Bucolic PA Farmland

I had a request, a commission so to speak (oh ok, it was

from my brother) to paint a pastoral scene such as 

he had come to love driving to work in PA.  

"I want a painting of bucolic farmland," he stated, "with

trucks and tractors, sheep, cows, barns, crops,

grass and mountains." 

Commissions are, at best, an opportunity to paint something new; at worst they are a nightmare of micro-managed ideas not easily translated to the canvas.  I sighed thinking that the number of requested ingredients did not add up to "bucolic."  But exercising artistic license (I have one you know) I made some edits, some additions and peeled my eyes for ideas.  I think we got it!

I decided to suggest some crop fields in the foreground.

the middle ground got a barn, silo and some things we will call sheep grazing

as a Florida transplant to PA my bro loves fall as much as I do, so I decided that

the bucolic scene would be in the fall, the mountains are a backdrop

here it is all together, so far he has approved but I am letting it "marinate" 

before framing in case I decide to make some tweaks 

I also want to thank my painting friend Carmen Beecher who generously gave me permission to use a photograph of hers for inspiration; her daughter lives in one of the houses at the bottom of the road and when I saw Carmen's "vacation photo" I knew it held many of the elements I needed 

for my painting.

Bucolically Yours,

Cindy