BARNS

I love barns, all kinds of barns. I cannot turn away from a lonely, abandoned, dilapidated barn sitting forlornly in the middle of an expansive field (the tobacco barns in KY). I am fascinated by the rambling, cattywonkus architecture of an old dairy barn, revealing not only its own history, but the history of the farm and the farmer. I can only imagine the hopes and the dreams that were invested in those structures. I respond to these structures like I do to all of the architecture that I have tried to portray in my art, from the corner stores and markets to the elegant historic structures and landmarks; I project my own dreams and imagination of their history, the stories they hold, onto them.


Barn on Black pastel 20x30
In this painting the focus is entirely on the architectures clean lines and texture. The sky and foreground functions only as a stage for the barn.


Abandoned Barn pastel 20x30
Here I am focused entirely on the barns “story”, obviously abandoned and uncared for, and the setting is part of the story.


Western barn pastel 12x16
I could not resist this...from a photo on a trip out west. I can't remember where - I took so many photos

WHEN BLACK IS BLACK

I recently commented on a friends art blog that I often use pure black in my work, in spite of admonishments by many that one should not do so. Yes, there are ways of creating "black" by using other pigments, and I will occasionally do so. But I am not a literalist, and in my opinion nothing makes colors sing like nearby pure black. It may be ivory or mars black with acrylics, ivory black with watercolors, and even india ink which I have used in some pastel and watercolor paintings.

I've gone through my portfolio and found a few examples of this:


Red Sentinel acrylic 30x40 the black came directly from the tub.


Gray Smokestacks pastel 20x30 the black is pure black chalk and charcol.


Monticello Watercolor aprox 18x30 the black are pure black