Sunday, March 2, 2014

Cooling Down his Horse

Cooling Down his Horse
Oil on panel, 8x10
After hours of housework (the price to pay when gone all week), I finally returned to my easel.  Today, I wanted to focus on the figure in the landscape.  I am working small - 8x10 - so both the figure and the horse are on an even smaller scale.  When the figures are smaller, the contrast between shadow and light need to be sharper, there is simply less area to make these small marks.  This is one of the shots I took when the men and horses were here for the civil war reenactment of Quantrell's Raiders.  This young man was cooling off his horse after they had all worked out the horses.  The depth of the distant fields behind him and the contrast with the figures, drew me to this subject.  This took me longer to paint than normal, mainly because I was more careful with my strokes, looking for the warm and cool - pushing between them both.  I am hoping that all of this becomes as natural as ever - and the strokes will all fall right off my brush into perfect paintings on the panels.  I have always seen the world through rose-colored glasses!  Painting number 426 in as many days :)

2 comments:

  1. Well, to me it looks as if it all becomes as natural as ever and as if the strokes fall perfectly off your brush. How else would you manage to make these beautiful paintings every day?

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  2. The realism you've achieved on the man and his horse, especially working on such a small scale, is amazing. The composition and the soothing color scheme transports you into what seems to be another time. Blessings!

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