I must be anticipating winter with these snowy landscapes I've been painting! This scene conveys the feeling of a real cold afternoon in the middle of January. 16x20" Original Watercolor
Much of the farming life is prepairing for a blanket of snow in the winter months that covers the fields where animals eat. The much needed hay is stored in the barns where it is usually nice and warm even though the snow blows outside. 
Finally I've been able to capture what I want in an intense sunset and do it justice. Many an evening in the late summer or early fall there is a moment of time when the setting sun sets the horizen on fire.
In the top photo you can see the pencil outline of the farm buildings and trees before I painted the first layer. The second photo is a little dull but shows the underpainting before I finished putting the second and third washes on. I'm hoping the edges of the barn, house, and trees will have an orange glow to them as they reflect the setting sun.
The gable of the barn seems so far up when your standing on the ground and by the end of the summer they used to be packed to the top with square bales of hay.
I'm trying to work out the bugs in this little painting and have it ready to post in a day or two. The barn itself is coming along fine, it's the sky that I'm worried about. I've gotten so far behind in just about everything that posting my progress seems to take the back seat.
The farm of the famous writer Carl Sandburg is located forty minutes from my home and is a beautiful drive into the Blue Ridge Mountains. While we visited this pasts spring I took several photo's and sketches and have painted the barns in several different scenes. 
It was a warm spring day when I first saw this farm with the leaves just starting to bud out on the trees. It is really four barns all connected that have been well taken care of throughout the years.
I discovered this farm when I drove my son to a nature park where he had entered an art contest. When we left that afternoon we pulled the car over and I sketched and shot photos till the kids begged to go to MacDonalds to get something to drink.
Finally I've completed this painting and am satisfied enough with it to leave it alone. When we were there the sun was shining bright and the old white clapboards were glistening in its light. I hope I was able to capture that here.
This is yet another study of the same painting I've been working on all week. I can see the shadow side of the building needs to be a little darker, the windows need attention, and above all there needs to be a strong verticle going off the top of the painting. I've considered a light pole or tree limb but I think it's going to be a steeple or bell house. I don't normally feel the need for a verticle in my landscapes but this building is so dominant there is the need for it. I can't take another photo of the finished work untill my wife gets back with the camera from another one of her little trips across the country. 
Over the last couple of days I have been able to paint in some shadows, the clapboards, and work on the grass a little bit but most of my time has been spent playing with my little grandson who has been visiting with his mommy.
This painting is about half finished with all the clapboard detail, windows, and foreground to paint in yet. I'm not sure if the composition can stand alone or needs to go back to some thumbnail schetches to help it out.