Tina’s in the Barn

2018
20 x 30in 
acrylic on masonite

I have long wanted to paint our barn’s exterior, and this represents my first attempt. Like most of my rural images, I attempt to imbue the scene with some sort of emotional resonance. Interestingly, this image came about 33 years after my first attempt at portraying an emotional state with a landscape, (Tina’s Out West), and I have returned to my relationship with my lifelong partner as the theme of this work.  

January, where we live in the snow belt of Southwestern Ontario, can be a cold and barren place. Lake effect streamers and storms can drop a lot of snow, where it gets whipped around into blinding squalls over bare farm fields. Historically, the barns that were built had to be sturdy and thick-walled to ward off the intense cold and protect the animals inside. 

The gunslinger on the barn door is taken from real life. Our son Tyler stenciled the cowboy on the door as a birthday gift to me some years ago. Here he confronts the viewer, his gun drawn to challenge oncomers. 

The time of day of the painting represents that ambiguous period of late winter twilight, as the sun quickly sets, just before plunging the farm into another cold winter night. Tina’s presence in the barn is marked by the lights on in the barn windows, providing a warm contrast to the cold light of dusk. The massive bulk of the barn acts as a fortress, guarded by the cowboy, an emotional vault that none can enter.  

We have both weathered many winter storms in our life together.