farmland – Ink, Yarn & Beer

In the Fields

This painting was laid in on the last day of my Tuesday afternoon class which ended in July. It’s been sitting around while life moved into different areas. I finally found the time last week to finish it up. Final touch ups took place a few minutes here and there after that. Now, it is in a frame and ready to be put on display.

A summer or two ago a friend and I went to her family’s little farm plot out on the Oxnard Plain. I don’t know if this was her husband or just a worker I saw, but I thought it was such a wonderful photo it deserved becoming a painting. It shows the beautiful flat farmland found in western Ventura County, CA, and the coastal mountains which border it. I spent my teens in a then-small town nearby and always loved driving through the farm / ranch country on narrow roads surrounded by a variety of crops. I still do, too.

Oil on canvas board, 16×20.

The Wicked Sun

I pushed this photo in a lot of ways to get that sun glare and spots that showed up when I aimed to the western sky. Even though this is good farmland, I felt that sunny glare – not quite like that of a person staggering through a desert in mad search of water – but I did feel its intensity! Again, at a friend’s family farm.

Coastal Farm

Along the California coast, fog forms and covers the land, usually in the mornings and later in the day. It is a very standard – and annoying! – part of summers here – “May Grey” and “June Gloom” and “Goodbye July” are the standard snarks about the lack of sun! Here, another view of the farm, misty fog coming in as the afternoon moves into evening.

Harvesting

Another photo from the visit to a friend’s family farm. Here you can see the empty field from yesterday beyond the small cultivated area. Tom is gathering lettuce, basil, carrots, chard, cebollas and other delicious goodies while Judy and I wandered around shooting pictures, trying to get some good shots. At heart, I am a farm / country girl, and being out here was (pardon the pun) food for the soul.

Windbreak

California is losing its farmland – development of tract homes played a big part in the loss of arable land. Now it’s floods and drought. But in a more perfect world, eucalyptus trees were planted between fields to keep the damage from wind – erosion – down, especially when the east winds blew.

Here, more working with broad swaths of similar colors laid out in a wash. I did this one in a few layers. The first thing I did was the sky and the tree trunks. From there, a pale layer of varying color for the tree foliage, and second and third layers of the same, increasing in darkness. At the end, the field and track and a bit of stuff in the distance. Branches in both dark paint and in gouache.

I have been using Strathmore “Vision” 140# paper for this and other studies, and it is not too bad! Reasonably priced, and it seems to be holding up quite well to wetness and working. I haven’t tried larger sheets, but this may make me interested for practice.