Thanks Misha.
It looks like your instincts are to get some diagonals in the composition to break up the static-ness of all those verticals and horizontals. That sounds like a good idea.
I did some reseach on this type of barn and the sliding barndoors it has. You can see the grooves the sliding has caused over years of use on the side in the reference photo. I was planning on eliminating the evidence of the wear since it makes too much of a continuous line from wear, to the fold in his pants, to the plank in the barn wall. I got some possible ways to get that diagonal in. I found some images of sliding doors with cross braces such as the
brace here . I can work the diagonals to point to his face or to the leaf depending on which I want to emphasize more.
I don't think I will go for the wood plank floor since I do want to keep an outddor shot feel to it, but your suggestion got me thinking of how else I can soften that bottom edge's horizontal a bit.
I can emphasize the texture of the cement that is already there. The reference is small enough that it is hard to see on the screen, but the texture lends to a diagonal.
Another idea which I am liking more and more is to replace the cement with grass and flowers. One of the themes I am working with in this painting is related to the age and youth juxtoposition. The old, weathered barn that has stood across the time of a generation or two juxtaposed with the little boy, the youngest of the current generation. I think if I chose a groundcover that suggests spring growth, it will add to the juxtoposition of the decaying but still present leaf that the boy is holding. It is the perfect time of year now to see what plants are blooming. I also will enjoy the emotional interplay that he would chose to value the old leaf when surrounded by what you might more expect him to select to view, spring flowers.
A bit of extra background on the painting. I am a big city girl transplanted to the country to be near my parents as they age. I have to admit to feeling like it was the death of portraiture painting as a career being so far from a wealthy market. But I think I have made the emotional transition and this painting kind of marks it. Unlike so many big city markets, it is not the expensive furniture and high class-clothes that will be in my clients portraits. It will be the prizes of country life that will tell who they are. I will never command 4 digit prices here, but I will be able to say something valuable about a people that I have come to feel deserve to be remembered in paint.
