Farmhouse Sketches

Artsy

Today I am posting a series of sketches I did a few weeks ago. The church I work at has been built on an old farm property. The Oehlke family purchased land and built a farmhouse and several other buildings on a piece of land that had been settled 150 years ago, they were the fourth owners. The church was gifted the property where the farm buildings have remained after the Oehlke’s vacated them, and the buildings and shaded areas have been used for years for outdoor worship and other uses. In 2021, the farm buildings will be torn down, so I decided to do a project and capture the buildings in sketches before that happened. I chose some nice and not-so-nice days of fall weather to get out and sketch. All sketches were done with Faber-Castill Pitt pens and watercolor. White marks were made with Gelly pens. Here is the series…

One of the most iconic buildings on this property is this barn. White with a hunter-green roof, it stands majestically, despite wear-and-tear, with new housing going up in the distance behind it.
This sketch is a different side view of the barn. The buildings are worn and peeling, bu there is still a charm looking at them.
The farmhouse is one of the other iconic buildings. It has been used in the past for activities and also storage. This was sketched across the street on the Catholic church property. The Oehlke family liked the idea of having churches purchase their land.
This sketch captures the farmhouse on the side. There are many trees in this property, as you can see on the right side.
This final sketch was actually the first sketch I did. Under many large mature trees sits many outbuildings (which I did not sketch). This set of buildings grabbed my attention with their tattered shingles and peeling boards. Purple material shone through on the roof. I just had to capture it!

I hope to do more sketches during the demolition phase. This property and its buildings means a lot to many people, both in our church and community. I am glad I could capture it in sketches!

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  3. Pingback: Demolition Sketches – Minnesota Sketcher

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