Badly Stacked Bales

"Badly Stacked Bales" 
by Kurt Plinke
waxed watercolor
​arches 140 lb cp
11" x 19" image size









This is another transparent watercolor that I completed a number of weeks ago, but neglected to post on Today's Painting, Finished or Not.  So here it is today. I've also worked on a second version of the garden tools and skink painting today, but nothing worth posting at this point.

I gotta say, I really liked painting this one. The sky feels voluminous, the ground recedes well, the color palette is muted but there, and the image itself, in my eyes, is hilarious. Having grown up at least for a time on a farm, and having baled a little hay, (I was a mite young up on the farm to have been a big bale-tosser) I can appreciate well-stacked bales. The hayloft in the big barn up on the farm was carefully stacked, and the bales were so tight I can remember running around on the top of a fifteen bale high stack, with nary a wobble.

But this poor stack, after a short storm outside of Easton, collapsed in the middle, spilling bales out into the field. As a country-raised boy, I have to smile. And as an artist who sometimes likes to tell stories and inject humor into his work, I have to paint it.

When I finished this watercolor, rather than matting and putting it behind glass, I mounted on a board and coated it with a well-rubbed layer of wax. This protects the paper from moisture and dirt as well as the glass would have, but avoids the distraction of mats and the glare of glass.

If you would like to purchase this piece, contact kurtplinke@kurtplinke.com for information. 
Visit www.kurtplinke.com to see more of my paintings, read my blog, find out about upcoming workshops, classes and shows, and, of course, to pick out and purchase your favorite paintings.
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