European immigrants of the mid 19th and early 20th century brought with them the skills and practices of Bank Barn construction in North America, but today they are quickly disappearing from our Canadian landscape. With their destruction Barn Owls, have also declined in great number after having developed a complimentary relationship with farmers by feeding off the many field creatures around farms.

Barn Owls are smaller sized Raptors that will nest in the recesses of farm buildings like this one. Its white and yellowish rusty orange feather plumage help blend it in perfectly to the surroundings of the barn and its content. Multiple thin watery layers of acrylic paint have been built up to capture the Owls textural surface which is both soft to the touch and strong in its structure.

A close up view of barn’s timber frame structure reveals the old tradition of using a broad and Adz axe, used for chipping and shaping round logs into large square beams. Many who built these barns recorded the time of completion by either carving or using square nail heads for the date, like this Bank Barn near Cathcart, Ontario, dated to 1862.