Sunday, January 3, 2010

Wind Runner - abstract study of running horse

6 X 8 Oil on Canvas panel $50
Includes shipping and insurance


Fellow Daily Painter, Rick Nilson, has a wonderful style of "loose color" that appears as if he just slaps paint on the canvas and magically commands composition, color and value to be so pleasing to the eye. View his blog HERE.
I asked him about his technique and he convinced me to try it myself.
Let me make myself clear - this is nowhere near as good as Rick's work, and according to Rick I didn't follow instructions completely.
But it was revealing and I am going to do the same image again in different colors and try harder to follow instructions!
Instructions: Wash canvas with a medium value red. Wipe away the lightest areas (use a rag or clean brush dipped in turp). Add ALL darkest areas. Finally add color.
As you can see, I added the color too early, and I was chastised from breaking the formula. I will do better on the next one.
The advantage of painting this way is that by the end of the third step (putting in ALL the darks), you should be able to tell if the composition will work.
I am eager to try this on a landscape - and even a portrait.
By the way, the subject of this little painting is Tuffy, the buckskin paint who has a Napoleon complex. Carpenter Carl brought him back for a visit. Carl's in the neighborhood building a house (he built my studio summer-before-last), and he rotates Tuffy between our place and another friend. Carl's a handy guy to know - he's going to help us build a chicken house. Grasshopper control and fresh eggs are the objective. We need a secure place for the birds, though, because we have a prolific population of Great Horned Owls, Red tailed Hawks and Coyotes - not to mention the assorted snakes. Gee - makes you wonder why we try, huh? I DID try raising Guinea hens several years ago. Afterall, they seem to thrive everywhere I see them. Not so at our house.
I carefully kept the keets in an enclosed pen until they could fly and roost in the trees. The first day I let them spend the "night out" only 11 guineas came home. The next day 11 went out and 10 came back, and I found a head at the end of the driveway under the gate post - exactly where I occasionally saw an owl perched. The numbers continue to decline until 2 went out and none came home. A neighbor down the road reported a stray guinea in her barn several days later. We never saw them again. I hope to have better luck with chickens - I understand they have bigger brains...Guineas are known to forget where they lay their eggs.
Psalm 9:17
The wicked return to the grave, all the nations that forget God.
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1 comment:

Mary Sheehan Winn said...

I must share some photos I took at a farm this past summer, where they had lots of animals including a completely secure chicken coop. Even though it's covered on top with heavy wire, the chickens don't know that.
We spent the day painting there and around 5 only two of us were left and we heard the chickens raising a ruckus because there was a hawk cruising around landing in the trees. I walked into the coop and all the chickens were in the roost making a heck of a racket, because they know, they're dinner.