Barnyard Medley

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. I am heading down to Taos, New Mexico on the 15th for my annual Taos Watercolor Workshop and this is a painting I did in my sketchbook at one of my previous workshops. We were at a farm just outside of town and the barnyard was full of subjects. Working across two pages gave me a whole new way of looking at things. I just painted whatever interested me and then connected everything with grass and cast shadows. As I look at it now, I probably should have continued the fence behind the tire.

I enjoy working in sketchbooks because I can carry all I need in a small shoulder bag and set up anywhere. Sometimes I do small finished paintings and other times I just put down ideas and capture moments in time. Later I look through the pages and see if there is anything I want to develop into a larger painting. The chickens and the geese were constantly moving but, if you watch, they keep doing the same things and returning to the same positions. It takes practice but with patience you can learn to draw and paint creatures as they move about. What you learn will be very helpful when you want to include human figures in your sketchbook and finished paintings. With practice, you can enjoy sitting in a cafe with your favorite drink as you sketch whatever amuses you. Some of my favorite memories of traveling are recorded in my sketchbooks.

For the geese I left unpainted white paper and added form with gray mixed with cerulean blue and just a little cadmium red. The fence behind them is a mixture of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue. The tire and the fence on the right were painted with the same gray mixtures and the chicken is a combination of burnt sienna and mineral violet. The grass is olive green with French ultramarine blue added for the darker parts.

Sketchbooks come in all shapes and sizes and I prefer the ones by Hahnemuhle because I love their watercolor paper. If you plan on painting, make sure the sketchbook says for watercolor so that there will be sizing on the paper. In August I will be teaching a three day sketchbook workshop here in Denver and we will be painting in different locations each day as we work on vignettes, little paintings, animals, people, architecture, etc. For further information, Click Here. Happy Painting! Dennis Pendleton