Wilderness Road Farm

Whenever I travel I take my camera and sketch pad to record anything that looks to have potential for a painting. Sometimes I wish I could turn off that part of my work brain and just enjoy the day.

When we were biking at the Cumberland Gap area in Virginia I spotted this farm along the side of the Wilderness Road Rails to Trails. The design of the barn roof caught my attention and then the large yellow maple tree set off the rhythm of the buildings.

In creating this painting I used UArt sanded paper - 400 grit. After sketching the image I blocked in the design with pastel and then wet the drawing with alcohol to create the underpainting.

In the finished drawing I used Sennelier pastels from the Plein Air Landscape set to add the warm colors of the late fall.

"Wilderness Road Farm" underpainting

"Wilderness Road Farm" 11"x14" pastel