Warm Ups As Avoidance Behaviour

Study on Raymar archival canvas panel, first attempt, revisited.

I admit it, I started a study the other day, and I have been using it entirely as an avoidance tactic.  Big, detailed paintings are intimidating.  Little studies are easier to tackle.  If they get messed up, it seems to be easier to take.  I started this most recent study on Thursday and sure enough, I messed that up! I did something I very rarely do - I started over, on a completely different surface, abandoning the quick sketch of paint on canvas, for a new quick sketch of paint on linen.  Smaller dimensions, which, apparently, I could handle better than the first, slightly larger attempt.

Today I worked on the smaller study, and got it to the point where I'm pretty sure it's done.  Then I looked at the discarded start.  Another thing I very rarely do, is work from the same photo more than once, but as I'd let the sketch in paint dry, and ghosting isn't something I wanted to contend with, I thought I'd see what I could do with it as is.  I already had the palette set, a very limited one of four colours (and a combination of colours I hadn't used before).  So I played.  And avoided the big painting.  And now I'm writing this blog post, to further avoid the big painting.  It has, at least, made it back on my easel.  Time to pony up and get to it, I guess!  :-D

Study on unstretched linen, second attempt, ready to abandon.

Five Days In February – Days Four and Five!

"Baby Parker" 6 x 4 oil study.

Apparently I forgot to post the last two paintings on the blog!  The last two were both 6 x 4 on Raymar archival cotton canvas panel.  Day Four was a study of Parker (formerly known as Billy) as a foal, looking all sweet and innocent (yeah, right!). Day Five was a portrait of Sheldon, who celebrated his fifth birthday this week.  All five studies are now on my website in the "Studies" section, and for sale, $65.00 each including shipping in North America, until the end of the month.  After that, they'll be going to Equis Art Gallery to replenish the supply of my studies there. They seem to get snapped up there, so if you're thinking about it, don't wait too long!  ;-) 

"Sheldon," 6 x 4 oil study.

Sometimes, You Just Have To Give Yourself a Kick In The...

"New Digs With Toys," 5 x 7 oil study.

Facebook.  We love it. Hate it. Love to hate it.  Every so often these "challenges" come along – we've been having some fun with a music challenge, posting different favourite songs, and recently the art challenge has resurfaced.  I did it a couple of weeks ago – but it's inevitable that one will get tagged again to do it.  When that happened, I decided to make my own challenge, to do a painting a day for five days.  Having done several thirty day challenges (see my Thirty Horses, Thirty Days blog for many of them!) I figured I could pull off five, and maybe get myself jump-started back into a better studio routine.

It's amazing how much better I feel about day two's painting than day one.  I'm hoping by Friday I'll be unstoppable!  Haha....please don't let my horses hear that, they may take on a challenge of their own to stop me!  ;-) 

"Leo ('Hey, Good-Looking!')" 6 x 6 oil study on Raymar canvas panel.