Dairy Barn, Idaho landscape, barley field, Art Tip #22 Sky Holes

" Price Ranch Dairy Barn "

Oil

6"x6"

Available

This little oil was a challenge. So much information for a small painting. I usually try to simplify my subject, but this dairy barn is historic to our valley and I just learned, to my own family, too. I wanted it to be a fairly accurate recording. The barn dates from the late 1800's. My father-in-law grew up in this valley and worked on this farm as a young boy during the Depression. He would sneak into the dairy barn and eat the cream off the top of the milk containers (his father was killed in a mining accident and left the family penniless). He lived to be 87 and like many people surviving the Great Depression had a life long connection/obsession with food, never wanting to go hungry again. His freezer was always stuffed, he didn't throw anything away.

Oh, by the way. This barn is huge..I'm guessing 100' long. Fortunately, the current owner has the means to keep this property intact and restored. I hope to do more paintings of this barn.

Art Tip #22 Sky Holes...When painting the sky one sees through trees, make the sky color a half step or step darker than what you mixed for the sky. When you surround a small bit of color with darker color it appear lighter. Your sky holes will stay in place and not pop out. Also, as foliage nears the top of the tree where more light surrounds it, it becomes lighter, edges soft.