April 12 - Finished Rolex Competitor

I finished up the 12 x 16 acrylic of the Rolex Three Day Event rider, putting many glazes of gel medium and veils of color on the distant trees, the water and the rest of the composition to unify and create visual interest. It sure was fun to paint the water! Not at all like the photo, which showed a muddy, murky splash. I like the greens much better! I think I'm going to hold this one for a show coming up later this year. I think it might do well.

And congratulations to Charlotte McDavid of Birmingham, Alabama, on her acquisition of my painting of Vincent Van Goat. The purchase was made through my ebay store. That's a fast, easy way to make a purchase because of all the different ways of making payment. I like that it is up there 24/7 so many people can view the works.

April 11 - Celebrating 543 daily paintings today.

Now take a look at how this acrylic painting is developing! Such fun to add layers on top of what was there yesterday, and start to build the contrast and movement! Although my source material (Rolex, equestrian three-day-event) was much larger, I want the horse and rider to fit into the scenery, so as they head pell-mell through the water (yes, that will be water, just not tonight!), the surrounding scenery will play like the backdrop of a huge stage, with the spotlight on the rider and horse. Do you see how all that mish-mash of brushwork under this focal point now works like the myriad instruments of a symphony? All the players are important when brought together, yet each has its individual "loudness".
Couple other things. One, ebay hiccupped my store into oblivion, so I had to rebuild it with the listings for my paintings today. The link is here, and this'll allow you to revisit some of your favorites. I'll add more paintings in the next couple of days.

And I accidently deleted some forty emails from the google group that receives these messages. If you're wondering what happened, it was me. I do hope you'll email if you've missed a few days so I can put you back on.

March 30 - Acrylic Backlit Horses, 11 x 14 Lesson Painting

Here's the second step in my painting process using acrylics. I go for the darks, laying in the abstract structure with value contrast and not worrying about edges at all. It is a lot of fun painting with different colors over the underpainting--one person said it reminded her of the cave paintings!
You can see the values and the backlighting coming to the fore as I put umbers, alizarin crimson, untramarine blue and yellow ochre mixes creating the value structure. I am not looking at any source material at this point--letting my innate design sense tell me where to put those darks.

Complete blog here.

March 29 - Beginning a Lesson Acrylic 11 x 14

I have had so many people inquiring about the upcoming acrylic lessons DVD that I can do no less but give you a lesson on how I handle acrylics. Although this one won't be in the DVD, you can certainly enjoy how it comes together. The first layer of this 11 x 14 canvas board is covered with soft gel medium mixed with a couple of colors to make a more neutral red orange, and then before it is dry, patted with a wad of plastic wrap to give it interesting texture, both real and illusionary. Those peaks of gel medium are then gently wiped away as it begins to dry, to keep the actual texture under control.
The second layer is again a mixture of soft gel medium, but this time with two blues. Only bits and pieces of these two layers will show through the final painting, but they will be ever so much more exciting than plain white canvas!
I now take a brush handle and sketch in the location of the horses, their shadows and the landscape shapes that will define this painting. It will be another pastoral scene, backlit, as I'm enjoying them immensely. (Perhaps that's because I've done with taxes and it isn't as bad as I'd feared?) No matter, painting is solace, rejuvenation and pleasure. Houseguest Betty Billups is up near Walnut doing her mural for the next couple of days, so life here is full of her paintings, but without her joyful personality.

Congratulations to Lorna McPhee of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on acquiring yesterday's Belted Galloway acrylic! Thank you!

March 7 - Painting the Cremello

Busy day today! In the morning after breakfast, the three artists gathered to paint the cremello horse (he is SO pretty!) a couple of times while at the barns. It was great fun to exercise the muscles of color on a white horse lit from above and behind. I share with you one of the two paintings I did, hoping that you'll enjoy the entourage of colors that march across the white hide of a white horse in sunlight! This is just a study, not a finished painting, so there is less concern about cutting off anatomy, or not finishing other parts of the image. I was focusing on the shadow patterns and the colors on the white horse... but I did spend a bit of time on my saddle!! Here's a picture of Sabino from which we worked.

March 4 - Backlit Sunrise Horse Painting

Time for acrylics again! This 9 x 12 painting was done from another of he morning ranch images, and is done in those wonderful acrylics. Even with the low humidity, I can continue to work with them, creating the luscious layers of color. Would you believe that this painting started out with a layer of dioxazine PURPLE and thalo BLUE under all those wonderful grays? It creates a sparkle that is just wonderful to see in "real life". I do so love backlit subjects, expecially when the light creates strong value contrast.
Yesterday after the ride I was "lope tested" so I can go on the advanced rides for the remainder of the week. According to my friends who've been here an additional week, some of the advanced rides are VERY challenging. I can hardly wait! Here's a small photo of me on the cremello horse Sabino, near one of the watering holes on the ranch. Yes, that's my new saddle, and yes, that's a calf who wants to play!

More photos will be coming tomorrow, and most all will be on my blog here.