The Art of Painting Wedding Barns: Why Watercolour Works So Beautifully
Wedding barns are brimming with quirky architectural details, interesting shapes and textured that help bring a watercolour illustration to life.
Weathered stone walls, old brickwork, timber cladding, arched windows, gorgeous rustic beams, pretty walled gardens with wildflower borders and rolling hills disappearing into the distance, are just some of the details I love painting for barn wedding venues.
And then there are all the little details that make the venue your venue - the family dog joining for photographs, the sheep and cows in the neighbouring field, an old wooden gate or the row of hedgerows and wildflowers that frame the view.
When I'm painting for a couple's barn wedding invitations, I'm not simply creating a picture of the building. I'm looking at all of those details and deciding which ones encapsulate the overall vibe of the barn best.
For me, watercolour is the perfect medium for doing that.
Capturing the character of the wedding barn
One of my favourite things about painting barn venues is that rustic feel that you simply don’t get with other types of venue.
Old stone and brickwork can be surprisingly satisfying to paint – with subtle variations in colour and texture, I love layering washes and adding detail on top. I even have a special flat paintbrush just for brickwork!
Most barns have warm, earthy tones, which brings me to some of my favourite colours.
Ochre, raw umber and burnt sienna for painting wedding barns
The perfect colour palette for painting English barns? It would involve plenty of yellow ochre, raw umber and burnt sienna.
I can mix and layer these shades to create everything from pale honey-coloured stone to much deeper, weathered brickwork. They're also beautiful alongside the greens of the surrounding countryside and the softer colours of flowers.
And because watercolour allows the white of the paper to show through, the finished illustration can still feel light and fresh rather than heavy.
Painting weathered timber, wooden panels and cladding
Not every barn is made from stone or brick.
Some have beautiful weathered wooden panels, timber cladding, old doors and rustic outbuildings, and these are exactly the kinds of details that can easily get lost in a looser venue illustration. I like to use coloured pencils for intricate detail and sharp points which is a great technique for wooden panels and refining doors and windows.
Watercolour is particularly good for suggesting the variation in aged timber. I can use transparent washes and fine brushwork to create the appearance of individual boards, changes in colour and areas where the wood has naturally weathered.
These may seem like insignificant details, but they help create that rustic, weathered look that is so distinctive with wedding barns.
It's the quirky details that make a barn wedding venue yours
I'm always looking beyond the obvious façade when I'm painting a wedding venue.
Perhaps there's an unusual window, an old wooden gate, a beautiful archway, a distinctive roofline or an original doorway. Maybe there are climbing plants growing up one side of the building or a little courtyard hidden around the back.
These are the details I love finding.
A good venue illustration doesn't necessarily need to show every part of a building. Sometimes one particular architectural detail is enough to make the illustration feel unmistakably connected to the venue.
And because the artwork is created specifically for the couple, I can choose the details that matter to them rather than simply reproducing a generic view.
Painting barn gardens and surrounding countryside
Of course, barns don't exist in isolation.
One of the things I love about English wedding barn venues is the landscape around them - from the lawns, gardens and flower beds right out front, to the messier, unkempt hedgerows and fields fading out into the distance.
Using tubes of watercolour allows me to control the intensity of colour, using vibrant more saturated hues in the foreground and softer, washier pastel tones in the background. The helps create depth, scale and distance in the painting.
I use techniques such as wet-on-wet washes for fields and foliage, with dry glazes for more refined leaves, branches, flowers and architectural details. The result is a mixture of softer washes and sharper details — just as you would see when looking at a real landscape.
Blending the countryside with your wedding barn
Sometimes the barn itself isn't the most important part of the view.
Perhaps the venue sits at the top of a hill with the countryside stretching away behind it. Perhaps there are rolling fields, distant woodland or a beautiful line of hedgerows surrounding the property. I love incorporating those elements into the artwork.
A subtle nod to the landscape in the distance can give the invitation a real sense of place which helps when the surrounding countryside is an important part of why you've chosen the venue in the first place.
Dogs, horses and other animals
As a professional wedding illustrator, I don’t just paint venues, I paint pets and wildlife too, which is handy when barn weddings and animals seem to go hand in hand.
Couples often ask for their dog to be featured next to the barn, or some sheep and cows in the distance. I have also painted ponds with geese, forest animals such as deer and hares and mangalica pigs which were special to my clients. The animals can be blended into the landscape or featured alone on the back of the barn wedding invitations for an extra little design detail.
Florals to tie everything together
And then there are the flowers.
Wildflowers are one of my favourite ways to bring colour into a barn wedding stationery suite. Think cornflowers, foxgloves, delphiniums, daisies, sweet peas, cow parsley, buttercups and other seasonal flowers, either inspired by the flowers you've chosen for the wedding or by the natural landscape around the venue. Whether you are having soft pastel flowers or brighter pops of colour, the florals help to balance out the muted tones of the wedding barn and bring the illustration to life.
Watercolour works beautifully for this because I can paint flowers quite loosely, allowing individual brushstrokes and washes of colour to suggest petals rather than creating perfectly uniform botanical illustrations. The flowers can then become part of the wider stationery design, featured on menus, place cards and signage for the day of your wedding.
So, how does the finished barn wedding invitation look?
The venue illustration is only the beginning.
Once I've painted the artwork, I edit and work it into the wider invitation design, combining the venue illustration with colours, flowers and other details that reflect your wedding. My barn wedding invitations are printed on the finest textured card and can be finished with beautiful details such as silk ribbons and wax seals.
And if you'd rather have one less wedding job on your list, upgrades include envelope liners and guest address printing, so your invitations can arrive beautifully finished and ready to send.
To chat about bespoke barn invitations, please contact me here.