I have been painting in and around a nearby farm for quite some
time now, sometimes spending the whole day there working on sketches and
finished paintings. I remember that it was one of those places where so many
subjects presented themselves that I had a difficulty choosing which one I
would use for a painting. I was brought up on a farm and as such, in my
paintings, I am often going back to my youth when I spent so much time in and
around the various buildings, sheds and fields etc. I also spent many hours walking
from one end to the other exploring the hedgerows and ditches for wildlife. I have
always explored each subject deeply and have found that some of the finer details
totally fascinate me. This is probably one of the reasons that I take my work a
lot further than some. I think this is mainly because I want to capture those
things I see that move me so much. Oftentimes, there will be an abstract
element to the scene that initially attracts me and that was the case with this
painting. This view is of the south side of what I have called the tractor barn
(the smaller of the two barns) and although empty now, I imagined this would
have been where all the farm vehicles and implements would have been kept.
Initially painted a deep red, the wood has weathered to a dull grey finish with
elements of the red paint still visible in some of the woodgrain and in more
sheltered areas. The main openings had been trimmed with white and red, most of
which still remains although this too is beginning to chip and fade. When I
looked up to the corner where the opening begins its climb to the crown of the
roof, I saw how the sun, now at its highest, had cast a deep shadow across the
interior. This dark triangle excited me and I saw how the inverse shape was
echoed in reverse below. The wall was covered with hanging implements including
the strange clamp shown here. I would have to be careful while painting this as
I felt it was an important element of the composition. Some of the wood above
had split and warped, each casting their own shadows too. So all in all, a lot
of fascinating details that I looked forward to working on. Since there was so
much going on, I decided to use a larger sheet of paper for this one. My choice
of medium would be acrylic. Since acrylic paint is impervious to water when
dry, I felt it would stand up better to the many washes of color I would have
to lay down to capture the scene in the way that I wanted. Here I used it like
I would watercolor, building up the tones slowly and thinly until the final
image emerged from the paper. So far, I have almost finished the left side of
the painting. This part was to me of the utmost importance to get right to
begin with. As it was the area of highest contrast, this was where the viewer’s
eye would go to first. After a few day’s work, I was eventually happy with how
that was going so I began laying in a few grey washes on the right side trying
to get a balance of tones overall. I then made a start on some of the details
above the shed door. Incidentally, part of this door appears in one of my
earlier paintings, ‘Tool Shed’ done a few years ago. That painting was done
from a similar viewpoint as this one although I was standing slightly further
back and a little more to the right. Next I’ll finish off the door and add the
final details.
