Windy Day

Sold.

Here I continue to experiment painting horses responding to the weather. This piece of silk is about seven inches square and was first dampened and stretched onto a board using staples to make it taught. It is a nice surface to paint on with ink, and stays put, but with this method I can't paint on the reverse side simultaneously, which I often do for enhanced sky effects.

more watercolors

Today I was going to tidy up the studio, but in the process I found some very soft and creamy, raw, cotton rag paper from I don't know where (no watermark). So I am working instead which is better. First I draw with graphite and then I smear some paint around, sticking to a limited palette of three colors: yellow ochre, burnt sienna, and indigo blue. This is almost the Velasquez palette which would have ultramarine blue instead of indigo.

lesson

I spend time watching people train horses. One of the things they often do is exercise the horse on a longe line. It easier for the horse to balance without a rider on his back. Trying to paint this includes thinking about how the muscles work and where the light hits the body. I also think about what is going on in the horses mind and try to capture that mood in the painting. This is a nervous young mare who is trying to trust a new trainer. She has lots of energy and I hope the painting conveys that.

horses on silk

The weather has changed, and so I have painted these mustangs running in excitement as horses do when the wind brings in a new weather system. Horses have long been a standard in Chinese art, representing both freedom and strength combined with grace.

This painting is sold.

I have added color although it is much bluer, less green, than it appears here. I might darken the colors somewhat, but am not yet sure that it is a good idea to make the clouds stand out more.

sumi horses painted on Chinese silk

I am now working on a commission and trying to paint something similar to a painting that sold last May. Many people expressed interest in the painting and one has asked for one like it. I normally don't accept commissions, but this is for a friend of a friend, and so...I will try. I often paint what I think of as wild horses, or mustangs, running free, though one of these paintings looks more like two ponies just running in for their dinner. I love horses and painting on silk is a departure for me; it is quite different from painting on rice paper because it is heavily sized and that makes it tough to get the soft grays I usually strive for. It is good to experiment, however.

And so I will continue to paint horses on silk for a while...

8-8-08

Today's ditty, painted while working at the gallery. A light-hearted watercolor sketch on rag paper done in the midst of a bustling crowd of tourists. Colts playing at the beach...