It's a Barn Day

Lil Red Barn I

by Artist Rita Squier

Original Watercolor Painting

11 x 15 inches

It is an absolutely gorgeous sunny and bright day ... a chill in the air. The perfect autumn day! It just feels like a barn day.

Rural New York

Seen Better Days

by Michael Squier

Original Watercolor with Pen and Ink

Size: 11 x 15 inch

I have been teaching watercolor painting classes for a number of years now. After a few years of teaching, my husband started taking my classes. He enjoys sketching old barns in india ink and coloring them with watercolors.

We do a lot of traveling to and from the Adirondacks. One day instead of taking the thruway, we decided to set our GPS to shortest route to see where the roads would take us. Instead of a 3 hour drive, I think it took us 7 hours. Joining us on this adventure in the backseat of our convertible were our dog and cat. They too, thankfully, enjoyed the ride. We travelled through rural upstate New York. It is beautiful farm country. I took tons of photos of beautiful scenery, mainly farms. It is amazing the sites you miss by traveling the highways. Upstate New York is filled with tons of farms. Many of which have seen better days, including the one shown here in this watercolor painting. Seeing the sites of these farms, makes one think. You really should support your local farmers by purchasing locally grown produce and products they offer from honey, to syrup, to wool and more.

Watercolor Barns of Upstate New York

This time of year the barns of Upstate New York sit nestled in the snow.  Driving around the back roads of my county, I took a photograph of this barn and turned it into a watercolor painting lesson for one of my classes.  I painted two similar versions of this painting and one now lives in Germany.