Today I start cleaning and cooking. Mostly cleaning. My bed is not even made because I have been working on a painting and wanted to finish it, one little detail I have had to change, altho if I did it over(and I may--this is on paper canvas and I may re-do it on the real stuff)and so the first thing this morning, I was up and squeezing paint onto my paper plate palette...
The subject, instead of my usual landscapes, are horses: a team of Percherons in the farm classes, altho these two were clearly used in the hitch classes as well, spotless, manes roached, hooves polished---
This is the photo I took. And this is the painting I wanted to do. That they lost in translation is a given. I am disappointed that the tremendous power of these two gorgeous animals was somewhat down-sized. Something about them defied my brush. Also I did the painting at home, in home lighting, which is very poor, I admit. This was the first rendition:
As you can readily see, a grave difference. Looking at them the next day I had a horsie thought: why is one wearing blinders and the other is not? At the horse show itself I took hundreds of photos and set them up to run on the computer in a loop, so that the handlers and owners coming into the Hospitality Suite could see their horses on the screen. One handler stared a long time at a pair of farm team horses and then said "Why does he have a crupper on one of them and not the other?" This is the kind of detail horse people see-- a crupper is a piece that runs from the harness under and around the tail. No one had an answer of course, but I felt the same way looking at my painting. I looked at the photo:
Because, obviously, I had left out the second set of blinders. DUH.
So in they went.
Then a REAL artist looked at it and noted that the throat latch wasn't quite right, and so this morning, I changed that. Now I think I am done but maybe not. Paintings are so often works in progress and sometimes the progress extends for years....I have known artists to see one of their paintings in a show and correct something the next day when no one was around. Hardly anyone notices except the painter.
Fini I
think altho making the far horse a little darker might not hurt.
It was fun
You are amazing! Artist and dogmom extraordinaire. I love reading your blog and your posts on the Daily Drool. They have made me laugh and smile a lot lately as I have been sitting in the hospital dealing with kidney stones and surgery...give the boys Christmas hugs and kisses and tell them to keep writing their hilarious tales of mayhem.
ReplyDeleteI second what Paula said. I thought both paintings were great!! You are a very talented woman, don't sell yourself short. I also love your stories of the boyz. I find myself scrolling down to see if there is anything new from Debbie or you and if not, sometimes I skip it altogether.. ha ha.. Hope you and your family have a great holiday and so glad you're back in YOUR forever home now!
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