When I was watercolour illustrating ‘New Zealand Odyssey’, a book I did with co-author Euan Sarginson, I would have fallen in love with this barn that I discovered and photographed recently at French Farm on Banks Peninsula. Euan used to say of me that anything that was falling to pieces took my fancy!
Look at it; a collage of corrugated iron and weatherboards patched and patched again to the point where the original has probably been completely replaced.
I love the rust, it begs its share of the watercolour palette’s ochres. I love the sagging roof (straight lines are so boring) and the dead tree that writhes in sympathy against the dun-coloured tussock hills.
To me this old barn is gloriously photogenic; I suspect that to the farmer who owns it it is nothing more than a huge pain in the arse!
© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz
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