Kentucky

Tomorrow I leave for home.  I will be leaving the State where my father was born and the rest of my siblings and mother still live.  It's difficult to be someone who doesn't understand the local accent or the style of living.  Our family roots are deep in Western Kentucky, so maybe that is why something draws me to the land and the beauty of the old buildings.  I wonder what stories those buildings could tell.

Last night I sketched the ancient house of a local family and then started a sketch of the nearby original barn.  The barn is about 22 ft long and the calves are sequestered in the fenced yard.  The barn itself is almost all metal now.  Every time a wall started to fall apart a sheet of metal was nailed to keep it together.  The metal rusts, so the wall is now steel colored (blue) and dark orange.  It creates a patchwork quilt and if the sun is shining on the sides it glimmers.  I know how cold it would be in the winter.

 I remember a calf being born during the winter, in Owensboro, on my fathers small farm.  The cow was older and couldn't birth the calf. The vet had to be called to pull it out with a hoist and swing the calf to get it breathing.  My children and I were standing in the corner of the barn in the freezing cold watching baby Noel being born!

Old log house with very old siding and metal repair on walls.

This was the original barn with the log house!

Grannies old barn

We thought this was Eli's Uncles barn-not?

Button Farm on Saloma Rd.

The falling down garage perpendicular to the barn.  Storm coming!

Cows, Crickets and Killdeer

The other half to this scene is below; try to picture them together.

It is summer in Kentucky, not summer as I know it in the Pacific Northwest, but the hot humid kind of 90 degree weather that makes me want to hibernate.  My artistic relief is getting out close to 7:30 pm and painting local scenes of sheds, barns and farmland.  Imagine my surprise when I drove down the road and saw Killdeer flying around.  I only imagined these birds living near the shore, so seeing them flying in cow country was quite a surprise.  Painting in the evening offers the sound of birds, crickets, the occasional dog bark or cows mooing.  The breeze cools me and the peace of being alone with just my subject matter is very zen like.

Barns are not my particular subject, but you can't be in Kentucky and not paint barns.  Most barns are red, some black for drying tobacco and others have lost all color.  They all seem huge; I have to sit far from them to fit them on the sketchbook.  The farmers are friendly and delighted that you want to make a painting of their barn.  They bring out ice cold lemonade and peek over your shoulder to see if it really looks the way it should.  The hills and valleys give views for miles offering just the right light for late afternoon shadows. Try to picture these scenes as one large spread; I can't get them to sit side by side.

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Inman Farm, Campbellsville, KY (I was impressed with the two trees setting this barn off on the rolling hills and the low sun creating shadow on the barn)

View from my sisters back yard, Campbellsville, Ky.