THE TRACTOR BARN

I did this painting for the up-coming Grit & Glory exhibition that starts this Sunday at McBride Gallery in Annapolis, MD. In this scene I was at first taken by the strong sunlight and how it made interesting shadows on the floor of the barn. The two forward support posts were in part sun - part shade and I saw a recurring theme in the angled forms running from left to right. Later I became interested in the old tarps hanging between two of the support posts on the right so these were carefully painted in taking care not to make them too prominent. The back wall of the barn has all sorts of things including stacked wood and an old ladder etc but I left out some of the junk that was lying about. I tried to get a weather-beaten feel to the scene using drybrush and slowly building up tones with many washes of color. I love scenes like this as they often remind me of my childhood experiences living on a farm in the South of England.
Grit and Glory runs from April 17th to May 8th, so if you are in the area I hope you'll stop by and take a look. The Tractor Barn is 11" X 22".