Horse Paintings by Carrie L. Lewis

This painting is one of those that I work on for a while and have a very good painting session, then decide, rather suddenly, that it might be done.

I worked on Katie’s portrait twice on Saturday. At the end of the second session, I had the rather uncanny feeling that it might be done. I hadn’t considered that it might be finished that quickly, but I liked the way it looked.

Usually, I judge a painting completed when I can’t think of anything else to do with it. I look at it for a while and if nothing comes to mind to fix, change, add or delete, I sign it and move on.

With Katie’s portrait, I could see one thing that could be changed. But it really felt finished.

So I took it to church so the pastor’s wife (who is chaplain at the nursing home where Katie’s people live) could take a look at it. She knew Katie and could tell me if I had a good likeness.

The pastor looked at the painting and said “That’s Katie.”

His wife looked at it and just put her hands to her face.

I knew then there wasn’t anything I could do to improve the emotional appeal of the painting, so it is complete.

I signed it this afternoon and it will dry for a week or two, then it will go to its new home.

And suddenly, I am in the rather rare position of having one portrait on the easel (October Skies) and nothing else in the works! A somewhat depressing turn of events, if you ask me!

Time to start looking for another project and, unless things change soon, I’ll be able to look for a project that will be for me. Oh boy!

I did a little bit of work on Katie’s portrait yesterday. Not much, unfortunately, but the one thing I’ve learned about painting — and about myself — is that more paintings are finished sooner if I paint in every little chunk of time that comes my way instead of waiting for that “perfect painting hour”! It is just too easy to let days go by without doing studio work if I can’t or won’t make use of 20 minutes here and 20 minutes there.

I believe I had about 20 minutes last night, so I worked on Katie. Those 20 minutes stretched into about 45 and quite a bit of work done in a small area. Work that wouldn’t have otherwise been done.

I started with Katie’s nose and painted the skin part of that with Ivory Black and Titanium White.

That led naturally to painting the muzzle area around the nose, which was mostly dry brush work alternating strokes of white with strokes of black.

The reference photo is looking down on Katie, a composition that doesn’t usually lend itself to good portrait compositions. But I remember seeing Katie once or twice in person (I wish I had paid more attention!), so I am going to try to paint a more head on portrait.

To do that, I need to add some neck and chest in the painting, so I worked on that, using lots of white and a little black to block in Katie’s throat and chest. Just for fun, I added the chain collar so the area would read a bit more easily. That’s going to be the real challenge because geometric shapes and I don’t get along that well. I see lots of painting and repainting to get those loops and rings correct!

May 8, 2008.

Here is an update on this painting. I have been working on it in small chunks of time and have managed to get some time into it almost every day since Monday.

But if you compare this image with the image in the post for Part 4, you probably won’t see a lot of difference.

The reason is that I’ve been doing a lot of the detail work that needs to be done in the background, before I can paint the foreground over it.

Yes, I did say paint ‘over it’.

Because trees particularly and all elements in general should give the illusion of appearing in front or behind other elements in the painting, some of them will need to be partially hidden. Some artists can plan out the visible parts and paint just those areas. I’ve tried that and, believe it or not, it’s a lot easier and a lot less time consuming for me to paint every layer of distance as though it were going to be 100% visible, then cover up part of it with the next layer forward.

Parts of the background cover up parts of the sky.

Parts of the middle ground cover up parts of the background and sky.

Parts of the foreground cover up parts of the middle ground, background and sky.

So with a painting like this one, I invariably end up painting a lot of areas that won’t be visible in the finished painting.

This detail of the painting illustrates my point. The bright green trees are in the middle ground. The dark green on the right is in the extreme foreground.

In order to create the look of trees overlapping trees and the completely random openings between leaves and leaf masses, I almost have to paint every leaf and leap mass.

Take a look at the bright green shapes against the sky. Can you imagine painting each of those sky holes individually? It’s much easier to paint the sky in one, unbroken layer, then add the tree shapes over it.

The same applies to the darker tree in the foreground relative to the brighter trees in the background and even the grass on the ground.

It does sometimes seem to take a long time to paint every layer completely, then come along later and cover up part of it.

But when trees turn out like these are, the time and effort are definitely worth it!

So each day I work, I add a little bit more mass and form to the trees, building them up slowly by tapping and dabbing paint onto a large canvas with a little, slightly misshapen sable brush.

I have to make a confession, though. The most difficult part of this part of the painting process is to touch the brush to the canvas once and then leave that brush stroke alone! There definitely times when one is better than two!

The colors being used are Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Red and Cerulean Blue in the background or French Ultramarine Blue in the foreground.

Larger sable rounds and an occasional bristle flat brush have been used on the foreground trees; smaller sable rounds  are being used on the background trees where leaf masses should look smaller.

