Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Win Some, Lose Some


“Chocolate Zip” 10 x 12 oil on canvas paper

Yes, we artists sometimes fall flat on our artistic faces. Yesterday was definitely a loser in the studio.

I attempted another one hour painting and managed to thoroughly botch the job. I forgot what the exercise is about and tried to make a perfect painting. NOT! Then I compounded the error by spending another hour “fixing” it. Well, THAT didn’t work out either!

It’s really too bad because I had this really cute pony photo to work from. Unfortunately, it was taken on a very cloudy day, so it’s very flat with almost no highlights or shadows.

I did learn a few things, however. Like, my Princeton #8 bristle bright brush holds a good sharp edge while my Grumbacher #8 bristle flat does not. Cobalt blue and Hansa Yellow make a nice luscious green. Taping the canvas paper to a board made it much easier to paint right up to the edges without getting paint on the fingers or all over the easel.

I rescued the day by going to the barn and having a great ride on Scottie. As usual, he was very willing. We did especially well at leg yields which has been a trouble area for us, simple as it may be. Well, I used a tip I found in an article, and it worked like a charm. Scottie got lots of praise and decided that he likes doing leg yields and “volunteered” to do more.

The farm is on top of a hill out in the country, which means no city lights. When I left the barn, it was dark out; very dark; but the sky was filled with stars, and I stood for a few moments gazing up at them and feeling the wonder of the universe. It was one of those magic moments that you remember forever.

Below is my “fixed” version of “Chocolate Zip”. The pony’s name is Zip.

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