Breezy Buckskins, final version.

I brought down the brightness in the yellowed grasses leading to the horses, I added the black mane at the top of the withers to the eating horse, I worked on the clouds, bringing some more paynes grey into them. I added the missing shadows!

My friend, Judy Johnson, another equine artist, pointed out to me I was lacking shadows in this painting! Of all things to forget. That's why it's so much fun for me to belong to the Equine Art Guild, they keep me on track. Carrie with the challenge to go paint something and Judy with her reminder about the shadows!

I've so enjoyed painting these buckskins.

Another of the guild members, Leslie Zantow said this about the painting: " I love the colors and light in this piece, so clean, like breathing fresh air."

And you know what I'm going to say now, this horse painting is for sale on my website for $100. For a while, it'll be on the front page.

Thanks for following along with this this painting, I hope you enjoyed it.
Donna

Breezy Buckskins, Work in progress 5, art lesson.

Another update. I know, not much has happened since the last update! But I did make a few changes and additions.

From where I sit in my studio, I can look out my main window to the north and see the traffic rolling by on the highway. Today has been a day for the Forest Service to finally get serious about fighting some of the fires that are ravaging our forests. I've seen truck after truck load of fire fighting equipment going by.

It's to bad they don't put the fires out when the first trees are hit by lightning, instead of waiting until the fire has consumed thousands of acres.

We spend all the time we can in the forests, and I hate seeing them demolished. After these big fires hit, my grandkids children won't have a forest to enjoy, it will probably be another generation after that before trees come to life again.

There's more horse art and Montana scenery on my website, I hope you enjoy it.
Donna

Breezy Buckskins, Work in progress 4, art lesson.

I have some more blue to tone down, then I think these are finished. I added some Paynes Grey to the clouds this morning and worked on details. Put in the manes and tails. I might tone down a few places on them.

I went looking for mats and found two I like for this painting. One crops the picture until it's small, the other opens it up, I think I like that one best. It's going to frame out to be 9X12 and I'll ask $100 for this. Probably put it in my ebay store and on my website.

Take it the round of the shows until it sells....

That's thinking ahead, I don't even have it finished yet, better get back to work.

On my website, you can see paintings of Montana scenery and animals. Hope you enjoy them and if you do, pass the site along to your friends. :)
donna

Breezy Buckskins, Work in progress 3, art lesson.

It's coming along. I don't like the warm color at the bottom right, that will have to go. The horse that's looking back, his tail will be blowing between his hind legs.

I'll be adding a lot more details to the eating horse. I'll also add some grass stems before I'm finished.

If you have any questions about creating a painting like this, just ask, I'd be happy to answer them.

More horse paintings on my website.
Also see my Montana photos.

Thanks for stopping by.
donna

Breezy Buckskins, Work in progress 2, art lesson.

The horses are coming along and I decided to give them a lot of grass. It's so dry here this year, we barely know what grass looks like.

I haven't added many details yet. Colors I'm using are Hooker's Green, Yellow Ochre, Paynes Grey and some burnt sienna. Oh yes, Cerulean Blue sky.

I painted the sky with all over color then wiped into it with a paper towel to create clouds.

I'm planning the center of interest to be the head of the horse that's looking back. The coolest color will meet the warmest color there. I'll also have the lightest light and the darkest dark color close to that point.

See more horse art on my website. If you enjoyed this blog, send your friends on over....
Donna

Breezy Buckskins, Work in progress, art lesson.

One of my friends challenged me to get off the computer and get out to the studio and paint something. She lives in Kansas and she also paints a lot of horses! Click the words horse art to see her site.

Sometimes we're guilty of visiting on the computer so much, we don't get any painting done. Leave it to her to solve that problem! :)

Anyway, here's my first layin of color on a painting of two buckskins. In the photo I'm working from, the wind isn't blowing. I decided the wind would add a lot to this painting.

It's a watercolor, 7X10" in size and done on a gessoed mat board.

Installment two coming right up.
You can see more horse art on my website.

As always, send your friends here if you like this blog.
Donna

Flower Napper update

I posted this painting for sale on an ebay auction last week, and there have been 70 people looking at it. 4 of them have marked the auction. It ends today around 5 pm MST. Just a note to let you know, if you might be interested in that auction, go to ebay, and do a search for "aceo horse" it will pop right up on the page as it's nearly finished. Thank you for your interest in "Flower Napper". If he doesn't sell on this auction, he'll be in my store or on my website for $35. The auction begins at $12.50.
donna

Fox Play, work in progress 6.

