It's getting to be that time of year - when I start trying to plan the annual trek to Saratoga. Getting away from the farm for a few hours, let alone a few days, is always a challenge. It's kind of a dream to one day spend some time painting on the porch of the Beresford Gallery during the Saratoga meet - will this be the year I pull it off? I'm not holding my breath. It's more likely this will be another whirlwind. Theoretically, I could go down in the morning, go to the races, and come back at the end of the day - it's only a six hour drive...
I started a new painting this week, which is helping fuel the plans. This one is much larger than what I've been sharing of late - 24 x 30 - and my reference photo is one I took at the Spa a few years ago. I had to wait until I'd made a little progress on at least one of the horses to share it - this is very early days, very loose, throwing paint around just to get the canvas covered. As you can see, I have yet to accomplish that!
I've come to enjoy this messy way of doing things - starting with broad areas of tone and refining from there. This is just the underpainting, of course. It's quite fun to do a racing scene this way, concentrating on tone for the first few layers, then starting to gradually add all the colour that makes Thoroughbred racing such a beautiful sport.
