I had a rather unusual request from a collector of my bird art. Could I paint a pair of Painted Buntings on old barn wood and have it all weatherized so it could be hung outside by their patio door? There were concerns about warping, rot, and fading in this hot and humid environment. How would painting on a rough surface work out? I said I’d love to take on the project and I left their home wondering where in the heck would I find old barn wood?

As I started to drive home, my brother came to mind. He happens to be a fine home builder, has his own workshop, and loves to do woodworking projects whenever he has time. He also has renovated historic homes and barns.

I got ahold of him immediately. He happened to be in his truck on the way to his barn where he said he has a stash of “old barn wood”! One inch thick, 12” wide, rough hardwood oak! He said he’d be happy to glue three boards together with biscuits, cut it to size, and put a nice bevel around the edges like my client requested.

Bingo! Plus, my brother and his family were all coming in a couple of weeks, so he said he’d bring it with him!

He delivered a perfect rough board with lots of character in the grain. It had old saw marks from when it was rough cut from fallen timber. So I had my unprimed canvas, so to speak. Now I had to figure out how best to treat it to stand the test of time.

First, I primed the oak with a quality white primer that would keep the few knots in the wood from bleeding through the paint over time. Then I found a Sherwin-Williams outdoor house paint, Smoked Oyster, that was a perfect natural color for the two base coats.

I figured a good quality house paint would last for years and would be an excellent protective barrier.

The plan was to paint with my oil paints over the latex house paint. It’s OK to paint oil on top of latex, but not vice versa. Fat over lean is the rule, and oil paint is fatter.

Anyway, when I gave the beautiful old barn wood a couple of coats of paint it lost all of the character in the wood. I was thinking to myself, what a shame. But, it had to be weather-proofed.

I started painting in the birds and the tree branch and that all went well. My client wanted a plain background, nothing distracting like busy branches or leaves. I originally thought of making it a blend of greenery, as one might see in a photograph with a wide aperture.

I actually started to paint in a solid background, and thought how boring. So I wiped it off with turpentine. I noticed that as I wiped the oil paint off, the rough grain in the wood was reappearing even though it had a primer and two coats of latex on it. That’s when it hit me! If I used a dry brush technique I could recreate the look of the old barn wood. What if I dry brushed the entire background, dragging various shades of gray oil paint over the grain and made the background look like unpainted or stained barn wood? A quasi-tromp l’oeil effect.

Where I wanted a knothole or a crack in the wood I just painted them in. Where I wanted to accentuate grain I painted it to look more grainy. Where it was without grain I painted in grain to add character back to the wood.

I liked the look. It wasn’t a “busy background” but I think it became an interesting, natural looking background.

The colorful buntings are the main focus, with the male serenading his partner from their favorite exposed perch and letting all other males know that they are a couple. The male is very territorial and very protective of his partner. The male is one of the most colorful songbirds in the country. The female is a more understated, yellowish-green color. They are positioned guarding each other’s back, always on the look out.

After it all dries, I will put a couple of coats of varnish on to help protect the colors from fading and from dirt.

Jen loves the concept of the painted wood looking like unpainted wood. It turns out that my brother brought three boards with him for me to choose from and now it looks like I might be painting a Brown Pelican on board for our back porch!!! :)

I hope you enjoyed reading about this commissioned painting. Thank you for your interest in my art and please check back soon to find out what’s on my easel next.

“One of the joys of being an artist is having the freedom to follow my passion….”

— William R. Beebe

Outdoor Art~ Painted Buntings on barn wood!