Expectation

"Toss," 24 x 24 oil on canvas...one where I did stop at the underpainting!

Friend and artist extraordinaire, Jen Trottier, just posted a work in progress on Facebook (check out her Instagram account to see other WIPs).  It's very cool, but it's one of the comments (by another friend, photographer Juliet Harrison!) that inspired this post.  Basically, Juliet said she liked the painting as is. Had to "like" that comment, because I don't know how many times I've had a work in progress in the underpainting stage, and thought, "Wow, I really like it right there, I wish I could just stop now, and call it done."

So...why don't I?  I think as artists, at least as somewhat established artists, we have this thing hanging over our heads called "expectation."  We think if we don't do things a certain way – in our usual style, which our followers and collectors have come to expect – we'll lose our audience.  No one wants to disappoint the people who have come to appreciate our work, right?  So we push on, put out more of the same to get the positive comments.  Every now I'll share something different, and that internet silence, as I like to call it, is a killer.  I know I'm not the only artist who has contemplated coming up with an alter ego and letting that persona do whatever that one wants...marketing oneself as a completely different artist, and not telling anyone.  I know of artists who have gone ahead and done just that.  I've given it serious thought!

I liked this one at this stage...but "finished" it.

 

Expectation can be a real aggravation. I can run another parallel to riding with it.  I had the most brilliant lesson on Leo the week before last - it's the one where we ended up cantering that X, in the video I posted.  All riders know that feeling you get with an awesome ride.  I couldn't wait to ride him again the next day! And guess what?  He was a complete idiot.  Completely distracted, nothing was coming together.  Part way through the ride, I gave myself the proverbial smack upside the head and realized I'd gone into that ride with a certain expectation, and I was really disappointed as a result.  It was a good reminder that in the grand scheme of things, Leo is doing great, but he's still very green.  He's still going to have those days, and I just have to use those days to ride the horse I have at the moment, and help us both learn and improve.  Since then, with both Leo and Gracie, I've tried to go into my rides without having a real agenda.  And you know what?  I think all three of us are much happier for it.  ;-)

So, can I apply the same to my art?  It's much harder for me to start a painting without some sort of expectation as to where I want it to end up.  Can I give myself permission to decide to stop and sign it, if I have one of those "I like it just the way it is now" moments?  Maybe.  I'll work on it.

Complements

"The Plans I Have For You," 18 x 24 oil on canvas

A lot of artists have a hard time taking compliments.  I know it took me a long time to learn to say "thank you" rather than put myself down.  This post isn't about that, however.  I'm talking colour, not comments!

My palette is usually pretty limited.  Just like I don't wear bright colours, my paintings are generally pretty down to earth....literally.  Every now and then, though, I break out a little - at least for me!

Way back in Grade Nine art class, we learned about complementary colours.  A colour's complement is the one on the opposite side of the colour wheel. Even though I know what is where on the colour wheel, I still keep one tacked behind my easel!  Saves having to think too hard some days!  Then, back in 2009 when I took a workshop with Val Hinz, we did some paintings using complementary colours for the underpainting. For a horse, you have to extrapolate a little, of course:  bay = red, so complement is green;  chestnut = orange, complement is blue, and so on.   I really like the result, and have done a few paintings this way.  This quick study below was one:

"The Yearling" oil on canvas panel, $75.00

Skip forward to August 2013.  While having lunch with my friend and fellow artist/photographer Renee Fukumoto, we decided we needed to do some kind of "challenge."  We settled on using one of her photos of her very handsome Standardbred, Remi.  The photo was absolutely gorgeous.  I decided on my crop, then thought hey, maybe I'll try that old complementary colour underpainting for this.  It was kind of fun posting the crazy in-progress photos on Facebook.  He was my Martian horse for a while!

Of course, the finished result was very different!  While on the one hand I'm disappointed I defaulted to going very realistic, it was, at least, a fresh way of getting there.  The painting is 18 x 24 oil on canvas, and the title I settled on is "The Plans I Have for You."

