Luxy

This is another one of my recent commissions, a 16 x 20 oil on panel. Luxy is a Danish Warmblood gelding, he and his brother Luminous both sons of the famous stallion Lucky Light. Both brothers were named for their shining light - the sun for Luxy, and the moon for Luminous - hence the symbolic sun in Luxy's portrait. If you look carefully at the original, you will see a four-leaf clover in the foliage of the treeline, to pay tribute to the stallion Lucky Light.

The brothers are both lovely dressage horses, with natural jumping ability. While Luminous is sweet and eager to please, Luxy is playful, mischievous and impish. I think Luxy would like to meet the two young boys at my place - the three of them would have a lot of fun!

Luxy's portrait is framed and will soon be on its way.

Control vs. Abandon

I know as an artist, I tend to stay closer to the 'control' side of the equation. It's not an uncommon pursuit among artists to want to 'loosen up,' the whole 'less is more' scenario. If I can throw yet another cliché at you – the good old "a picture is worth a thousand words" – those words, translated to artspeak, might be brushstrokes, and I doubt I will live long enough to get where I want to in mastering those! The goal is efficiency - to be able to put the stroke down once, and have it say what I want it to say. Right now all I'm saying is, "Not in this lifetime!" though I wish that weren't so!

Today I worked at both ends of the spectrum, or as best I can at this point! I continued to put colour into my present commission project - just a very light, thin layer, and I'm really liking how it's coming along. I have a few issues to resolve with the photos I'm working from - they were taken mid-day, which means high contrast, strong shadows. Great for drama, but this is a portrait, so I'm toning those down. As the paint will dry quickly because this layer is so thin, I'll be able to proceed fairly soon on this one, and I'm looking forward to it!

Tonight, in order to balance an afternoon devoted to careful work, I did a little 8 x 10 sketch. I'm not calling this one done, but one thing I know is I'd like to do this much larger, so I'll try to keep myself from going too far with the sketch. The reference I'm working with is of Alphabet Soup, who is standing this season at Gardiner Farms. I was at Woodbine the day he beat Cigar in the Breeders' Cup Classic, so to see him up close, and be able to get some pretty cool photos - well, it made my day, back in December at the stallion parade.

This oil is on shellacked masonite, a surface I'm still getting a feel of. I love leaving the panel showing, so this and future attempts will include figuring out how to use that to its advantage!

"Love Story," Commissioned Portrait

I've been quiet of late because I'm hard at work on commissions at the moment. I usually don't post commissions as works in progress - you won't see them here until they are complete and have been approved by the client. Sometimes that's because they are gifts, and sometimes it's just because there is often fine-tuning at the end once the client has seen the almost completed portrait, and I'd rather wait until those details have been worked through.

Above is one of my latest pieces, an 8 x 10 pencil portrait of a retired jumper mare named Love Story. The photo we ended up going with for this one was actually supplied by Diane McFarlane, a photographer who commissioned me to do the drawing for her friend. I did get to meet this beautiful mare, however, and really enjoyed that time!

I'll post an oil portrait I've also recently completed next time. Now, it's back to the easel, where I have two more oil commissions on the go. For now, my other works in progress are on hold!