The Fields Project, Continued....

Sometimes it takes a while to get your bearings when you're painting in an unfamiliar place. That has certainly been the case for me this week. I just hadn't been satisfied with anything I'd done because I didn't really know what it was I wanted to paint....until today. When I started seeing farm buildings as BIG GEOMETRIC SHAPES against a field of blue, I knew that was it, that was my subject!

These wonderful iconic red barns overlook a sea of golden wheat. So we were surrounded by primary colors: red, blue, yellow. The barns' owner, a gracious hostess who plied us artists with coffee and homemade fudge, told us her family has owned and worked this farm since 1830 -- about as far back as Illinois' original settlement goes.

As you can tell from these watercolors, the day was magnificent! Painting outdoors under big, shady oaks, a cool breeze and a blue sky filled with puffy white clouds is about as close to heaven as it gets.