Spring Trip to the Flint Hills

KANSAS • PRAIRIE • OLD BARN • NOSTALGIA

The Fixer Upper, 11 x 14, oil on canvas.

   My first trip to the Flint Hills was very hazy, possibly from people burning stuff. The vistas were just not happening. I found some interesting herds of cattle on the gentle slopes that might be paint worthy but what really got me excited was this...whatever it is. It looks like an old farmhouse that has been turned into a barn but it could be just a small barn with dormer windows. What jumped out at me was the crooked architecture and the intense contrast of that edge from the roof to the shadow side.
 

   Back in the studio, I challenged myself to really lay the paint on thick. The only way I know to do this is to mix up large piles of paint and trowel it on with a palette knife which I did throughout. I'm not that proficient with knife painting so I went back and did a lot of brushwork, adjusting as I went. I usually try to move around keeping everything at about the same level of finish but on this one finished each section so that I would always be working "wet in wet." The above animation shows the progression. There are many ways to execute a painting.