Old Barn in the Smokies

I love old barns... The old wooden ones with the rusty metal roofs... The one like my grandma and grandpa had... Barns that were filled with cows and hay and plows and mules and kittens and ropes and chains and buckets... 

Maybe my favorite paragraph ever is the one that describes the barn in Charlotte's Web.

The barn was very large.  It was very old. It smelled of hay and it smelled of manure.  It smelled of the perspiration of tired horses and the wonderful sweet breath of patient cows.  It often had a sort of peaceful smell - as though nothing bad could happen ever again in the world.  It smelled of grain and of harness dressing and of axle grease and of rubber  boots and of new rope.  And,  whenever the cat was given a fish-head to eat, the barn would smell of fish.  But mostly it smelled of hay, for there was always hay in the great loft up overhead.  and there was always hay being pitched down to the cows and the horses and the sheep.

.... Sigh... 
Thank you, E.B. White, for painting such a beautiful description with words.

When I started looking for a picture of a barn to paint, I remembered this one that I took this a few years ago when we were in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

I painted it, finished it, and photographed it.  But, didn't blog about it because something wasn't right.  I just left it on an easel and avoided looking at it. 
Finally, I sucked it up and really looked at it to see what one little thing or two needed to be tweaked... ummmm... or seven or eight things...

1. The tree back looked like a lollipop.
2. The road made it look like the barn was sticking out its tongue.
3. The tree in front was too small and messed up the whole perspective.
4. The back field was too light and looked like a scum-covered pond.
5. The back row of trees was too green and looked like a giant inchworm.
6. The first mountain was too dark.
7. There was a lot of the same green going on.
8. The grass was boring.

Sometimes the painting fairies come in during the night and make a painting look better than I thought it had.  Sometimes I just have to do it myself. 

I love the final finished version.

I can just imagine all the work and joy and stress and daily routines and life that went on in that barn when it was new.  

Original Oil Painting on 10"x 20" Wrapped Canvas.
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