NOT ANOTHER BARN ON YUPO!

Barns have always been part of my life. I played in many Indiana barns when I was a kid since we lived in a rural area where corn fields and barns dotted the landscape. I can still smell that hay, the manure...UGH! I can remember being very frightened to step down into that open space out of the hay mow.

My hope with this painting was to create a landscape of an old barn but give it a twenty first century appeal. The scene is made up, and it's created on the slick YUPO surface.

I used the grid idea that George James often starts with to 'set up' the painting. You can see the overall grid in the drawing below, but it's harder to see how the grid is shifted upward and to the left slightly where the barn is. The important parts of the painting are located within that specific section of the grid. Areas outside that specific section of the grid area get less attention and detail, helping lend a contemporary look to the old fashioned barn. This grid device has really helped me simplify and state better what is vital to me in my paintings, especially on YUPO, where I can get pretty nutty about textures, often letting them take over the painting.

The early stage of the painting clearly defines one good white shape, with other shapes painted in to surround it. Eventually the good white shape is integrated into the overall design, and even though it's no longer visible, it still provides the skeleton that helps hold the design of the painting together.

This Saturday I give a demo at the Cincinnati Women's ART Club at their NEW BARN! They've renovated the old barn where United Dairy Farmers began (love that ice cream.) Because this is their first meeting there, I felt inspired to paint a barn for them with a contemporay touch. YUPO, here we go again! I'm nervous, but I know I'll have fun. The demo drawing's almost complete, and I'm really planning this one a lot more than the one posted here. Hopefully, the finished painting will have a resemblance to their new art center in the huge, remodeled UDF barn.

"OLD TIMES" Transparent Watercolor on Heavy Weight YUPO 26 x 20" COLLECTED