Day 25: Barn Life

from January 25, 2012

Barn Life, a soft pastel on 5x10 olive Colourfix sanded paper.

1. I've been using photo references for everything I've done in this series, and RARELY compose anything entirely from imagination or memory, so I assumed that perspective for today's project. I grew up in a barn. Yes, really, from age 4 to 18, I lived in a barn that my paternal grandfather converted into a duplex, where my family lived in the bigger half that included a third floor (where I spent most of my teenage years), and tenants lived on the other half. While we lived in the village of New Tripoli, we were kind of isolated on our own acreage away from the town. If I were a bird, flying in for some food always provided by my mother, I imagine this as the kind of viewpoint that I'd see.

2. It's quite different drawing from memory than from photos and in a much looser, albeit perhaps a more primative style. It feels way, way more creative and less restrictive. Back to the story of the house (also see part 1 description). The shed out in the back left was on the property where our family lived before we moved to *the barn*, so my older siblings have great memories of life there. The blue foreground area represents the constantly replenished loads of crushed blue stones that dad brought home in his truck to groom our driveway. I never fully understood the integration of a metal spiral blue staircase on the enclosed porch side of the house, but realistically, this was ultimately was the main entrance (which was extremely dangerous in the winter). The top and left sides of the extra large yard butted up against corn or hay fields in the summer, and the little white birch tree (there were 2 evenly spaced ones) has since grown large. The dark green patch is where the garden was planted--there used to be a building there, so it never fully matched into the yard. Thanks for indulging my PA Dutch girl memories...