(Thanks Judy Wood for the gentle smack upside the head on my word usage, haha....I should know better!  And now I will never forget again!  ;-) )

Keeping On

I figured you all could use a rest from me yesterday, so I posted my current WIP on Facebook instead. ;-) This is what I've been working on, with a bit more progress. You saw it here first a while ago! This is 14 x 18 oil on linen. Not my usual smooth linen, but a heavier weave which I've painted on a couple of times. I like to change things up from time to time!

This is Clever and her 2008 colt, Billy, who is now in training at Woodbine. Billy had a lot of very original facial expressions as a baby, and always seemed to be nattering at his mom. Here I've started to lay some colour in over the underpainting - just midtones and darks, and scrubbing them and blending them in with a dry brush rather than a true glaze, though the effect is the same.

Her current foal is two weeks old today, and looking very handsome!

Work! In! Progress!

Please forgive my title - what I used to find annoying (bizarre web punctuation) I apparently now find amusing, and so I've used it for this post. The painting in question is one that I can only say I started by popular demand! So many people commented on the photo after I posted it on Facebook, and thought it should be a painting, and I had to agree. This is 11 x 14 oil on Raphael panel. What you see above is the completed underpainting. It's pretty loose, and I'm going to have fun playing with this as I begin the colour, because in order for this to *work* there will need to be an interesting combination of detail and brushwork. Hoping I can pull off what's in my head!


I thought I'd show you a couple of early stages, too. First one is the panel, stained with transparent red oxide, and the rough tonal drawing. For the underpainting I used burnt umber, ultramarine blue and titanium white. As you can see from the image at the start of the post, I've let some of that red toned panel peek through. I just like the effect, even though it will be covered, more or less, once I add colour! The underpainting has dried very quickly (thanks to some less humid weather, and an efficient dehumidifier!) so it won't be long before I get to start that next step.


For a diversion, tonight I believe I finished my first cow painting! I'll show him off after I get the client's approval. See you soon!

Making Plans

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.

Canine Competition

Another new painting in the works today. I was hoping to get this one going in time for this year's Art Show at the Dog Show, but I ran out of time. This is a 6 x 8 oil on Raymar canvas panel, featuring an Australian Cattle Dog emerging from the tunnel on an agility course. I love agility - the dogs always look like they're having such a blast. While I've never competed in agility, I used to do it for fun with my Border Collie OTCh Maggie. We even did a fun Rally O (a combination of obedience and agility) match one time - I pulled her out of retirement to do a special Border Collie event, and the old girl pulled of a second!

What you're seeing so far is a very loose, very quick underpainting using Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue and Titanium White. The underpainting isn't quite finished yet, but it's quite close. It's refreshing to be able to work fast like this, not let myself think too much, especially after some of the more detailed work I've done of late. And making a foray back to dogs is always fun too! This one will fit nicely with the upcoming Canine Art Guild "The Pursuit of Happiness" online show, scheduled for June 2009. In the meantime, check out the current show, "The Company Dogs Keep." Be sure to vote for your favourite!

Beauty Sleep

The title is in honour of Monster today - napping in the sunshine, in our lovely mud. I'm without my camera right now, as both body and lens had to go back to Canon for some attention, so I've been running off with my father's Nikon D80. We're not getting along that well, unfortunately, as apparently I can't even get it to focus! I have some really cute baby pics of Leo, but they're fuzzy! That doesn't stop me from using them as painting references, but it does make me hesitate to broadcast that I can't actually take a decent photo! It's a bit humiliating. So far it's been hit and miss, with far too many misses, I'm afraid.

I checked the mare and foal underpainting yesterday and was surprised to find out that it's dry to the touch, which means I can get back to work on it. In the meantime, seeing as I'm apparently in monochrome mode, I've been working on further refining the underpainting of another piece. This is 16 x 20 oil on panel of Canada's 2007 Horse of the Year, Sealy Hill. There's still a ways to go, and hopefully the fact that the racing season in Ontario is just a couple of weeks away will keep me motivated to continue!

Back to work!

