January Goals: Looking Back
Posted By Carrie L. Lewis on February 2, 2010
January proved to be a good month for portraits and painting in general. I entered the month with three portraits in progress and, although all three portraits were still in progress at the end of the month, progress was made on all three of them.
Portraits
Lockkeeper is the longest in progress, which isn’t surprising because it’s also the most complicated.
After several false starts with the landscape, I was finally able to complete the landscape. That happened the last Saturday in January.
The painting is currently in the drying process, which I anticipate will take one to two weeks. When work begins again, I’ll be working on the final phase of the painting…the horse! My favorite thing!
Lockkeeper is being painted with a direct painting technique.
Keyodee Star is the second portrait both in advance of the painting process and in the amount of time the portrait has been in progress.
Keyodee Star entered the month with the dead layer drying. It concluded the month with the second glaze in place and drying.
I’ve been working it one section at a time, allowing each area to dry completely before doing the next section. Work began with the stall interior and the horse because both areas have a similar basic color.
In the second glaze, I worked on the exterior wall and was quite pleased that the end result was quite close to the original reference. Whether or not it’s actually finished will depend on how the overall painting looks when it gets closer to completion.
The painting advances at least one glaze every week.
The third and last portrait is Clyde, which began just before Christmas break.
Originally began as a Flemish technique painting, I switched to a more direct technique in mid-January. The background was painted with a small trowel shaped knife using a mixture of Titanium White, Transparent Yellow Oxide and Burnt Umber. The result was a very striking, warm tone background with the look of sun-bleached adobe. It turned out so well, I’m thinking of trying it with other portraits.
The portrait is currently waiting for the background to dry completely before work begins on the horse.
ACEO Horse Paintings
The annual goal for ACEO Horse Paintings is one per week.
January concluded with six new ACEOs; five oil paintings and one colored pencil painting.
Four of the ACEOs were studies for the portrait of Lockkeeper and the others are all random designs.
In addition to adding to the number of completed paintings in January, these tiny paintings provided a surprising amount of motivation for working on the portraits. So it has been a positive all the way around.
I am a self-taught artist for the most part. Lots of trial and error in the past forty years! Formal art training consists of a couple of years of high school art, a painting class at a community college, one semester in the Fine Arts program at Abilene Christian University and a couple of local workshops.
I am always looking for ways to better my artistic skills, so I am a permanent student in the School of Trial and Error. I love reading and have been known to spend hours online researching materials and techniques. As a result, I've painted in several different styles, including the direct method (which goes straight for the color) and Classical methods (which involves underpaintings, layering and glazing).
I have exhibited paintings in locations such as Lone Star Park Race Track, Grand Prairie, Texas and Remington Park Race Track, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Since the early 90s, I've worked with the Michigan Harness Horseman's Association, donating custom portraits to their annual benefit auction.
In the course of maintaining a growing art business, I have taught myself web design (a skill that will no doubt prove to be a continual learning experience).
I also enjoy puttering around the yard, chasing trains with my husband, Neal, travel and, of course, looking at horses whenever they appear on my horizon.
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