Robert Martel | Illustrator

originally posted January 30, 2017

Ross Farm Museum is a living heritage farm where the interpreters dress in period costume and perform the daily duties and responsibilities of early nineteenth century rural life. Settled in 1816 by Captain William Ross, his family, and 172 disbanded soldiers, Ross Farm is one of my family’s favourite Nova Scotia Museums to visit year-round. If we don’t get up to the farm this February we’ll definitely be there in the spring once the piglets and lambs are born.

The sketch above of the farmhand in the field is from a photo I took back in the summer of 2012, as is the sketch below of the chickens scratching in the dirt.

Recently I added watercolour to the farmhand sketch (see below) but found that I preferred the black and white composition of the ink sketch. The original sketch allowed me to focus on the face of the farmhand and then move out to the tools in his hands before progressing finally the grass surrounding him. Now as a watercolour painting I simply absorb the image all at once instead of it unveiling in perimeters or stages.

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