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

This was one of those "if every day was like today" kind of days. For one, the weather was beautiful, by March-in-Ontario standards. Sunny, "warm" (that means above freezing)...and I have the pictures of the happy muddy horses to prove it! It would have been a great day to ride, but with the footing going from frozen to mud over the course of the day, well, it wasn't the greatest of options. Instead, I distracted myself by throwing myself into the new mare and foal painting of Toula and her baby...fueled somewhat by a 1kg bag of Peanut M&Ms supplied by said mare and foal's 'guardian,' shall we say! And no, I didn't finish a whole bag of Peanut M&Ms!


This is a good time to give the blow by blow of the early stages of one of my "traditional" oils, done with a complete underpainting. I decided on an 11 x 14 Raphael linen panel for this painting. The first step is to tone the surface, and my current favourite colour for this is Burnt Sienna. This stage is very simple - I dab some paint on the panel straight out of the tube, dip a large brush in solvent, and smoosh it around! As it gets to be half-dry, I'll take a larger, soft brush and even out the brushstrokes, or I may take a rag and smooth it out if I want to eliminate those brushstrokes altogether. Next, comes the drawing. I've used a sepia coloured pencil because it smears less than graphite with the introduction of solvent. The drawing doesn't have to be perfect, because I'll continuously correct and refine as the painting goes along. The image above shows things at this point.


Next comes what I term the "rough tonal." This is simply straight Burnt Umber thinned with varying amounts of solvent. I just want to block in some basics; I don't spend a lot of time on this stage (above). Often I will put the painting away for the day a this point, but today, because I had time and unprecedented motivation (:-D) I carried on. I'd decided I would try and video the process so that I can try putting together something. Interestingly, I found I painted more steadily because it was almost like having an audience, which in turn felt like subtle pressure to produce results! So after a short break to go throw hay for the horses, I was back at it.


My palette for underpaintings is simple - this time around, Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue and Titanium White. The first layer is typically very loose and quick. The foal went so fast, tonight I just kept on and thought I might actually get the whole surface covered. I have to admit I'm a little shocked that I managed that, by about 10pm! And yesterday I didn't even *start* painting until 9pm!


Now, I will leave it. The paint is very wet, so I'll let it dry for a while to decide whether I'll refine the underpainting with another layer, or dive into colour. The colour variations you may see are due to the difference in lighting as the day wore on! At the very top of the post I've put a detail image to give an idea of just how loosely I'm painting at this point.

And just because I mentioned it, I must post a photo of some muddy horses! Gives you an idea of just how small Monster is compared with Gladys, too! Quite the pair, don't you think?

The Weather Report

That's what this blog has become, hasn't it? While in one sense it "warmed up" today, the wind chill made sure that it felt like -18. The snow started mid-afternoon, and I took pity on the horses and brought them in early. Remember that painting from a couple of days ago of Gladys and Monster waiting by the gate? Well, it actually wasn't like that. It was cold enough everyone was jumping around to keep warm, wondering why Gracie and Jubie got to come in early! Predictions are for as much as 15 cm of snow. I'll see how that's going shortly, when I go back out to the barn !

So, back to the artwork...I hadn't intended to do an underpainting with this one, but that's the direction I ended up going. It's a pretty loose underpainting at this point, and I may refine it a little bit before I start with the colour. The one thing about these snow paintings is that I inevitably use a lot of Titanium White, which means this one has some drying time ahead of it before I can go back to work. I need some 'distance' from it anyway, to regain some perspective ad see the things that need to be fixed before I go any further.

I have a couple other paintings I'd like to do of the boys in the back paddock. The next two include Billy. We'll see if I get to them before I get sick of the white stuff!

Brought to You by the Colour Green

Apparently I’m on a green kick this week. Could my purple avoidance get any worse?

Look what I finally dusted off today! The painting formerly known as ‘Backstretch’ and later renamed “First Time Past” (current working title). Lots of different greens in this one, and like the Mike Fox painting, I’ve been blocking in colour over the underpainting. recently, having worked on paintings with a detailed underpainting as well as one without (Eccentric), I’m reminded just how much simpler it makes things to have that tonal roadmap. I was able to make a lot of progress, quickly.

I’m also enjoying the Artfix linen with this piece. When I started this one, I didn’t think we were going to be friends! I really did contemplate locking it in the closet on several occasions. It was worth those early “fights” I’ve decided. Guess I’m going to have to buy more!

