Saturday, April 11, 2009

Saturday at the Races


I'd kind of hoped to get to the races today...how I think that's possible right now, I don't know! Fortunately Sun TV was once again showing some races from Woodbine, so I was happy. I decided to do another racehorse painting, which is a challenge for this daily painting thing because racing paintings tend to be a bit complex. So this is what I went with.

My reference photo was from Queen's Plate Day last year, and this is a crop of an already close-cropped photo I took in the walking ring of the winner, Not Bourbon. By cropping it I didn't have to deal with hands and shanks and the bit, that sort of thing! I still need to do a racing painting of last year's Plate. This year is the 150th running, and that fact has my brain working a bit. I'm sure you'll hear more about that eventually.

I decided to treat myself and use a Raphael linen panel for this. It's still just 5 x 7, but the surface is just so amazing to paint on. I also threw the limited palette out for this one. Yes, this is what an artist does for fun....

Just for *more* fun I'm going to add a photo of the new kid and Clever. I think a video of what came before this would be more entertaining. This colt is following in his half-brother Billy's footsteps when it comes to being caught - it's a bit of a rodeo, hence the smile! He was a bit better today than yesterday, at least!

Time to go clean brushes...hope you'll check in again tomorrow!

3 comments:

Access Horses said...

Absolutely GOR-GE-OUS!!!

LDWatkins said...

You do such beautiful work! I'm working on my horse sculpting skills, and your wonderful paintings give me great reference points also.

Linda Shantz said...

Thank-you both!

I've never really tried sculpting - one day! I'm sure horses would be a challenge, their anatomy is so complex. Have fun with it!