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Sunday, June 27, 2010

Open Season on Barns

"Yellow Barn in Morning Light"
9x12, oil

Barns, especially red barns, are sometimes thought of as hackneyed material for the artist. Romantic scenes of rustic architecture may end up on a restaurant placement rather than in a museum. But every landscape artist I know does a barn now and then. There's something attractive about the way sunlight falls on the blocks that make up a barn's shape. I think if you treat the barn as an abstraction and don't try to replicate the rustic quality, your picture may very well escape the grim fate of being selected for a tablemat.

Above is one I did yesterday. I frequently hike past the back end of this barn and, at certain times of day, the light hits it in a way that gives me great pleasure. I've always wanted to paint it like this.