately. There isn't much field work being done around the area, with the fields being muddy at best, and washed out or under water at worst. And the last few days have also been cold. It felt more like March today, instead of May, as I went out to paint.

The dandelions are going to seed, which I always find beautiful, and I wanted to paint some of them, and there's this old favorite oak tree at the corner of a field that's not quite fully leafed out yet.

Getting things started - blocking in the shapes, and painting clouds.

It was windy, and occasionally misting, and I was damp and shivering by the time I was through painting. But there were some amazing clouds out there today, the sound of the wind blowing through the grass, dandelion seeds in the air, a blackbird's nest in the hay field, and a deer passing by as I was cleaning up.

A red-winged blackbird's nest.

I call it a pretty good day to be out.

A Windy, Rainy Day in May. 12 x 9 inch, plein air, oil on linen/hardboard.

(But I hope we get some sunshine soon.)

Rain over the Ridge

It was a wet, but lovely afternoon. 

Rain over the Ridge, 8 x 16" plein air oil on linen/hardboard.

The fields are growing lush, so many flowers and blossoms perfume the air, and the leaves on the trees unfurl and grow fuller every day. Today I painted the clouds which blew in from the southwest, bringing rain.

I stayed mostly dry in the doorway of a shed, kept company by a couple of damp dogs, occasionally startling a barn cat passing through on an errand.