Whole Lotta Barn, oil on canvas, 20×40
I painted this farm building scene because it seemed to personify the classic American rural landscape on steroids with ten or more buildings in view. I played up the scene by slightly shifting the reds and whites of the paint, a result of being beaten by the weather through the seasons. Some of the sides were weathered by sun, causing the paint to bleach out or peel, while other sides and areas under the eaves were bright and felt newly painted. I detailed the building’s multiple roofs with subtle changes in color, just enough to define the angles of the different planes without showing all the panel breaks or individual shingles.
This painting is also a study in the use of complementary color with red buildings being surrounded by green grass and trees. While this worked by itself, I still felt a need for some extra foreground detail to indicate a sense of depth to create perspective and to pull the viewer’s eye into the scene. This was accomplished by adding the lines created from farm machinery in the foreground.