One day a week I let everyone know it’s my day. I don’t do appointments and hardly answer my phone this day. I pack a lunch so I can spend every minute soaking up painting! I walk into a room filled with canvas and paint. We leave the world outside for a few hours each week. I go to my happy place and get to hang out with a couple of amazing artists. These two bring their own styles to the room. They are willing to share their tips and tricks with me. When they critique my work I always appreciate the honesty, the advice and just talking art with them.
I have done pencil drawings and focused on portraits. I found my subjects on the sidelines at sporting events. I’d take pictures for the kids. It was a win win — the kids got the pictures and I had reference photos to draw. This introduced me to some amazing young people! A lot of them have a portrait of their high school days as a memory.
As my art journey has evolved I have opened myself up to new challenges and mediums. This is where my artsy friends enter my journey. Rose and Terri are both very accomplished artists. They are both country girls that happen to love to paint. Boy have they taught this city girl a thing or two.
I have always kept my distance from horses. Probably from a childhood experience that traumatized me. I think they are beautiful animals. As far as painting them, I have always been under the impression they were one of the hardest subjects to paint. My artsy friends face the challenge one brush stroke at a time. They each have different techniques. For example, we tease Rose about using the smallest brush she can find. I have watched her work hours on painting tiny details. She focuses on putting each hair on the horse in perspective. Terri is our color mixer. She will spend hours mixing colors to get just the right shade for shadows.
For me, I get told to slow down. I have a tendency to jump ahead and want to add details before undertones. Painting with oils makes me slow down, but we all have our favorite medium additives. Mine are the ones that make my paint dry faster.
The one thing I have noticed is that my horse anatomy is very elementary. Of course I know what the head and tail are on a horse, but when my two artsy friends start referring to withers and fetlocks I get lost! I was proud of myself knowing each horse in Terri’s herd has four legs! This city girl finally had to ask the experts — what is a wither? Sometimes I get the feeling they don’t know what they are going to do with the city girl!
Our conversations shift back and forth between horse anatomy and horse colors. I’m stuck on bay colored horses. I thought they were black, brown and even both. I have yet to attempt painting a horse! Sounds like I have more to learn! For now I love being in my own real life painting class and not watching it on tv.
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