Purple Panel Painters, Unite!

I was just browsing the Equine Artists' feed - this is kind of a group blog that collects blog posts from various members. I've been enjoying watching the progress on many of the Mural Mosaic panels on our Equine Art Guild forum, but it was fun to see the more public postings too. At the EAG some of us have jokingly formed the "Purple Panel Support Group" to help ourselves deal with the particular challenge of these purple panels! Seeing so many of them completed or nearing completion is putting the pressure on, though!

So, for some progress! I'm not going to explain my subject now - but I'll post pictures so you can see where I'm at. The EAGers know who this is, as I've shared over there, so no letting it leak! Not that it's a big deal, but I'll post my little blurb to go along with the panel once I'm done. If you can figure it out, let me know.

The first step was to transfer my drawing to the panel. I dug up old photos, and new photos, and played around a bit in Photoshop as well as my sketchbook to come up with what I wanted. The darkness of the panel meant using a white china marker for the drawing, which actually worked out quite well when I started adding paint. The solvent will dissolve the marker with some persuasion, but "stuck" enough to give me the guidelines I needed once I started working in the paint.


On the advice of a few EAGers I put a light coat of a 50/50 mixture of mineral spirits and linseed oil over the panel to help the paint flow. While it did allow me to cover the panel quickly, and with a nice looseness, it also increased the drying time of this layer significantly! I managed a rough tonal, then had to leave it. The paint on this layer is very thin, so I'll be doing a better job of covering the panel with the next one. I'm keeping my colours in line with the panel at this point - French Ultramarine Blue, Venetian Red and Unbleached Titanium, which, mixed together to the blue side, gave a nice bluish-purple. Maybe a little cooler than the orignal panel tone, but working for what I wanted for this underpainting. I've actually used these colours for an underpainting before, so I did have basis for my decision!

When that initial layer was finally dry, I was back at the easel with the same palette. Now I worked to cover the panel more fully, still keeping it monochromatic, and getting my detail more solid without really losing the looseness. So I'm at that stage now where I could very happily leave this as is - who needs full colour anyway? It's that fear of messing up a satisfactory underpainting!


Good or bad, this needed time to dry. As it turned out, I didn't have time to work on it this week, thanks to a small bout of horse stress. No more excuses now though! The panel is dry, and I have a day to paint. Add to that, there's a bit of a deadline on this, so no time to dwell on my insecurities! Boldly go! ;)

Seriously...Where's the Chocolate?

It's perhaps a sad thing that one of my greatest motivators to get to the grocery store is needing to replenish my supply of chocolate. Yes, even out here in Boonieville we have a couple of corner stores of a fashion (all gas stations seem to have convenience stores now) but when I talk about chocolate, what I'm usually looking for is "real" chocolate, the higher the cocoa percent, the better! When I go away (in a geographical sense) I look for new chocolate. Have you read my profile? That degree and minor I have? I figure that gives me the authority to remind everyone that chocolate is GOOD for you! Has to be the high cocoa content stuff though. More antioxidants than that red wine everyone goes on about. And you don't get drunk on it!

Okay...painting, right? My next task is to finish the other piece that was abandoned mid-underpainting last October. When I originally edited the photo for this, I flipped it, and I was going to call it "Backstretch Banter" because the riders were making me laugh. When it came down to it, though, I decided to leave the orientation as it was - the field in a route race going past the grandstand for the first time. The race in question was actually the '06 Canadian Oaks. Maybe my reasons for not changing the photo too much were directly related to that!

This is one of those "count the legs" paintings. I'm still doing that. I'm also testing my memory, painting those legs. My photo ref doesn't show as much as the painting does. I still have some work to do there. Too bad this race was over the old dirt surface at Woodbine, or I would just throw in some Polytrack kickback!

As I'm sure no one but me remembers, this is the first painting I've done on Artfix Linen. The surface is so smooth, it's been giving me some real challenges. Just when I think I have the hang of it, I lose it! I've got the sketch for another painting blocked out on another, smaller piece of this. Haven't touched it with paint yet. I think I've come to the conclusion I like a bit of texture!