September 9 - Georgia on my Mind, Workshop!

Life is wonderfully good right now.

Imagine if you will, an early morning in September, in the piney woods of North Georgia, on the back of a good, 17-hand horse headed out for an early morning ride. All of that is what happened for me this morning, and here's a photograph of me on "Sister" --now I hope you can see that she is a white mare, because the flash of my grin may blind you a bit!
I'm in Georgia, on the Sunday beginning a week-long Color Boot Camp tomorrow, along with my hostess Fay, doing a welcome this evening for 12 attendees. I'll be posting my demonstration paintings for all the Color Boot Campers out there who want to see more examples of how the Color System works in this light.

In this photograph, you can see the Georgia mist rising--it was a glorious morning!

Again, thank you for allowing me to come into your life a bit. As I close, here's an image of the some the trail we traversed... beautiful.


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June 5 - Lesson Painting, Kentucky Countryside Continued

When I work on a painting that has no "obvious" focal point selected, i have to be very careful to balance the value groupings to convey the viewer's eye to whatever I decide will be the eventual area of greatest interest. One exercise for artists to discover their own strengths and preferences in value placement and weight, is to take black and white paper, and cut shapes out of the black to place on the white paper. One can get a strong feeling for what "goes right" in this exercise. Looking at my painting at this stage, it is as if I did that exercise! However, my values structure is locked in, and as I progress, I won't lose sight of those large darks.

Today was a wonderfully full day with a three-hour trail ride deep into the Kentucky woods with friends of Melissa. I rode Belle at first, but she pitched a fit when she couldn't lead the ride, so i switched horses with J.B., Melissa's daughter. I'm on "Lurch", a HUGE Irish import hunter gelding in this photo--the red horse on the left. We're at the "Blue Hole" although it doesn't look blue right now. Beautiful ride!


To show you just how BIG this nice fellow is, here's a photo of me next to him after the ride. I'm 5'4" tall, and he TOWERS over me! It was like riding an aircraft carrier, and just look at his feet!


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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.