Winter Barn - A Work in Progress

I had an enjoyable day painting with the Buckhorn Tuesday Painters. Our instructor for the class was George Elliott, who is well known for his pen and ink drawings of the local churches, buildings and historical sites in the area.

We spent the first hour in the morning doing three minute sketches of various barns, farm houses, and broken down buildings. It was from these sketches that we were to develop the drawing for our painting. I had about fourteen sketches to choose from and worked on a number of them; many are now ready to be transferred down onto watercolour paper and made into paintings.

I chose to work on a painting with a barn that I had started on a while ago and would like to have completed for the May show with the Buckhorn Artists' Group.

The sky was washed in with Antwerp blue and a hint of French ultramarine blue was added to the top left side of the sky. The white of the paper was left for clouds.















Using a mixture of the sky colours and a touch of burnt sienna, the snow was painted in giving the base for various snow drifts. The background trees were painted in with a mixture of French ultramarine blue and raw sienna.

A wash of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna was applied to the roof, leaving the white paper for accumulated snow on the roof. With the paper fairly dry I used various mixtures of alizarin crimson, burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue, letting the paper help to create the texture of the old barn boards. The barn is almost complete.

A mixture of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna was added use to put the shadow under the eaves of the roof, and to indicate where some of the boards end on the barn. One of the fence posts has had some of the dark lines added to it as well as having started on one of the trees. The first layer of wash has been added to the horse using burnt sienna.

I will work on this painting again and post it at a later date.