Over the years since its been here, I’ve taken many photos of this old Ford 8N tractor. It used to belong to my grandfather and my dad refurbished it and brought it up here. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been used and the weather has been hard on it over the years. It needs a lot of TLC. When the weather starts to cool off in November, that’s going to be my wintertime project. I’ll have to figure out what needs to be done… and how to do it. So I guess some reading is in order. But in the meantime, I’ll paint a picture of it.
Painting the Old Ford 8N
The model for this first painting is the 2nd to last one. But… I’m not good enough at watercolors yet to paint (or not paint) snow. I think I’d need to draw the whole layout first and add some Friskit (masking fluid) to the areas I want to keep white. But I don’t ever draw my paintings on the paper first, except rough outlines with one of the paints. So I’m using the image of it in the snow, but will paint an autumn scene without snow.
About the Painting
It’s all Ozark pigments and my handmade watercolor paints. The colors are all light-fast earth pigments from stones locally foraged. Size is 16″ x 12″, 140lb hot press satin finish watercolor paper. It is for sale, and there are prints available too.
Thanks for following along with me as I paint this antique Ford 8N tractor! If you’re an enthusiast of rural machines like this, here’s a link to the spec sheet from TractorData.com. At this link there are more links for parts and the manual. So I’ll be downloading that manual soon. The price on it in 1952 was $1,404. That seems a far cry from the price of a modern tractor, even allowing for inflation.
Interested in Handmade Watercolor Paints?
I have a tutorial on how you can make your own, here.
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Author/Artist Info
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In the summer of 2018 I began making watercolor paints from the rocks, clay, and other resources of our land here in the Ozarks. My artwork is made exclusively with these paints. I call them Wild Ozark Paleo Paints, because they’re made in a way very close to the same way paints were made when man first put a hand-print on the wall of a cave. My specialty is painting nature, specifically the nature that surrounds me here in the remote hills of northwest Arkansas.
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Madison Woods
@wildozark (Instagram and FB)
madison@wildozark.com
