Old Barn at Willow and South River St

Antique Barn - Stage One

We are very lucky here on the South Shore of Massachusetts to have such a varied landscape - woods, meadows, marshes, beaches, and bogs, along with several rivers that empty into the Atlantic Ocean.   Our seaside town has done a good job preserving open spaces, which allows access and full enjoyment of these landscape features.     The town has been successful in acquiring land parcels for preservation and in many cases they are strung together forming contiguous land masses, and the number of beautiful walking trails continues to grow.

Antique Barn - Stage Two

There is an old farmhouse and barn which sits along a stretch of a (new?) walking trail along the South River in Marshfield, part of a 34 acre conservation parcel that the town now owns.   Up until today I had only caught a glimse of the antique farmhouse from the road.  It looked overgrown with weeds and twisting vines but we took a chance and pulled into the driveway, a turnoff from South River Street.  The "driveway" was more like a cartpath with its tall grasses snaking along between the antique (1700ish) farmhouse and the large salt hay barn.

Maureen Packing Up

As soon as we reached the opening at the back of the house and the front of the barn, we knew that we would stay and paint this beautiful spot.   There were several worthy subjects, but the scene I settled upon was the sunlit barn.   Its old graceful lines were remarkably straight considering its age.    I stood in a shady thicket of trees that was slightly uphill from the barn.    Dark green and burgundy cedars framed the edges of the scene.   An old window shutter opened and closed shut with the occasional strong breezes.  It cast a long vertical shadow on the clapboards below in the open position.   The challenge was to make - yet another - antique barn painting that would stand out from all the other iconic barn paintings.   I think my painting style is defined enough to know that it will be different from the rest because it has my painting style ie. signature, like it or not!  :)

Antique Barn

A handful of hikers and a mountain biker passed by, but other than those visitors, it was mostly solitude. One of the hikers shared that he had been instrumental in supporting the town's open space acquisitions and expressed that he was glad that this interesting and historic barn was being captured in paint.  I was too!

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