The Red Barn

All summer my guy and I trained to do a metric century bike ride. After trying out a couple of highway routes that proved to be absolutely awful for cyclists (no shoulder, shoulder that disappears, shoulder that exists on one side of the road but not the other, shoulder that is three inches wide and next to a curb... what kind of moron put a curb in on a secondary highway? Really now) we found one route that worked.

So as I've been riding on the overpass above this farm every week I've been staring at the barn thinking "OH GOD I'M GOING TO HAVE A HEART ATTACK hmmm... I should paint that thing. It looks nice. Would it be more of a quinacridone red or cadmium red middle? Shit here comes a pothole. Only 60 more kilometers to go!"

At the end of the summer I finally got out to paint the farm. It was very different painting it from the dirt road than looking at it from the highway overpass. Less spandex, for one. And many, many more thistles. After a pleasant afternoon of baking in the sun and sitting in a thistle patch, I tried out the huaraches at a food truck in a nearby town and then dragged this painting back to the studio, where I applied many changes to it. I think I'm finally having a breakthrough in painting.

Hay Bales

Some hay bales at the University Farm.  It was a lovely fall afternoon and I had a nice painting session as random cyclists rode across the field right behind me.  After the light changed I sketched the barn in the distance and then went to look at some experimental peas.

Journal - University Farm

Did some plein air painting at the University Farm today.  The painting was of hay bales but since the weather was so nice I continued sketching after the light had changed.

I've painted this barn from a different angle before.

University Farm

Well, I muffed up the perspective and proportions good, but I console myself with the fact that this isn't the worst thing I've ever painted.

And in my defense there was a huge trailer blocking the last third of the barn that wasn't nearly nice enough to paint.