Sunrise on the Farm

We've been talking about tone in my literature circles at school lately.  "What's the tone of this chapter?"  It's a concept that is fairly new to fourth graders, but once they understand it, they notice it and point it out in every passage they read.  

I might take this painting to school and ask them, "What's the tone of this scene?"  If I've done a good job... both with teaching them and with painting this... they'll say, "It has a peaceful tone," or maybe they'll say it's tranquil or calm or quiet.  

This is the original photograph that I fell in love with.  It was taken by Tom from Piks of the Day, and Stuff. I stumbled across his work and ended up looking through the entire blog.  When I came to this image I left a comment saying that I loved this image, that I thought it was my favorite picture from his whole blog, and that if it wasn't in black and white that I'd want to ask permission to paint it.  He replied that he'd love for me to paint it and that I could just look at other views of it to get the coloring.

Oh, my... I thought... This guy is really nice, but he has completely overestimated my abilities as an artist... then I thought some more... I had permission, so I painted the same barn from a different photograph to work out the coloring... and kept thinking about it... I had turned a black and white into color one time before... my painting buddies also loved the image... so I took a deep breath and drew it up on the canvas.

I didn't intend to, but I began with the beautiful yellows an oranges and rosey-reds of a sunrise (or maybe a sunset) sky. I have no idea whether the sun really rises (or sets) behind the barn, but I think it's such a peaceful time of the farm day.  That's the tone I wanted to convey.

So, thank you to Tom both for the permission to use your photo and for the encouragement to take a risk. 

Original Oil Painting on 14" x 18" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]