The Barn Project
If you love barns, check out my book The Barn Project.
When I started painting, one of my favorite subjects was old barns. The more run-down, dilapidated and weather-beaten, the better. Old gray wood and rusty roofs continue to call out to me. On our 2011 annual trip to visit Nell’s family in Ohio, we both noticed something. Many of the old barns we had become familiar with on the drive through Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio were beginning to disintegrate, finally succumbing to neglect and weather.
Nell reminded me that one of the things I had wanted to do early in my painting endeavors was to preserve these old barns in paintings. And while I have painted a lot of them, I realized I had moved further away from the subject in the last year or so. I occasionally fall into that trap of being concerned about what people will buy. And I wasn’t sure people really bought paintings of old barns anymore. So I’m trying to get back to painting what interests me, and letting the chips fall where they may (I love cliches… I even paint a lot of them). And thus has been born The Barn Project.
I’m in the process of going back into my archives and pulling out the barn paintings that I’ve done in the past few years, and compiling them here in one place. I’ll post the newer ones here as they are painted, and, over time, I’ll try to insert information where I have it. In some cases, you can click on the image and get a somewhat larger version.
So… barn lovers… enjoy.
Thanks so much for sharing your artwork. I just received some Holbein gouache and look forward to trying it out.
Dale C
Really an awesome collection . You must have enjoyed every moment of drawing these .
I love barns. I hate that they’re disappearing. I FEEL your passion. I paint too. We have similar styles. My hands now, at age 47, are beginning to feel arthritic but I continue to press through and paint on. Keep up the lovely inspired works!
I too love your barns, I tried to capture tons of them out of the car window on 1-80 on my way back from Wash. DC. Now I am inspired to do more of them thanks to you.
Thanks to Everyone. i’m afraid I’m way behind in my responses to your comments. But I appreciate every one of them.
i like yourpaintsing of your barns real neat jerry shanley
Ralph,
I’m going offon a weeekend to MA, North shore with some guache paints to play with. You have some beautiful old barns and achieve some pretty intricate works. I will enjoy playing . Thanks, Mary A
I love your work, they are amazing!!
Thanks very much, Betsey!
Great work. I like the vibrant colours – didn’t think that it was possible to get such brilliance with gouache.
Doug
Wonderful drawings and paintings of barns. When I retired I knew I wanted to draw and paint and make wooden toys – and – amidst many other projects I have mainly been drawing falling apart old barns to keep a record of the past around Ottawa, Ontario in Canada. I have over 100 barns drawn now and another twenty barns photographed. I had them all online- but several months ago everything was hacked and I have not tried to set aside the time to build another site yet –
Drawing barns in great detail has been a wonderful pastime. The wooden toys – mostly given away to charities – help raise money for them – among many other projects, friends and family. Keep up your work – it is a joy to see what you have done and look forward to visiting your site from time to time.
Thanks, Brian. I must confess I haven’t been quite as focused on the barns as I once was. I tend to stray into other subjects a lot.
Beautiful! Beautiful!
Thanks, Holly!
Thank you for your beautiful paintings.. I grew up in Kokomo, Indiana….then moved to South Bend, Indiana. I have many memories of barns painted with “Chew MailPouch Tobacco” hand lettered on the side! I am taking up watercolor again and our class was painting a barn from a black and white photo for value study. I google barn paintings and was blessed with your work! Keep going!
Thanks, Ann. I’ve seen lots of those old Mail Pouch signs on barns.
What a beautiful website. I am also drawn to the old barns & yours are so lovely. I have just begun to paint & have fallen in love with gouache. Thanks for sharing so freely.