I'm getting close to finishing this up. There are a few areas that need some help but they're getting fewer. These fox make me laugh. I love the silly look on the fox in the hole's face.

Once again, see my photo blog to find more photos of these fox playing.

I closed up the studio for the night so I'll have to finish this tomorrow. I'll be working on the area under the top fox's tail.
donna

Fox Play, work in progress 5.

It's coming along. I was a little afraid to post a work in progress, "in progress". Although I do it a lot, you have no guarantees anything good will happen. You might end up throwing the painting in the trash, then you'd have to tell everyone that's what happened to you!

These fox are very bright, and that's a got a reason behind it. I want this to look like a "fun" painting. I know I have more to do to this, but I don't know what it will be yet. So while Robert is in therapy today, I'll sit and think about these fox-es. I could hardly sleep last night for thinking of them. It still bothers me how the top fox doesn't really stand out like he should.

In case anyone wants to know, I'm using Rembrandt, Sennelier and Rownery pastels. I like the soft, silky feeling pastels. This was on a green suede board, but it's lost most of the green.
donna

Fox Play, work in progress 4.

I worked on the grass some more and I've been working on the top fox. I almost wonder if I should name this, "Now where is that brother of mine?"
donna

Fox Play, work in progress 3.

This is where I'm at right now in this painting. And the actual painting is larger than this, I've been scanning portions of it because my camera is in the house and I don't want to go get it. At some point today, I'll take a photo of this and you can see the entire thing. It's actual size is 11X14 inches.

I've got a z composition going on in here now, your eye is lead into the picture by the grey dirt at the front of the fox hole, then it goes up the bank and across the other fox.

To the left of center in the painting, is going to be a center of interest and it will be formed by the lightest lights and the darkest darks in the painting. It's going to be kind of a straight line going down from the fox on top, to the strong colors on the bottom fox.

I'm planning for the main focal point of the entire painting, to be the expression on the face of the bottom fox. She knows from experience, her brother is likely to be up there getting ready to pounce on her, but she isn't sure. Her ears are listening as hard as they can to hear him and she's ready to play the game of pounce and wrestle.

When I get to this stage of painting, the painting itself takes over and I don't need to look at my reference photos any longer. It seems the painting tells me what it wants to become. There are times when I stare at it for a long time before I see my next step, other times I can work away for an hour before I have to stop and take stock again.

I want my animals to look "real" but I also want them to look like animals in a painting, not animals in a photo. I want them to have more personality than the photo, and more "life" to them. So I'll make expression on their faces by positioning their eyes, flattening their ears, exaggerating the angles of their feet or the tension in their bodies...Whatever it takes to make them seem more interesting and more lifelike.

It helps to have seen these guys actually playing in the wild. You have first hand experience of what they do and how they do it. You feel the intensity of their play and the strength of their interactions with each other.
donna

Fox Play, work in progress 2.

At this point, I'm kind of playing around with colors and where I want things to be in the painting. With the fox being so orangey, I want a lot of blue in here. I love complementary color schemes. The colors I lay down now, will show through somewhat in the finished work. They might seem strong and to dark now, but they'll be layered over many times with other colors. I like the depth that brings into a painting.

Pastels are fun, you can add many many layers of colors and they seem to melt together in the end.
donna

Fox Play

I'm working on a painting for the Canine Art Guild show, Dog's Just Want to Have Fun. I'm hoping I can get this finished in time for the deadline which is fast approaching.

Do not ask me why I was in such a funk I couldn't paint a thing for the last few months. My mind is so strange, I think it had something to do with being invited to show in a museum show. For some reason, that event boggled my mind to the point I couldn't think about painting. I thought that was an event that would maybe happen right before I died, and to have it happen now, threw me for a loop. I began to wonder what I had to aim for now?

But I finally got myself on track, it's really simple, all I have to do is aim for the next painting, who cares where they go after they're created!

But I am hoping to finish these little fox in time for the Fun show!

I have a photo blog and on that blog, I have a photo story of these little fox playing. There are more pictures of them there if you wish to see them.
donna

"Flower Napper"

This sleeping Belgian was between White Sulphur Springs and Cascade, Mt when I took a picture of him. There were no flowers around him, just green grass. So I added the flowers so I could name him "Flower Napper".
donna

Bluebird on the Barbed

I did this painting yesterday. We found the original bluebird when we traveled back roads from Cascade, Mt to White Sulphur Springs. I took a picture of it and created my painting from what I saw in that picture.

As soon as it dries, I'll post it on ebay, probably sometime next week! I tried scanning it today, and smeared the bird. Had to fix it. It was really wet.
donna