The creation of my latest demo painting - Spirit

I started him at a horse event and completed him at home.As he wasn't a commissioned portrait I wanted him to be more arty than my usual paintings.I used colours that I wanted to and suggested him more.The reference photo is courtesy of Paco Marti horses.

If I didn't have to take my glasses off to paint but need them on to be able to see generally I could watch the horses warming up ! lol's. Every now and then I'd take a break and put them on and watch.
 I pity my poor old horse Zeuss. He only gets ridden once a week for 20 mins and he's 20 years old now . After watching Heath Ryan ( olympic rider) prancing around on his horse I go home and try and contort Zeuss into the same shape..lol's

Here he is on my easel at the event . I've just roughly placed him and got his shape with a suggestion of a background in acrylic paint. I use acrylic as it dries quickly so I can make alterations as necessary.

I've started to put the oIl paint over the top on his face and shoulders.You can see the paints on my palette below the canvas.

This was what I got done on the day.Now I've got his full body and a suggestion of ground done.I'm still not sure what I'm going to do in the background or even if I'll keep it.

For Sale

 $950

Spirit

 40 x 50cms 

Oil on gallery wrap canvas

Here he is finished. I decided that he had enough oomph on his own and would look best with a pretty simple  background

Its been a foggy morning and the roos are outside the studio again

They are all around the house and studio. 
The joey is the one that I was worried about months ago. The one that got confused and was trying to get into another mothers pouch. She wasn't impressed as she already had a joey and chased him off. He followed her around and kept trying as for a small joey not having the safety of a pouch to retreat into is deadly! I thought he'd had it but he reappeared with the right mum some time after. He is the one with his mum in these photos. I call him one ear for obvious reasons!

Whose watching who?..lol's

I don't know how he lost his ear.. A lot of the roos on our place have nicks in their ears or bits missing. I suspect it's from panicked scrambling through barb wire fencing .

My colourful portrait of Max and the mirror.

Max in the mirror
40 x 50cms
Oil on gallery wrap canvas 'We're amazed at how lifelike he is. You've brought him to life and captured his contented expression.We love the vibrant colours!"
Kathi
 

Kathi wanted him as colourful as I could make him!

Contact me to have your own colourful pet portrait created!

Outside the studio this morning

There were family groups right up near the window and I started taking photos through the flyscreen but that didn't work. By the time I got into position with the glass they had moved on . But I did get these!

The kid and Mum dad  are behind the bushes.

The many moods of home

I've been too busy to post before but I'll play catchup now. here's some photos taken in the last few months.

View from the studio - roos on the drive.

Mum & Joey.They lick their arms to wet them to cool off so this must have been taken a few months ago when it was warmer!

how to relax...sunbaking

Large male posing / showing off to another

Morning rays..one day I'll paint one of these.

 

Morning mist

Brrr

A fitting pic to end on! Goodnight..

Framed ' Pre Race Banter'

Not the most flattering photo of me or the painting but it does show the size.lol's

 Pre Race Banter

Oil

76 x 81 cms framed size

Callum - this weeks practise portrait

Callum
30 x 40cm image size unframed Oil on Canvas
Here's today's practise 2.30hr portrait from a model. I really enjoyed painting Callum and he made it easy by posing well and not moving.

I found painting his long hair and headgear great fun!
I feel that even unfinished this portrait captures something indefinable..

Dog Funkhana at the dog cafe Gosford last Sunday

The dog fun khana on Sunday was good.
Dog Fun Khana
It rained on & off but we had a good turnout and plenty of dogs for the races and games. It was very entertaining and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.
I wanted to get some action photos of them racing but my camera battery decided to die just as I set up. Bummer..
I was busy socialising so I was late starting to do my dog sketches. I only ended up doing one but it was of 3 dogs! which was challenging and ended up taking me 40 mins odd. Everyone had gone by the time I finished.

