Western North Carolina was pounded with yet another heavy snow storm this past week. I took advantage of this situation as my neighbors were snowed in to afraid to venture out. Just up the road from the house I pass this little farm almost everyday. For the longest time I wanted to paint it. I knew that with a fresh blanket of snow the scene would be really ideal.
As I was driving up the road at 8:30 am the sun was at a great angle and when I goth there I was not disappointed.
To be honest I've been a wuss about painting in plein air this year in the cold. I decided to take some photos instead of freeze. When I got back to the house I quickly jumped into action and started playing around with the composition. I wanted to act quick so the idea of the place was still with me when I started the actual painting. As you can see from the original photo (below) I edited quite freely and hopefully well.
I wanted to accentuate the barn (way off in the distance) because I liked its simple shape in combination with shapes of the shadows in the foreground. I made the barn much larger and manipulated it to be my focal point.
Below is the Final Painting.
via richardoversmith.com