This painting is currently featured in the Ugallery Newsletter. I really enjoy adding the tiny, distant farmsteads that dot the
countryside in my pastoral landscapes. I painted this Red poppy scene into one of those quiet, overcast evenings, surrounded by the peaceful
silence of the country, This scene is from my imagination.
One of my original country landscape paintings is now part of the Art in the Embassies collection for the next couple of years. This piece is now hung in the American Embassy in Sir Lanka. https://art.state.gov/personnel/sharon_france/
I was inspired to paint this painting after passing a newly baled hay field on a back road along the way home earlier this year. There are not many old fence posts and fence lines left anymore around here, so I like to include them from my memories
The Quiet of the Farm
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This painting "On a Peaceful Summers Day" is one of my recently sold paintings at Ugallery, and is now part of a private collection in New York state. More of my original paintings at Ugallery.com
https://www.ugallery.com/artist/Sharon-France-Challand
These two night sky paintings are the second and third in my "Under the Big Dipper" night sky series that I started later last year. The first three of these paintings have already been sold into private collections and the fourth one is currently available for sale.
I love how out in the flat Midwestern country side, one can see for miles around and the big open night time sky, full of stars at night. I have painted these pieces with an iconic old red barn farmhouses, for the simple scenes that I enjoy painting so.
The mid to late summer fields often make me think of an old patchwork quilt, when the wheat and oats ripen to a golden color among the green of the corn and soybeans, here in the Midwestern Heartland. The purple of the sky makes me think of the old quilt top that my great grandmother had made and I found in my grandfathers trunk years ago, while the white barn of my other grandfathers farm.
I painted this scene of an overcast day in the country, when the crop rows in the fields are starting to fill in, and the air is heavy before a summer rain shower. The field rows lead back to an iconic red barn.
This is a farm portrait that I was commissioned to paint recently of an old farmstead in Iowa. This lovely old farm had a big white traditional farmhouse and an iconic old red barn. My client wanted a simple scene with one large central tree for the painting.
The inspiration for this piece comes from the big, wide open sky that I love so about the country. I decided on painting the big dipper above this simple farm scene under a sky full of tiny stars.
I have been too busy to post here for while now. Right now I am working on a commissioned painting of a custom farm portrait for a client. This will be a present for their husband so is under wraps for now! I will plan to post it here on my blog in the future, with my clients ok after it has been delivered. Here is an example of a previous farm portrait that I painted in the past.
This portrait was painted for a couple in Sweden of their farm and three pet cats in the scene also. A fun painting to work on!
On a Peaceful Summers Day
My most recent farm painting. I started this painting back in the winter but then set it aside as I was not sure what direction I wanted to go with it. I looked at it one day in July and realized then what I wanted for it! I sometimes do this with a painting and am always happy when the full idea finally comes to me.
Recently sold to a collector in TX.
I came across these horses in a quiet, secluded pasture several years ago. I painted them into a scene from my imagination earlier this year. One of my paintings from the quiet and peaceful American heartland.
I love the "patchwork" feel that the fields of the American Heartland seem to take on it mid summer here in the Midwest. This painting is my impression of these fields with an iconic red barn setting in the midst of them. This piece has already been sold into a private collection.
Thank you to Ugallery for featuring my farm paintings in their curated collection "American Road Trip"
A COUNTRY MILE
Serene in the expanses of the American Heartland, Sharon France paints captivatingly simple and bucolic landscapes that express the idealism of farm life. Through clear tripartite compositional divisions – background, mid-ground, and foreground – she creates a harmony throughout her canvas.
“I love to travel through the back roads of the American heartland during the summer. The young rows of corn and soybeans look like long ribbons of green with the dark brown Midwestern soil between them. By midsummer, fields of oats and wheat ripen to a beautiful, light golden-brown color. The combination of the corn, soybean fields and pastures, make me think of lovely old patchwork quilts. I find endless inspiration for my paintings on the back roads of the American Heartland.” –Sharon