Due to lack of time I usually  use my camera to get the proportions of the dog and then finish off the sketched portrait from the live dog. This sketch I did mainly from the camera as with 3 dogs you need to plan where to place each one on the paper etc and I knew it would take me longer than normal. I did finish off at the end with each dog.

It was fairly dark where I was sketching so some of the photos of the sketch didn't turn out. here I have positioned each dog and in a lighter colour roughed them in.

Here I have shaded the darker areas a bit in a slightly darker pastel.It's not very obvious in the photo but I have done it! lol's
 Usually my sketches stay in sepia but the dogs were black so I decided to make them a bit darker. I didn't make them a black blob as I wanted some life in the sketch. The ' finished' sketch is below.
I'm going to frame it for Cindy and deliver it to Sharlene.

 

Cindy's dogs
Holly , Heather & Hanna
Considering the time it took at 15mins per dog I think it turned out pretty well.
My full portraits take several weeks per dog so are obviously more realistic and accurate!

  
I finally got around to framing Cindy's quick sketch from the dogfunkhana.

Below
 
I decided I wanted to finish off Cindy's sketch a bit more so here is the latest version. I've put it back in the frame and it looks great! I'll deliver it to her tomorrow.

 

Holly, Heather and Hannah
quick pastel sketch
30 x 40cms image size
 

Artscrawl 2012 -June Long weekend

Here are some hotos from the weekend.
I had a display inside on both days and did a demo painting on the verandah for people to watch on the Saturday. I didn't get as much done on the demo as usual as I was talking to people a lot but I enjoyed meeting everyone. 
When I first setup my display I realised I had mainly horse paintings .That is only because I have been doing displays at horse events so have more samples. Many of  my recent dog portraits have been commissions and gone out to the client.
 I thought 'I hope some horsey people come!".
 Did they ever? Everyone came out of the woodwork and it was great to meet them all. 

 

Here is the full display - see there were some doggy portraits! lol's

This is the demo painting I started of Rusty. There is a long way to go to finish him. I'll get back to him after I've done my equine entry.

 I paint in a different order when I'm doing a demo. You are supposed to start of doing all the darker bits and then the middletones and then the lightest and the finishing touches. If I did that the portrait would look really drab and boring and send people to sleep so I cheated and started on his eyes and mouth first.

The paper is a dark blue colour which I want have showing through in places in the finished portrait so I am going slowly so I don't cover it all up. In retrospect it wasn't the best choice for a demo as it takes forever to look decent. Oh well you live and learn!

I'm gradually adding colour. He will get lighter and more orange as I get closer to finishing him.Note I've cheated and made his eyes really vibrant to give people something to look at.They look a bit over the top at the moment but that's just because the rest of the portrait has to get a lot lighter.

 

This is what I got done on the day. I was painting in bright light on the verandah and when I got him home I realised he looked dark and drab compared to how he had looked on the verandah.

I have to make him a lot brighter. 

The type of light you paint under has a really big effect on the end result.If you are painting a landscape with your easel set up outside you need to have the painting in the shade as you are painting.If you have it in bright sunlight it will look good out there but really drab once you get it inside.

To be continued!
 Here are some more photos of the day. The Artscrawl is on every year on the June Long Weekend so put it in your calendar for next year! 

Me demonstrating on the verandah. Lovely views from there! I have sat and painted those views years ago.

Louise Dews with her hand crafted jewellery.

Opening night
There was screen printed clothing and pillows , blown glass , paintings , fancy handmade scarves , and many more interesting gifts.

I've revamped my older sample painting ' Power & grace"

I didn't realise but it's been 2 years since I painted this one! I decided I could improve on the old version.

In the earlier version I had deliberately not made the background too dark as I didn't want it really dark when the painting was hung indoors. I decided it's usually viewed in bright light so I'd darken the background for more impact. In the photo above I've just started to darken it around the front of the horse.After I changed the background I subtly altered the rest of the painting for more impact and to suit the background.
 Here it is  completed.

Above -  Not a great photo.It does show the frame and size.

Power and Grace

59 x 59cms 

Framed Oil

Detail