Open Barn, oil on canvas, 28×30

This painting is all about the graphic design of the parts and pieces of an open dairy barn, all of which were quite striking in the morning sun. I was drawn to paint this piece because of this. Note the juxtaposition of the cool vivid foreground against the warm tones of the buildings and the desaturated color the background. This gives real depth to the painting.

The buildings have just enough detail to create interest, but not so much that it turns it into an architectural rendering. I like the mystery of the barn’s interior and how I detailed the interior stalls with a hint of what could be livestock or people working.

The majority of the painting is the foreground. I introduced and interpreted the layers of different grasses and weeds with multiple greens and subtle shifts in values to make it visually interesting. I carried the subtle features of this part into adding field fence and the addition of the larger fence line near the bottom to give a sense of perspective.