Going With the Flow - New Oil Painting

"Flow" 9x12 inch oil painting on canvas board

I’ll make this short and sweet tonight. 

After a long absence from the studio I managed to fit in some time at the easel today on an oil painting I started back in April. 

It took a bit of creative deliberation to revisit my original intent with this painting and to decide what to do with the background. I briefly toyed with the idea of a snow scene but gave that up since I wanted to keep with an analogous color scheme where the horse and background would blend well. 

I also decided to switch gears on painting method and put down a gray value underpainting on top of the warm yellows. Today I did the background and will let that dry before proceeding to the horse. But, I kind of like it this way, too. The horse looks like he's made out of gold. 

Tomorrow, time permitting, I’ll do a background change on another  painting, and after that I have plans to do some pastel color studies to help with creating the coat on a lamb painting. I want to work lots of nice pastel colors into the wool. 

It’s been a long dry spell in the creative department, but I’m finally breaking free of all those chains that  have been holding me back. Let the creative juices Flow!

Feeling Full of Promise

Canada Geese family 

My daughter has just left for home, and the house is eerily quiet. Although I miss her already, I’m looking forward to plunging back into the routines of everyday life and accomplishing half done tasks that had been put aside.

A gentle rain is falling to water the lilac bush that we moved yesterday, looking very comfortable in its new spot. It’s no longer hiding behind the maple tree but now has its own spot to shine on its own. The small lilac that I feared was destroyed by the drunk driver who crashed through our yard four years ago has grown and is full of blooms this year; the first time ever. 

All the flower beds are full of promise, but I’m behind in getting to them this season due to Winter overstaying its welcome and another ailing pet that has taken a lot of my attention for over a week. 

Our little cat, Molly, quit eating and developed a high fever two weeks ago. She spent almost three days in the vet hospital and then had daily trips back for treatment of a raging bladder infection. Most troubling was the fact that she refused to eat almost anything for four days; a very serious matter for a cat. She became quite weak, and we feared the worst. 

However, at last she rallied and began eating and has been ravenous since. Slowly, she’s regaining her strength and returning to her old self. 

Meanwhile, there was a house to clean and food to prepare for the holiday weekend. The weather was sunny but on the chilly side; just right for my son’s running in the Bayshore Marathon in Traverse City. Otherwise, we didn’t do much but spend quality time together - and move that lilac bush.  

On Sunday morning, a family of Canada geese floated into our beach; five little goslings with Mom and Dad herding them along. They stayed long enough for me to get some really good photos which I’m now looking forward to painting. 

Heading into the woods on an evening trail ride

Meanwhile at the barn, Scottie and I have gone on some trail rides with our friends, and Scottie has done very well. He seems to have gotten his energy back and is able to go farther and longer than last year. That is a very good sign; something I hadn’t thought possible a few months ago. I am overjoyed. 

Now that the hubbub has calmed down, it’s time to get back to all the unfinished projects including those unfinished paintings hanging on the studio wall. I’ve already committed to being in  a local art exhibit in June/July, so that gives me incentive to break out the paints once again. 

Let the Fun Begin!

"Naptime"; A Plein Air Sketch of Two Horses

"Naptime" 6x7 inch pencil sketch

Spring has been very slow in coming to our area of the country, but now the grass is green, the trees are starting to leaf out, and daffodils and forsythia are in bloom. At the barn, the barn swallows are back and are busy making and tending to nests. 

The other day, Scottie had his third appointment with the equine dentist, and it was a relief to hear that he’s doing very well. The deep pocket that had possibly been the source of the infection has now closed completely and shows nice pink tissue. 

Scottie has to be sedated for the dental exam and procedures, so I had some time to kill after the vet left until he recovered enough to be turned out again. I took my little camp stool and a sketch pad out into the pasture and sketched Elmer and Millie as they dozed in the warm sun. They stayed still long enough for me to get the drawings pretty well done, and I cleaned them up a bit later in the evening. 

Not only has the weather held up any gardening, but a very sore shoulder delayed it for another week. Never the less, I did get out for a couple of hours and have so far made good progress. That is, when warm weather returns again. 

One of the tasks that I tackled while laid up with a bum shoulder was to finally get around to updating my website. I’ve added newer works and just generally made needed changes to many pages. It’s not quite done yet but getting there. This will do until I can completely redesign the website with a new look and different structure. Take a peek here; http://www.equineartist.com .

Today it’s blustery outside and a bit of snow is in the air. Who knew that there would be snow on Mother’s Day? 

Having gotten a number of more urgent tasks out of the way, I’m now looking forward to doing some artwork again this coming week. 

