West Point Hay Shed

This painting was a challenge I made to myself to attempt to capture a scene with the glow of a sunset. I traveled to the small rural Utah town of West Point near the eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake. I found my scene at about 6:00, I knew the sun would be down by 8:00, I had to work fast, but working fast is normal when painting "en plein air" or outdoors, I also tend to work small, in this case 8" X 10". By chance I setup to paint next to a valve for an irrigation ditch and was visited twice by a local resident farmer who was tending to the irrigation of her and the neighbor's fields, as usual conversation is usually pleasant with a farmer, or with just about any rural resident. I couldn't talk too long though, the sun was falling fast! The actual scene had a truck and tractor in it as well, but I decided to not to try to put them in for two reasons, one was the time constraints, the other the small size of the panel I was working on. If I ever scale this painting up in the studio I'll most likely add a truck and tractor to it, most likely something older than what was actually there though. I had to remember not to chase the shadows, by the time I finished the painting that foreground field that started fully lit was completely in shadow from the trees across the street. The light became intense and warm just before the sun dipped below the western mountains too, I decided that was something worth pursuing even this late in the game so I glazed yellow ochre in the trees and on the hay shed.