A small sable round that is great for random detail but not much else is being used to paint the grass where shadows and highlights meet.

May 5, 2008.

This was a studio day (day off from the gallery) so I was able to spend more time painting than I usually do. Lots of work on Buddy today.

Most of it was on the background, including the large shapes on the right, which had received very little attention so far in the process.

I balanced that by blocking in the horse with a loose mixture of Cadmium Yellow Light and Cadmium Red Medium to make a base for the bright chestnut color that will be Buddy’s sun-livened coat. Just having the horse painted in really moved the painting along.

The colors I used were:

Background Trees: French Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow and Cadmium Red

Tree on the Right: French Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow and Cadmium Red, with the emphasis heavily shifted toward the French Ultramarine Blue, since this shape is almost entirely in shadow.

Meadow: French Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow and Cadmium Red, with the emphasis heavily shifted toward yellow to indicate bright, slanting sunlight.

Horse: Cadmium Yellow and Cadmium Red with a bit of green pulled in from the wet surroundings to tone down the orange a bit.

I also began to block in the reflections in the water, using the same colors that were used in whatever is being reflected.

April 28.

And another two weeks. That seems pretty standard for the non-earth tones.

I did more work on the back row of trees, using the technique and colors described in the previous update to fill out the trees a little bit more. I am really pleased with the way this is turning out!

For the middle row of trees, I dropped Cerulean Blue and added French Ultramarine Blue, which is more reddish and darker in value. Even with the same yellow and red, it produces a green that automatically comes forward visually.

It can also get quite bold without much trouble at all, so I will need to keep watch on that.

Buddy is the center of attention here and one of the best ways to establish the center of attention is to place the darkest darks and lightest lights in that area, as well as the sharpest detail.

I began to establish the lights and darks by painting darkly shadowed foliage on the lighted side of Buddy and brighter foliage on the shadowed side of Buddy. It’s rather difficult to see because I haven’t yet started on Buddy, but you can see those lights and darks around his neck.

That concluded work on Buddy for the month of April. Duncan’s portrait was finished in that time frame and Katie’s portrait started.

Three posthumous portraits in a row, each one special and each one challenging.

April 18.

It took two weeks for the blues to dry and for another block of time to open up for October Skies.

When I began painting again, I started with the trees, working my way from the most distant ones forward and from left to right.

The colors used in this step were Cadmium Yellow and Cerulean Blue to produce the green and Burnt Sienna to tone it down a bit or to create shadows.

The first thing to do is create the look of general mass in broad strokes, using color and value to establish the shapes. I used a big brush (bristle) and some rather wide strokes to block in color.

Once the placement and shapes had been established, I used a smaller, sable round to drop in some finer detail around the edges of the canopies. This is a new method for me, so I took lots of time to experiment. It didn’t take very long to discover that painting a middle tone and color first, then adding darks on the shadow side and brights on the light side really made the shapes pop out!

Of course I always know that working with too much wet paint on the canvas can lead to messy disasters, so I was careful to limit work in this painting session just to avoid smearing wet paint.

At the end of the session, I rubbed color into the meadow, as well, establishing the light direction and angle.

This is my May project.

This is the second go-round on this painting.

The subject is October Skies, a Thoroughbred who passed across the river in 2007. Also known as Buddy, he was a beginner or novice eventing horse. He was also his person’s first horse, so will always have a special place in her heart.

The portrait is 24 inches wide by 20 inches tall and is being painted on Raphael Linen in a panel form. This is one of my two favorite surfaces to paint on.

The portrait as shown above has been transferred onto the toned surface. I used M. Graham Oils for the toning and will also be using them for the painting, so lots of time is required for drying. The toning was completed with Yellow Ochre and Titanium White on March 14.

On April 10, I painted the sky above with Titanium White and Cerulean Blue. The paint was mixed on the canvas and left partially unblended for a random pattern of lights and darks.

The second stage happened on April 14 and was basically a repainting of the skies. In addition to being a slower drying paint, M. Graham Oils are more transparent (at least the colors I have been using most are more transparent) than other brands. While that transparency allows for lots of interesting glazing affects, it also means I sometimes need two layers of color to get a good, opaque passage of color.

The first layer of color was a bit on the ’see through’ side, so I wanted to repaint the sky before going any further. So I used the same colors (Titanium White and Cerulean Blue) and repainted the sky, pulling color down a little further into the body of the composition. There are still a few warm areas showing through in the sky, but not many.

I also began to suggest the trees that will forest the background and the river that will flow across the foreground.

While this portrait is officially the May project, I began work on it during those times when I was waiting for the portrait of Duncan to dry. That has helped me get a major jump on work for May and has also allowed me to give the painting as much time to dry completely as it has wanted. With spring (and spring rains) in the Kansas air, that can sometimes be a week or two!

