by Laura Brown, OBP Administrative Assistant and Volunteer
Jenny Phillips, previously our Regional Representative for Middlesex, Elgin, Chatham Kent, Essex and Lambton, passed away on January 18, 2025, in her 77th year. We would like to recognize Jenny for her contributions to Ontario Barn Preservation.
I enjoy painting country scenes that show the rural lifestyles in Elgin. Some will say “Why did she paint that ramshackle old place? She could have painted my farm. It is a showcase.” Well, I see beauty in many different forms. I like the play of sunlight and shadows, of wild vegetation, of architectural features or the lack of them.
I always carry my camera with me so I don’t miss any great scenes or special lighting moments and also so I could snap our great swim team. I noticed a particular scene that I had been eyeing for some time. The sun gilded everything with a golden hue so I pulled the van over to the shoulder and parked. I grabbed my camera and started shooting scenes with the old tobacco barns. Tobacco was first farmed in the western end of Elgin around the turn of the century. Sarah didn’t care about the lighting or the history here. She had a way of expressing her distain with one long drawn out word “M-O-T-H-E-R-!” The kids in the van squirmed and wiggled around holding up towels as screens and got into their bathing suits by the time I returned with my shots of gold. We pulled into the pool parking lot with just minutes to spare. The team did well but they loved to tell everyone how Sarah, Julie and Lisa’s mom – the artist- had an artistic moment on the journey there.
That was so long ago but the memories live on. The barns are now torn down but I can see them still in my mind every time I drive west on Pioneer Line. Life is so fleeting we have to capture the now because who knows what tomorrow holds.
Dave and I often travel Marsh Line on the way to his sister’s or when we go to West Lorne. I like country roads because there is so much to see. We spot Red-tailed Hawks, pheasants, wild turkeys, geese and ducks not to mention families of white tailed deer. The fields, the swampy areas and the bush are different every time we motor down the road. I loved the look of the old corn crib and the little sheds, the trees and the field. Because we live with these images every day we tend to take them for granted. I hope scenes like this will be here for my children and their children to enjoy as much as Dave and I do. Our rural landscape is changing and I want to record what we have here and now.
Her passion for old barns is rooted in her childhood in the Kitchener area.
“I had good times at my mother’s family farm in Waterloo,” said Phillips. “We always had a good time in the barn. I just always wanted to be a farmer, but we moved a lot.
“But it’s not just the barns. It’s the way of life,” she adds. “It’s about being self-sufficient. The people who built and worked in these barns had a way of life that didn’t require others. And I imagine these old barns have a lot of stories to tell.”
