We found this beautiful old brick house with an unique bell on the kitchen wing that was used to let the farmers know supper was on the table. This place is preserved in a park where we would take our grandson for walks and after passing by it two or three times it finally caught my eye.
What I'm aiming for here is to have a white picket fence just behind the sidewalk and some tree branches in the upper left sky to brake up that large blue mass. The shadows on the house need some adjusting. I need to determine where the sun is and cast the shadows accordingly.
For me everything starts with the sky and this sky turned out just like I wanted it to on the first try. That's half the battle over with right there. You can see the progression, sky, roof, brick. Next will be the windows, shadows cast by the sun, then the trees on the horizon so the house doesn't float in mid air like you see it know.
Several times my wife and I have driven up to Hendersonville, NC to visit the Carl Sandburg Historic Home. It's a great place to visit and sit and draw. Mrs. Sandburg raised prize winning goats that were known around the country for the amount of milk they produced and there are still several dozen goats around the barns to this day. This painting started out to be a summer day but the sky seemed to lend itself to a winter scene and that's where it ended up.
The sky is complete and the first layer of paint is down on the barns but there is a lot to go yet. The roof''s, green/tan grasses in the foreground, windows and doors in the barn all have to be put in. In this painting the sky had three starts and was moments from the trash can before it settled down and became what you see here. Original it was very dark, like storm clouds with white billowy clouds contrasted against it. Believe me, this looks better.
Every young boy growing up on the farm wanted to get the chores done before dark but in the winter months that was almost impossible because the sun set so early. But some evenings like the one in this painting were almost enjoyable as the snow lightly fell just at dusk.
There will be a farmer added to this scene who is heading to the barn to start chores before dark. On the farm there was always morning and evening chores and if you had dairy cows that meant milking too.
This is a full size painting of a small one I completed this past summer. I added a windmill to give a vertical against all the strong horizontal movement in this composition.
If you were not impressed with the previous blog hopefully this photo proves to you the painting is not a disaster. The idea is that there is a well worn drive out to the barn as the farmer goes back and forth from the house to the barn. I'm becoming more familiar with acrylics and using them in every painting (this one is about three-quarters acrylic). 
Seen here is the work in progress after an hour and a half, maybe one-third finished. This might be called the underpainting because all the detail and finish work is yet to be completed. It is December after all and that has put me in the mood for snow scenes.
This painting has the glow of twilight and snowfall that I was hoping to capture. Many a winter evening I saw scenes just like this one. Sometimes everything comes together (usually right after I'm ready to throw the whole thing in the trash) and the finished work surprises me. This is one one those moments. 16x20" Original Watercolor
Over the years I have sold 20 or 25 snowfall scenes. At one particular show I sold every one I brought but I haven't painted one in many years now. Just kind of got out of the grove and wanted to move on. This painting needs the details added in the barnboards, doors and windows painted in, and the snowflakes falling. I'll post the finished painting in a couple of days.
Years ago this barn had a nice white wash but over the years it has become weathered and suffered from the elements. The painting has an acrylic sky and guache barns and foreground.
Usually my barns are red but this was begged to be painted white and weathered by time. This scene is also from Ohio.