Wynetka Farm Barn - as painted on site

Wynetka Farm Barn, 14x11, oil on canvas  Available

Tuesday is the Plein Air Artists of Colorado (PAAC) day to paint in and around Denver each week. It has been years since I have been an active member. This year I am endeavoring to go out more, this being the second time I have actually made it.

I am posting the painting as it was when I walked away from the scene. I do plan to do a few minor things to it to "finish" it. Example: the fence posts do not have their slats in them. The grasses on the hillside were mostly dead but I like the contrast of the color so I doubt I will get into that, but the tall dead grasses along the pond's edge, which I started to put in, might get a wee boost.

It was a beautiful morning before the wind started to softly, at first, blow around 10 or so. It changed the reflection mightily over the time I painted this, approximately an hour or so. That is what is so wonderful about painting plein air. You must get it down quickly before the conditions change! The light, the wind, the clouds, etc etc. There is something magical about painting outdoors and every time I do get out, I wonder why I do not do it more often.

Note: this photo was taken with my phone on my easel inside. I totally forgot to take a photo of it on the easel with the scene in front. It is fun to see that, I know.

I chose this scene because it was fairly straight forward. It divided the panel into almost equal thirds; the shape of the barn is a rectangle; the roof is a parallelogram; the barn was nice and white against all the color and I liked the white Winnebago (even if you can't tell, that is what it is) repeating the white of the barn, and the dark window within the white, opposite to the window in the barn.