"Tribute To Glory" - New Palomino Oil Painting

I’m somewhat of an expert on Things That Can Get In The Way Of Painting. Everything else always seems to be more important, urgent or compelling. Or, I avoid the studio because of that Fear Of Failure thing: wasting time on Facebook or forums or trolling the internet in pursuit of things I don’t really need but must find Right Now.

One of those Things the past three weeks has been a project to go through 40 years worth of business and household records in order to take them to a company that shreds documents for businesses. I suppose it started with the end of the year project to evaluate the past year and prepare for the upcoming year which meant going through last year’s records. It was necessary because we had run out of space for storing records!

Once that project was completed, I felt the need to go through my mother’s papers in an effort to consolidate them all in one box  which could be put away in the crawl space until the day comes when it is safe to discard them. It was quite a chore since some of them were pretty disorganized and scattered in three different places, but now that project is also done.

I’ve become a big believer in Feng Shui, and getting rid of all those old records and getting my mother’s papers consolidated and out of sight has gotten rid of a lot of negative energy in the house and especially the studio, I’ve found. Just for good measure, I took all the piles of unfiled papers off of my studio desk and put them in my son’s room to deal with later. Walking into the studio to see a clean desk has really helped me feel much more positive, hopeful and energized about getting creative again.

And just in time, too, because I have a show coming up in April and needed to get some new art done. The first piece I picked out was a photograph of a palomino mare which was my horse’s best friend when I bought him. She was also a favorite of mine. Like so many  horses, she came to the barn with some history. For some reason we couldn’t fathom, no one liked her at her old home. She  was starved for attention when she arrived, and we were happy to oblige. With kind treatment and care, Glory soon thrived. She could be a little ditsy at times but was otherwise a sweet gentle mare.

Although Glory was a Quarter Horse, she had a bit of a dished face, and this photo of her, which shows it, had always appealed to me. What you see above is the painting to date in the underpainting stage. She looks kind of like a dappled gray in this version but that will change when the color is added.

Glory’s new job was as a broodmare and occasional riding horse. Sadly, she died foaling several years later, and so this painting is my “Tribute To Glory”.