Horse Racing in Colored Pencil
Posted By Carrie L. Lewis on September 12, 2009
With a trip to Michigan looming and some impatience with oil painting permeating the studio, I decided to look for something to do that would advance studio goals, provide a road trip project and give me a break from oil painting.
Enter colored pencils, a horse racing scene and a new project.
The project is based on the photograph above, which was taken at Mt. Pleasant Meadows, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan May 16, 1998. The focus of this project is the number 3 horse and rider. The working title is Chestnut Number 3, though I confess to also considering the pair in the background. Maybe some other time….
The painting is going to be on a fawn colored sheet of Rising Stonehenge printmaking paper. Rising Stonehenge is about my favorite surface for colored pencil work. This will be the first time I’ve used this particular color, but it’s a perfect fit with the color scheme of this painting.
I spent most of the afternoon working out a cropped drawing based on the composition I thought I wanted, which would have been a head and shoulders crop of the horse with the rider. But the horses are already passed the finish line, so the jockey is standing in the stirrups, automatically setting up a vertical composition.
The more I worked this idea, the better I liked it. Having the lines of the horse fade at the bottom and left will focus the attention where I want it. Those ‘fading’ areas should also provide some interesting opportunities for fading color rather than having the composition go all the way to the edge of the paper.
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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