A favorite barn painting of mine just found a new wonderful home. So it has moved on...
Long Ago And Far Away by Shirl Ireland
20" x 20" Plein Air Oil SOLD
Nostalgia has set in. I miss this painting. How well I remember the day painting this piece, with horses looking over my shoulder! A scene I had my eyes on for some time to capture on canvas. I thought about painting this scene for so long, the painting 'painted itself' as they say. Now, it feels long ago and far away.
It seems barns (and my paintings of them) will always hold a special place for me. After all, I have even lived in one.
About 20 years ago, John and I painstakingly dismantled a mortise and tenon timber frame barn piece by piece, including it's slate roof. Then, moved it piece by piece and re-errected it - adjusting and changing it just a bit to adapt it to be our home. I knew those pieces well! Every. Last. One.
And, like this painting, it was hard to pass onto new owners.
Before that, from my very early childhood, I have fond memories of my grandparents farm and huge dairy barn, with it's massive silo near a sheltering chestnut tree.
I'm not sure if those barn memories were the early seeds of my 'architecture affinity', but I certainly do appreciate great architecture - from barns to homes to cathedrals. Right now, I am wallowing in my barn appreciation.
From my bookshelves...
A good barn catches my eye every time. I admire their lines, their grace in the landscape and the history, farming families and pure hard work they embody. Form really does follow function here - love that!
So now, I paint them. That is my way to show my appreciation, adoration and intrigue with a subject.
Over the last couple weeks, as I say good-bye to "Long Ago And Far Away", I've started working on a series of barn paintings, to capture my fondness for barns.... and to fill that 'barn space' in my heart...
Too soon to call any of these "done", but they are filling my studio and easel currently with memories from long ago and far away.