Early 2020 my husband and I were passing through Lancaster, Pennsylvania. All the corn fields have completed their season and have died, now resembling a golden wheat field from a distance. I was amazed to see this one field filled to the brim, peppered with hundreds of black birds! I didn’t catch a photo of it, but it was so beautiful, I knew I needed to add it to my collection of Pennsylvania landscape paintings. 🙂
This painting holds a lot of meaning for me with how I’ve been feeling recently. When I look at this old broken down barn, I ask myself what value does this old building have for its owner? Seemingly lonely and abandoned, taunted by a mass of heckling black birds, this fragile frame somehow holds its own decade after decade… too vulnerable to shelter life safely inside it, so what purpose does it serve?
After pondering on this, I realized its worth, as an artist. Here I am admiring its imperfections. I couldn’t wait to get home to paint this mysterious structure. Though in its physical form it may not serve its original purpose, I am re-creating its beauty because it has inspired my mind. For me, it serves a new purpose. Somehow, through torrential rain and intense wind, it still stands tall. Nature has exposed its raw and true original colors. Storms have beaten down parts of its body. But it’s resilient. It presses on, refusing to give up. I admire this broken down old barn and I am grateful that I can give it ‘new life’ by appreciating its imperfections through my art. 🙂
