Chestnut Stallion Finished

                                                       

Here is the chestnut stallion, Kirkwall finished.  his tail and main have been painted and he's had two or three glazes with a mixure of liquin and a little body colour (in this case burnt sienna) to bring out the glow in his coat.  Now he's off to the framers!

Chestnut Stallion 4

I'm now on stage four of this piece, in between fulfilling Christmas print and painting orders for David Miller Art. 

I've started to block in a dark background which helps accentuate the rich glow of the horses chestnut coat.  Unfortunately, there's some flair from the studio lights in the left hand corner of the picture but you get the general idea.  This dark is a mixture of ultramarine blue, windsor violet, burnt umber and burnt sienna, with a little yellow ochre introduced towards the bottom. I'm thinking of lightening the bottom half further once the paint is dry, hence the uneven colour at the moment, in order to accentuate the shadow.  

His main, tail, stockings and hooves still need to be worked on but he's well on the way to being finished, but given the time of year it may be that I won't get round to this until January!

Chestnut Stallion 3

Now onto stage three and I've put a second layer of much creamier paint onto the main body of the horse, using the same colours as before, blended together with a clean, soft brush.  I'm also exploring the background colour. At the moment I'm leaning towards a rich dark - ultramarine blue, windsor violet and burnt umber, but that may change as the horse progresses.

The next stage will be the head, main, tail and legs.

Chestnut Stallion 2

Today I've started to block in the horse.  My palette for this piece is burnt sienna, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow, burnt umber, naples yellow, ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, windsor violet and titanium white alkyd.  I like to use the white alkyd because it speeds up the drying time of everything it is mixed with so allows me to work on a piece again within a day or so as opposed to a week.  As a rule I don't tend to use other alkyds as I don't like the sticky nature of the medium but I feel I just about get away with the white!  

At this stage the painting looks a bit scrappy and uneven and can sometimes leave me wondering what I'm doing but over the years I've learnt to suppress the panic!  It's not until the next couple of coats that I will start to blend the rich chestnuts, browns and blues together which will make for a more convincing painting.

Painting Frankel

My painting of Frankel is almost finished.  This is the first time in a long time that I've painted anything on canvas but I'm really impressed with the Windsor & Newton 100% linen series.  I've been undecided on the background for some time and after a bit of trial and error I eventually decided to go with something a little more realistic but which didn't detract from the horse.  I still need to tie together all the paint surfaces with a little body colour mixed with liquin to even out those parts which have dried in more than others and then it's off to the photographers.

 He will eventually be available as a print but I'm not sure if I will be able to get these out for Christmas as it's already nearly December. Phew, how time flies!

With many thanks again to John Pike of Racing Images for the use of such a great photograph.

Chestnut Stallion

This is Kirkwall, a thoroughbred stallion whom we photographed at one of Cheltenham Racecourses National Hunt Stallion parades a few years back. He's been sitting in my 'to-do- pile for a while now but I've finally got round to priming up a canvas with a painting in mind.  This will hopefully be one of the paintings I will exhibit at a joint exhibition with my husband David at Aberglasney Gardens near Llandeilo. It isn't until July 2012 but now is the perfect time to start thinking about what I would like to put into the show.

I've primed up a 20 x 30 inch Windsor & Newton linen canvas using three coats of acrylic gesso primer and a watered-down coat of burnt sienna/naples yellow acrylic to tone down the white. Unfortunately the photograph isn't that great but on top of this I've transferred quite a detailed drawing of the stallion. So far so good! 

Long Handled Brushes

This piece is approximately15 x 28 inches painted on gessoed and coloured board.  In an effort to loosen up I've decided to paint this with no 3 and upward longhandled rounds and filberts. No more fiddling!It does, however, require a steady hand and a great dealof patience.  This one may take me a while as I'm stillfinding my way painting like this. Not too sure of thebackground yet, but probably something expressive.Perhaps even bring the palette knife into play!

I may leave the sketched-in legs as they are. My main wish is to leave this looking like a painting and not a pseudo photograph.  Watch this space!