Lebanon Township artist William Martin planned to attend the 10th Annual Publisher’s invitational painting event in June 2020. Due to the pandemic, the event had been cancelled, rescheduled, and then cancelled a second time. Dealing with the stress and isolation of months spent working at home, Bill decided to take the week off and paint locally every day anyway. This painting was one of six plein air oil paintings from that week.

Located on the corner of Sliker and Anthony roads, this was the first painting I made outside of the confines of my own yard during the early days of the pandemic. Lisa and Ronnie Ireland have been family friends for many years, and Lisa would often comment on my paintings and suggest I paint the red barn on her property some day. I completed this over the course of two visits, The Irelands run the Yak Shack from the same location and note cards of this painting are available both there and at Solstice Floral in Bunnvale.