Horse Paintings Accepted Into Museum Art Exhibition

"Almost Home, Hunter Pace" 18x24 oil painting

Waiting For Spring

Equine Oil Painting, 11x14 inches 

Spring is supposed to be here in northwest lower Michigan, but the weather isn’t cooperating at all. Apparently, Mother Nature has decided to stay in Florida for another month. This past week we had rain, sleet, freezing rain and snow; some of it all on the same day. There was enough snow to cover the ground again and although that has melted now, there is still plenty of snow around in shaded areas and in piles and drifts. 

Since last report, I finished up the income tax materials and took them to the accountant and then put in a few more hours on the new painting. It still doesn’t have a good name, but I’m working on that, too. 

I quIckly found out that I’m really rusty on doing these underpaintings so it’s looking pretty rough at the moment. I hope to remedy that with the next layer of the underpainting. The goal in this first layer was just to establish some of the values while at the same time keeping them all on the light side in case I need to make some corrections later on. 

Back at the barn, Scottie had his second visit from the vet dentist in March and passed inspection with flying colors. Here he is being worked on by the very capable Dr. Colleen Porter. He was so drugged that he was having a hard time staying on his feet. 

A visit with the Dentist

Unfortunately, a few weeks later his nasal discharge returned, and this time we had to dose him with a powerful antibiotic that is possibly hazardous to humans. Here I am all suited up in my home made hazmat gear after dosing him with the syringe. You can see how thrilled he is with this process. 

Dosing the Horse

Now that he’s finished his two weeks on that antibiotic, we’re holding our breaths hoping the discharge doesn’t come back again. If it does, I don’t know where we’ll go from there. 

Here’s another photo from back in February. This is J Willie going after poor Elmer. JW is a real school yard bully who picks on the weakest in the herd, namely Elmer and Scottie. He has now been banished to a separate paddock with his sister, Elle, so he doesn’t cause any more injuries. 

The Schoolyard Bully

I thought it was a great action photo and am considering turning it into a painting as well. The title? What else than “The Schoolyard Bully”?

Another New Oil Painting

"Recumbent" 9x12 new oil painting

It’s been so cold and stormy this winter that none of us have been riding much in the past two months. In fact, I haven’t been going to the barn much at all, even to check on Scottie. However, last Saturday the farrier was coming, and I never miss that if I can help it. 

Not only did Scottie get a pedicure but also a thorough grooming and his stretches which he loves. Stretches means lots of treats and you’d better be quick with them, too! Afterward, I turned him loose in the arena without his blanket, and like any self-respecting horse, he had a good roll. It must have felt really good to roll in the sand without his blanket on, and he made the most of the opportunity. 

I had brought my camera and caught some good roll sequences as well as other pictures. The photo above is the start of a new painting from one of those photos. So far it’s only traced onto a canvas board, and this time I tried something new; I drew over the pencil lines with ink in hopes of preserving the lines better. 

The reference photo for the new oil painting of my horse, Scottie

My original intent was to do this as a quick painting and enter it into an online show at the end of this week, but time is just too short, so I’ve decided to wait and  take my time with it. I love the flow of lines in the image and think it could make a good painting if I do it right. The working title is “Recumbent” for now. I’m hoping that something more catchy will come to me later. 

A snowy day

The photo of Scottie coming into the barn shows how pretty the snowfall was that day, and I think this view will also make a good  painting. 

The other two paintings that I worked on a few weeks ago are waiting their turn on the studio wall.Each needs a long block of time for the next session, and I just haven’t had it or felt like it while battling a stubborn sinus infection for the past two weeks. 

Since it’s income tax prep time, I may not be able to get in the studio much for a while, but I certainly will try. 

Polo Painting, "Girls Play Too"

"Girls Play Too" oil painting on canvas

Another one of my unfinished oil paintings was moved to the easel this week for a little more progress. Well, actually, I got in quite a bit of progress. 

This oil painting, as you may recall, is “Girls Play Too”, a polo painting. I decided to proceed with the painting by repainting the background to an almost finished state before working on the horse and rider. My goal was to lighten both the sky and the grassy area and to create the background trees. Since this is a late summer evening painting, the sky needed to be lightened and warmed up. The grass was looking too dark and very flat, so I lightened it, too, and gave it some depth. 

The painting looks rather odd at this point (sometimes we artists refer to this stage as “the uglies”) because the horse and rider are not finished to the same point as the background which makes the painting as a whole look off kilter. I’m hoping that once I start work on the horse that will change. 

Here is the version that I showed you last Fall with a single layer of paint over the whole thing. 

And here is the latest version. 

Now comes the really fun part; painting the horse and rider. At least I hope it’s the fun part. One never quite knows what part of a painting is going to give one the most grief. Having painted so little in the last several years, I’m feeling very rusty, but I’m also getting my groove back slowly but surely. 

At any rate, working on this oil painting will remind me of that summer evening almost three years ago when I experienced my first polo match since childhood. Meanwhile, outside the snow falls on a frozen landscape that is months away from warm temperatures. But inside the studio, summer will be present to warm both inside and out.