Here is the creation of my 2011Inglis Equine art prize entry

The art prize is a worldwide one and artists have to go to a thoroughbred racehorse stud to take reference photos and then do a painting with the theme " Life at Stud".I left my run a bit late as I was busy with commissioned portraits. I allowed myself 3 weeks ( I'd usually allow a few months for something this complicated) but it poured with rain the first week so I ended up with 2 weeks to create my entry..Argh!!Amazing what you can do when you have to.I would like to have the luxury of setting it aside and tweaking things for the next few weeks but I sent the photo of the painting of to the selection people today. 30 finalists will be selected from all the entries and then these will go on display around different venues for a few months. The winner will be selected from these finalists and get $15000.
Here are the stages of my entry from earliest at the top to finished.These are my Facebook posts transferred across.

After days of trail and error mockups I've finally settled on what I'm doing for the Equine art show. It's a combination of 3 pics that I think show "Life at Stud". The last day before the sales for Thongy. I'll be relieved when it is drawn up as that is going to take the longest.Actually I might just wing it and put it in roughly and refine as I go.I usually do an accurate sketch for a commissioned portrait.

Well I've done the hard part and made a start.I'm still not sure my idea is a good one for the show as having several images it won't have as much impact as one but I want to do a painting that says something and one for me . Hopefully it will have appeal because it is a bit different.

The entry has 7 portraits in all! Cripes..4 people and 3 horse..At least as it's not a commissioned portrait I can suggest a few faces rather than really detail them! 

Everything covered

Below- Here's an update.I think this will do for the day.I have roughly done the two figures although final tweaking for likeness etc need to be done. At least one of the hard bits has been almost done!

I was so keen to paint last night that I stayed up late.I'm paying for it now after 3hrs sleep .I'm having to pop choccy bars to keep going ..yawn..Here's the latest. I need to make Thongy a bit chunkier and generally finish off the front area but I'm going to go and do the smaller scenes at the back and then decide what colour background and come back and finish it and pull it all together.

 

Next stage.It's pretty rough but the basics are there. I don't like the background colour so that will change and I have to get a better likeness and zap the colour a bit.

I've been painting all hours of the day and night to try and get my entry done by Thursday this week.I don't like being rushed as I know even if I think its done I'll find ways to improve it in the next few weeks.The whole painting is covered now although the one leading Thongy is very rough. I've gone back to the main part at the front to finish it off. 

Still a long way to go!I have to do the leading horse scene , finish the one of Thongy pulling a face and pull it all together and fine tune liknesses..

 I wasn't happy with Thongy's likeness .I realised his head was too short so I lengthened it plus a few other touches..Much better! 

'His last day at the stud before the sales.'

                                                                71 x 78cms framed Oil

Now I need to get a decent photo to put on the CD to send off and see if it makes the finalist selection.

 Now I need to get a decent photo to put on the CD to send off and see if it makes the finalist selection.It didn't make the selection and I'm not happy with it.Too rushed .I'd usually want several months to create such a complex portrait and I only had 2 weeks. Here's the latest version but I'm still not happy with it.

Although this is the clothes they were wearing I felt that having red clothes on the left and white on the right left it unbalanced.I also refined the front area a bit. If I was to continue I'd refine it a bit more but I have to get back to painting portraits that are booked in.