Friday, September 27, 2013

Study of Dee Dee

"Dee Dee" oil on 8x10 board
Study of Dee Dee

I decided to paint a study of DeeDee from a photo, I liked her steady gaze into the distance. I believe she must be black as I found magenta,ultramarine blue and browns in her.

At a later date I would like to paint her larger, it was interesting working with a dry brush blending the colours her coat looks sleek and shiny, I think she's lovely.

Babs

Saturday, September 21, 2013

"A Bit of Peace before the Jumping"

"Grazing" oil on 14x18 canvas
At Palgrave 

We went to Hunter class jumps, this was a moment of opportunity for a little leisure and a nibble of fresh grass, for the horse!. We don't know his name but thought it was a pleasant moment, he was with his owner who was in deep conversation. He is a big horse but had a gentle look about him. So he was the one I picked for a painting.

A couple of things I have noticed is the colours you can see in the hair so many hues in the body which took a while to work out. I was able to get the paint in the right places and then left it to dry for a while to do the background that seemed to take a little longer than expected
I tried some different effects but in the end I did the back ground as the picture looked, more of less.
Babs

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

A Busy Life! - but Inspiring!


We are so inspired by the Equine world that we have taken on too many paintings plus a couple of commissions and we need to prioritise!
Babs' easel is on the right and mine on the left and we are both working on horse pictures plus one old house for me.
And on top of that we are spending our weekends at the Equine centre looking for more inspiration, and it keeps on coming!

So today it will be the Old House for me and for her the "Grazing Hunter".

And then we have to weed out the mint patch and take down the canopy over the deck, Fall is with us, slight frost in some places this morning.

John

Monday, September 2, 2013

Loosy Goosy and Mrs Uptight !

"Walking to the Start" by John oil on 16x20 canvas
"Dressage" by Babs oil on 11x14 board
Having worked at painting for a few years now we both know we have developed a different style in the way we paint. It's been frustrating and interesting seeing how our practice pictures as we call them are morphing into a pattern over the past few weeks. We had different like and dislikes in what we painted.
Recently we have had some success painting a variety of horses.

John decided to join me in an experiment going to a few Equine events at Caledon Equine Park just to see what happens and to get a feel for the atmosphere and taking pictures. We worked on an idea for both of us to paint similar scenes, however, John is more  interested in scenes of horses and riders preparing for the event while I am practising more on the team (horse and rider) must add we know nothing about the actual Sport so it 's been fun learning about the skills necessary to take the shots and time the jumps or watching dressage with concentration.

We are posting two pictures to show you what we have achieved so far, of course with some artistic license!
Jumps are incredible to watch but for working to make the horse shine we decided to eliminate some  equipment they have on the field for jumping its almost like a jigsaw puzzle!  and dressage a lot of concentration for shots.

The Caledon Equine Park is in a beautiful location, magnificent sky bordered by lovely forests which both add to the final picture!