I am calling it 'Winter On The Farm'. Sometimes I dread naming my paintings, but this time the name sort of just popped into my head. It was my goal to paint a scene that depicted a light coating of snow along the grounds surrounding a quiet, rural farm setting. I hope I achieved that, and will let you the viewer decide.
Since I have painted a farm scene. The subjects of choice for my latest paintings, have been all over the place. I've been painting animals, landscapes, seascapes, and other weird stuff. I kind of like jumping around to different subjects because it keeps things interesting for me. Some may find it weird to do that, but when your having fun then it doesn't matter.
So this time I decided to paint the farm! I tried to keep things very simple and paint just a few items that summed up the image in my mind. I also included a few challenging items such as the fence, the tree and the hint of a road. These things needed to be in the right proportion to the barn/house and silo, in order to provide a sense of depth.
You'll see that I layered in some pops of color. I have a bad habit of keeping my paintings muted. I get scared of using bright colors, but am slowly working my way up to using them. Even though this painting is still quite color subdued, I threw in a few pops of color that I wouldn't normally use. I'm making progress.
Let's dive into the process for this painting. I won't go into great detail with this, but will just mention a few of the obvious things I accomplished throughout the process. I spent about an hour painting this piece, from start to finish.
The paper measures approximately 3 inches by 3 inches.. another small painting, and that's why I can get them done in about an hour or so. I taped the paper to my workspace using painters tape. I then lightly drew a rough sketch using a standard #2 pencil.
I then began painting using my nifty watercolor paints. I lightly layered in the sky, buildings and foreground, applying the colors a bit darker to the shaded sides of the structures.
I continued to lay in darker shades over the lighter ones. I also utilized ochers and cadmiums for the silo and trees. I was beginning to see where the heaviest shadows would fall, and kept this in mind while painting.
Using purple and black, I started to touch up the silo and the barn/home to bring out those shaded spots. When you apply darker colors in areas meant to be shaded, it will simultaneously make lighter areas pop or appear lighter than they did. I could now see hints of shrubbery and texture to the old piled up snow around the house and silo. The power pole now makes an appearance!
Next I turned my attention to the tree and getting all of those cool branches randomly placed in.
The fence began to come to life next. I used a loose grip on the brush and attempted not to make any of the posts perfect. It was an old fence after all and needed to look like it was weathered and aged. I also added a few additional shadows here and there as well as in front of the fence.
It's almost done at this point. I used a bit more of the yellow ocher and touched up some areas along the road, silo and tree. By doing this, it was almost like adding a few places the late day amber sun was gracing with her touch. It added warmth to an otherwise cool toned painting.
I concluded my artistic adventure by adding some darker blues to the sky and in front of the fence. In a last attempt to finish this piece up, I added a signature and called it complete!
Or maybe I should have said, "That's All He Painted!" hehe. This was a quick but gratifying creation. I am really happy with the way it turned out. I saw a few things in it that I may change next time around, but not as many as previous paintings.. so that's progress in itself!
“She loved the smell of old truck; thick cotton and vinyl seat covers, old gasoline and oil, the smell of country, decades of farmers, workers and families taking trips back and forth to town, up backroads to swimming holes, over fields, through all the weather. She imagined what this truck would have seen if it had eyes and a memory. She was about to become one more episode in its existence.”
― Glenda Love
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