Yellow Barn - Quail Roost Farm

Yellow Barn - Quail Roost Farm
Originally uploaded by linfrye

Fortified by a morning of sketching (and the kindness of the plein air group!), I decided to tackle 'the barn'! This historic unusual-color-of-yellow barn, I understand, was on the original farm and stood as the farm's landmark. I found a bit of shade under a single tree (the sun had come out by then, but was still hiding periodically behind clouds), and so I perched myself on a top of a knoll and decided to see what I could do in an hour. HA!

During lunch I was bemoaning my tendency to overwork my washes as I fussed and fussed to keep 'perfecting' what I had done. So one of the artists challenged me to an hour of work -- I took her up on it.

I sat beneath the the tree and gazed at this beautiful barn. I could see other artists around the barn also trying to capture it on paper. I was using 140# coldpress watercolor paper (Canson I believe) in a spiral field book with hard covers, which worked very well for me.

I put my feet up on my alternative chair and relaxed under the tree's shade. I lost myself in lines and did my best to use my eyes as I remembered the principles of perspective I was struggling with all week. After about 50 minuites when I thought my sketch was about done, I realized that the top of my roof should be a bit lower on the left corner -- I tried to amend, but sticking to my hour, I didn't adjust it enough. But I did realize my mistake .. yeah -- progress in wee steps! LOL

After an hour, Nancy and Harley came by reminding me of my time limit -- and we both laughed! She 'gave' me another bit of time to finish the sketch ... and this time, I did!

The barn was painted a most unusual color yellow -- not bright, not dull -- add to that that the barn was in shadow -- and I had a whale of a time trying to get my color close to the original. I wound up using New Gamboge, glazed with Winsor Violet and then glazed with Ind. Blue ... it's mighty close.

I stopped painting and fussing after about 40 minutes, and made minor adjustments at home -- like the edge of the roof (not adjusted enough) on the side by the trees that I covered with leaves ...and left the rest as learning lessons.

In all, I was quite pleased at not overworking the drawing, learning again about perspective, and learning too how important drawing is to a project. I was mighty glad I practiced barns before I tried this plein air! LOL

BTW, I was asked about the horses. There really weren't that many to be seen. The stables and pastures were off-limits, and most of the horses were not in view most of the day. A few riders went by, but for the most part, we all focused on the scenery sans horses.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable event ---!!!