Every now and again, a painting comes along that practically paints itself. I feel as though I am merely a physical hand holding a brush and Someone Else is actually doing the painting.

Katie’s portrait is shaping up to be one of those.

I worked on Katie around a morning wedding, the Kentucky Derby and some writing. I think the largest chunk of time I spent today was 20 or 30 minutes.

But at the end of the painting day (at least for this portrait), the entire canvas had been covered and it looked very nearly complete.

And I’m not quite sure how that happened!

What happens next with this painting will be determined by how the paint dries before my next studio day on Monday. If it is wet enough to work freshly wet-into-wet or if it is completely dry, I may try to finish it up. If the paint is anywhere in between, the painting will probably get another day or two off before more work. To be honest, I have a mind to put it in the drying room so I can get a fresh look at it the next time.

Paintings like this are always fun, though, so it will be difficult to hide it away in the drying room for any length of time.

My sympathies go out to the owners and connections of Eight Belles, the gallant filly who finished a strong and accelerating second in this afternoon’s Kentucky Derby, only to suffer a life-ending double injury while being pulled up. My prayers are with all of you. Thank you for sharing her with all of us racing fans. May God comfort you in your loss.

I missed my self-imposed deadline by one day, but Duncan’s portrait is now complete, finished on May 1, 2008.

As often happens, when it came down to the final painting session, all that was required were a few brush strokes here and there to finish the portrait.

This past Thursday, Neal participated in a special band event at Valley Center High School. Valley Center is just south of Newton and the high school band director, Mr. George Naylor, is also a member of the Senseney Music Wichita Community Band, where Neal also plays on a regular basis.

Every year, the school hosts a mass band concert that includes performances of the fifth grade through high school bands and concludes with a group performance of all bands.

Neal is not an alum of Valley Center, but this performance marks George’s last year with the school and some friends and others had commissioned a piece of music to be played in his honor by current and past students and friends. Neal was part of that ’surprise performance’ tucked into the schedule.

I am always in awe of musicians, who spend hours practicing their craft, then get up in front of people and perform live. I have often told Neal I’m glad I don’t have to do that, but I have to confess that when everything is right and the audience rises to its feet cheering, shouting and applauding, it has to be a huge rush. The immediate feedback of a good performance has to be very satisfying.

The mass concert was one of those times for me. The bands were great and the high school band, which recently earned 1s and 1+s in Branson, Missouri, played Shenandoah as well as I have ever heard it played.

Then the whole band got together to honor George Naylor and that was absolutely awe inspiring. The event concluded with a combined piece called Fidgets in which students and alums played together. That group was so large, both high school directors conducted and band members stacked the bleachers behind the band floor. Awesome!

It made me wish there was some way to move audiences that way myself.

Well, God is good and has provided just such a thing.

I received two emails from the contact person for the portrait of Duncan and she relayed to me the responses of Duncan’s girl and other members of the family. Without going into specifics, I can truly say that I am moved by their responses to my work. Duncan’s owner, in particular, has endured the exquisite pain of losing a long-time pet and companion.

It is my most earnest prayer that this portrait will be a constant and enjoyable reminder of that faithful friend and of those many years of fonder memories in the years to come.

To that family, I pass on my gratitude for the opportunity to paint Duncan’s portrait. Thank you so very much.

Okay.

I confess.

As neat as it was to draw on the canvas and have a likeness appear quickly, that method did not work for me. Or for Katie.

It has now been a couple of weeks since I last worked on Katie and the canvas (and that original portrait) did not survive very long. In fact, shortly after the last post regarding Katie, I painted over the entire canvas and put it up to dry, waiting for the next attempt.

The next attempt began today.

I brought the repainted canvas back to the studio, transferred the loose drawing I had made in the mean time to the canvas and outlined it with Burnt Umber M. Graham Oils. I did that this morning (between 6 and 6:30…it’s not easy learning to paint at that hour!), thinking that I would do more work this evening if time allowed.

But once the drawing was fixed in paint, I went ahead and roughed in a white area for the chest, then decided to paint the eyes, too. Just to give the painting some life.

Naturally, that led to blocking in some of the basic color in the head and around the eyes and by the time I put my brushes aside, I’d worked on the portrait for about 20 minutes and gotten this far.

Not too bad, considering the unorthodox (for me) painting hour!

Something I will be doing differently with this portrait is focusing on the subject, then the background. With Duncan, which was finished yesterday, I worked both subject and background at the same time and ended up losing some painting time because I couldn’t work on the subject due to wet background.

If I make a mistake and learn from it, that’s good.

If I make a mistake, then turn right around and do the same thing on the next painting, that’s bad!

I’m being good with this portrait. No telling how long that will last, though. I seem to learn better from experience than example!