Old Pennsylvania Barn
I found this photo among others that I took in the late summer of1980 of my grandparent's farm in Bucks County, PA. The barn was no longer in use. This is the back side of the structure. I had to wrangle with color corrections on the photo, as the old print had turned brow over time, but managed to salvage a decent image. I painted the scene on Langton Prestige paper and tried very hard to plan my washes and use soft, mixed browns, grays and greens. In late summer purple Pokeberries ripen, which is a common weedy plant in the Eastern Seaboard (its juice was used as ink). You might call it a very staining color. To me, the berry bushes complete the scene. I was feeling quite nostalgic, remembering playing in the barn as a child
with my cousins.
It reminds me on one of the lessons in Tony Couch his book. It is almost impossible to recognize it as a house. We know because the photo is there too. You could have zoom in on a door, or zoom out if you want it to be seen as a house. Photos are easier to believe than a painting from the same subject. So the artist have to make clear what we see here.