Outside In

Whidbey Art Gallery will be having a new show in November titled "Outside In".  My simple brain takes this translation literally.  Here are a couple of entries for the show along with a redo of an 8x8 (Happy Mothers Day).

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!  The original pear was too elongated and tablecloth needed to be brighter.

MANDARINS!  I found the oval plate in Kentucky

I was painting this in reverse; looking at the subject in the reflection of a shed window.  The window was very dark and acted as a mirror.  It's too bad I didn't add the sides and edges of the window for perspective.
OLD HAY, KENTUCKY

The Bride Wore Cowboy Boots

Late afternoon view with no sun 8-(

Last week I was included in an "everyone is family," wedding in Kentucky.  I knew the groom, one of my nieces was decorating for the affair and, my other niece and her children were in the wedding.  Kyle considers my sister his other mother, so I was his aunt for the wedding!

Yahoo!  Beautiful sun after morning rain!

My view of the stage

The wedding was held in a bright red barn with intertwined wreaths over the door and curtains of tobacco row covering creating a drape down each side.  The seating in the barn was on hay bales, and benches covered with white blankets or quilts.  The bride and groom and attendants were on a stage just in front of the barn.  This area was beautifully decorated with drapery, burlap, magnolias and the most gorgeous ferns and views of the cows roaming the fields.  (Tobacco row covering is a durable, see through and unique fabric that was used for curtains, bows and drapery.) 

The bride wore a beautiful gown.  I'm not good at describing this, except to say it wasn't big and fluffy, but simple with a short train that she had to carry.  She wore boots!  I loved it.  The bridesmaids were in an pretty eggplant or muted green short dress, baby breath wreaths on their hair and boots.  The ushers, all part of friends and family were boys dressed in a beige shirt with a white cowboy hat.  My niece and her children played a part as bridesmaid and her children, usher and flower girl.

Check out the cart

The bride and groom have been together for a while and have a young daughter almost two that was rolled down the aisle in an old fashioned cart and was entertained during the ceremony by her grandpa with an ipad! The whole effect was beautiful, unique and so Kentucky.

The happy couple

After the service when the couple walked down the aisle a burlap cover was dropped showering them with crushed hydrangeas.
 Music, was Reba and other country singers, singing about love and during the ceremony two young men played the guitar. The whole affair rocked and put a big smile on my face!  It was a beautiful celebration.  I still want that playlist Kyle!

The party afterwards was held in a huge building and catered in a unique way.  The food was very country and served in large enamel bowls and dishes were aluminum pie plates! My Northwest soul says don't ask if they were trashed or recycled.  Here are some other sketches!

There were more cows in the distance and that funky looking animal on the right is a pony.

I loved this pose and her haircut!

Maggie's beautiful blouse.

Loved his shirt color and his white sunglasses repeating the shape of his head.

Sitting outside the barn with the view of the farm & stage.

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.