In the Studio

All day last Friday I sat here workin away on a brainiac website that I’d been working on all week…one that isn’t so much visual, but programming behind the scenes, so my brain is sooo sore from coding and debugging, et al.

So anyhoo, I’ve been itching to get some painting done, but every time I go to the easel, I sit not knowing where to begin.

Methinks I’ve gotten used to too many mediums now that I can’t make up my mind which one to work in!

I’ve also been battling with the “why bothers” of some of the paintings I do….not all of them are me. So I get bored with them quickly. So I have to think to myself often…why on earth am I painting something else other than what pleases me anyway?

So anyhoo, here is one of those ME paintings that literally blopped itself out onto the canvas in about 20 minutes. Yeah, 20 minutes! Took all day to think about doing it, wanting to do it, and then finally forcing myself to sit down and just DO it! Now, granted this is just layer 1 of many to come, but I don’t wanna overwork it either. So I’ll post it in stages.

This is 16″x20″ acrylic on stretched canvas. Something I said I didn’t wanna paint on anymore because I paint the acrylics so diluted, like watercolor, that the canvas texture is usually annoying as all heck so I prefer the smoothness of masonite. But I just took a bigger brush and loaded it up with more paint this time, and voila!!!! Even in this gesture blocked-in stage, it captures the feeling for me. Hopefully I can maintain it as I do more to it!

I have a lot to thank whichever kid put this video together -

I’ve kept it bookmarked ever since I found it over a year ago now. Whenever I’m feeling down or need inspiration, it always perks me up. It captures all the moments in those favorite movies that inspired me all through my childhood and set my heart a’dreamin. I gotta track her down someday and send her a nice thank-you gift. It helped me remember all the things I always loved about horses. Whenever I’m out somewhere and bored, I always picture the Black prancing around in the background, doing these sorts of antics, rearing, pawing, snorting, shaking his head, all that stuff. I know, it’s not realistic, but it’s the things fantasies are made of, right? I’m a daydreamer by nature who’s been living way too much in reality. lol! That’s where the love of horses sprang from, and I still compare horses to The Black. That’s what I love about my horse, Tattoo….aside from his color, he is the Black to me. I could watch him move forever! Someday I hope that I can get the one-ness with him like Alec had with the Black.

December 10th, 2007 -

Spent about another twenty minutes on it just now…again, another “splotch” bout. Not sure where it’s coming from, but this painting is working quickly! I think it’s because I’m trying to keep it simple and ignoring that voice in my head that tries to tell me all the things I have learned over the years. Ya know, about composition, color usage, negative space, yadda yadda yadda. One can easily get so caught up in the Do’s and Don’t’s that one doesn’t necessarily end up catching one’s vision at all!

So here it is so far. More paint on it now to finally cover most of the canvas up on the horse. I used a #10 round sable this time. First time was a 3/4″ flat sable. Next bout I’ll use likely a #6 round sable to get even tighter, like on the mane, nostril area and highlights. And to really determine where that shadowed eye really is. Oh, I guess I should mention too, the colors used so far are only Liquitex French Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber. There is NO black paint used in this painting at all. I added a bit of white to the mixture for the highlights. As well, I’ve used some Golden glazing medium to help it spread easier too. I’m thinking, at this point anyway, that I’ll just paint the background plain white. I have a vision of a grouping of four paintings similar to this, to be displayed without frames, painted edges (gallery wrap canvas this is). We’ll see if I’m that ambitious.

December 10, 2007

I guess today was a really good painting day. Spend another 30mins or so on it and I think it’s nearly finished! At least, it’s at a point where I know I should leave it alone for awhile before I overwork it. hehehe If I find anything that bugs me after awhile, I’ll go back and fix it. But for the moment, she is done!

16″x20″ acrylic on canvas
used only French Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Umber, and Titanium white. Some glazing medium. 3/4″ flat sable (not 1/2″ I mis-typed it above), #10 round sable, and #6 round sable for finishing.

There’s a little glare off the canvas, I’ll scan it for better detail later on. But overall, this is what he looks like…