Big Valley Archives - Bill Fulton Watercolors

Pioneer farmhouse in Big Valley

8 Comments / October 29, 2024

Big Valley was settled by pioneers early last century, and their farms and fields remain as their testimony to their sacrifice and hard work. I’m grateful that Big Valley hasn’t been turned into sterile housing projects. It’s one of my favorite places to paint.

On a lovely autumn morning, I stepped into the pasture of this farm so I could paint a view of the house, the flaming maple tree beside the big fir, and the red shed above. It didn’t look like anyone was living in the house. I wasn’t far off the pavement, but technically I was trespassing. I was focusing on my painting, when I saw a man approaching. “Are you the owner?” I asked. “Hope you don’t mind if I paint your farm.”

Luckily he was quite generous and we had a nice conversation. It turns out his family homesteaded this property and built the house in 1905. I told him how much I appreciate his stewardship of this historic site.

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Barn on Big Valley Road

5 Comments / April 21, 2023

In my imagination this barn was built many years ago by a frugal hardworking farmer as he and his family carved out a homestead on Big Valley Road. He built the main barn first, then added to it over the years, patching shed to shed, until it became this sprawling structure backed up to the fir trees.

In our last watercolor class, Eric Wiegardt challenged me to paint on a bigger scale. So I painted the barn as a quarter sheet (11 x 15 inches), followed by a half sheet (15 x 20 inches). You have to use a big brush and lots of paint and water to cover so much paper. For the barn and the meadow I painted three different colored washes on top of each other to produce variation in the color. I was undecided about the large expanse of grass in front of the barn. It seems like it needs something. Texture, maybe? Shadows? A piece of farm equipment or a pickup truck? Or maybe it’s fine as it is.

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Trailer on Big Valley road

2 Comments / March 20, 2023

Big Valley, just north of Poulsbo, was once a bustling community of small farms and pastures strung along the valley with fir trees on the ridges above. Because of its iconic beauty, the County has spared it the plague of modern development so it retains the character of early Kitsap County. It’s a great place for watercolor painting.

I particularly like this trailer along the road. It’s a little run-down, but it’s homey, and in my imagination the family who lives there has a real sense of ownership of their piece of the valley.

I made a black and white painting to get the values right, then I made several watercolors.

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