Spring Images

The young lamb in the painting below was curious about me and came scampering to the edge of the pasture. He was perched on a mound of grass as he watched me snapping pictures of all the lambs & ewes. Appropriately it was Mother's Day, 2009, and many of the ewes were nursing more than one lamb at a time....I am sure they were feeling very motherly!

Mountain Green Spring Lamb
Patricia Christensen
10" x 8"
Pastel on Canson MiTeintes Pastel Paper
Available at my Etsy Shop

"Spring Bunny"
Patricia Christensen
10" x 8"
Pastel on Ampersand Pastel Board
Available at my Etsy Shop

Russell Black - Sketching Tip

Interaction. So often we find ourselves painting a singular subject, like a horse. What we forget is that animals, just like humans, are social and interact with each other. Horses like to be with other horses (and humans too). They run, they play, they interact with each other. I've seen them play horse "tag," throw balls around and chase after them, and even play hide-and-seek. One Icelandic pony that I took care of was fond of playing practical jokes by hiding my feed bucket if I left it out. When I asked him "where" he put it, he would look over at the chickens and stomp the ground as if saying, "Wasn't me, the rooster did it."

When approaching a subject, like a pair of horses, remember that they will interact with each other. Avoid the static pose of two separate horses just grazing and see if you can capture something more. Look for the interactive moments. Horses will group together for various reasons. When its hot, they stand next to each other, nose to tail, so that they can mutually swat flies for each other. Capture that. As in my sketch, these two kept fairly close together most of the time and nuzzled each other as they moved across the pasture.

These are the moments that you want to sketch and paint. They give life and animation to your work.

Cowboy Burro Equine Run the River Art oil Painting D Whitehead Artoutwest

16x20 Oil on Canvas

Run the River

Diane Whitehead Fine Art

CFAI.co Available paintings

Russell Black - Sketching Tip

Speed....! How do we show extreme motion? After all, this is a sketch which will eventually become a painting, so how do we explore the idea of fast paced action? Good question (boy, you guys ask really good stuff).

If we take our ques from a parallel art form, film, we notice that when the camera focuses on the subject (in this case our two horses), and it's moving, we get a very interesting set of conditions. If the horses are centered in the frame (not moving across it), and they are in focus, then the background isn't in focus. It's blurred. There's the trick. Remember, our eyes (and the movie camera's), can only focus on one thing at a time. A still camera can freeze the action, but a motion picture camera doesn't. Each individual frame isn't sharply focused as with the still camera. When the movie camera tracks across the landscape, keeping the horses in focus, the background blurs. If you will then duplicate this idea in the sketch, and then finally the painting, you will pull off the illusion of speed.

You might work with a still camera to get the same effect. Set your speed on your digital camera to the "sports" setting or at least 1000 on the dial. Snap an image of the horse running (have the camera on constant shoot to catch multiple frames). Now, everything might be in focus due to the settings, but when you go to paint, just remember to blur out and fuzz the background and you will capture that feeling of extreme motion. Give it a try.

Russell Black - Sketching Tip

Action! How do we get motion into our work? How do we go from the still to the moving? Recently, I took on a commission to paint two horses. I've spent enough time around animals to know that W.C. Fields was partially right (never work with children or animals), in the sense that animals just don't know how to pose the way that you want them to. Horses mostly stand around and graze. That's what they do. If we draw, sketch, or take photos, then that's what we get as an end result - a still pose.

However, is that how Remington would show off a horse? Nope. He went for action, and he did it at a time when photography wasn't able to capture motion at all. He did his work from observation. How a horse moves. How it runs. Most of us are not around horses all that much. I'm lucky in that I have horses on practically every property around me, so I can get a visual any time I need one. Add to that more current film footage of running horses and we now have plenty of information to work with.

Instead of just having horses grazing, try something different. Try using the knowledge base and put those puppies into action. You might just get yourself into a whole new horse race by doing so.

Linda Dalton Walker, Not Quite Finished

Not Quite Finished is about the relationships we have or have had that just seem like they are not quite finished and will be revisited at a later point. The ravens (from the study I posted earlier) represent transformation. The apple connects to the stories of Eve and how those stories never seem quite finished either. Is the woman in red coming or going?
In this painting the models were never together which always creates an interesting problem to solve as an artist. The painting is oil on linen, framed, and is 36" x 26".

Russell Black - Watercolor Tips

Textures. One way to get your message across is to give your shapes a bit of texture. Again, these are just marks that tell the viewer what he/she is looking at. For example, the cabin is made up of boards. How do you "say" board? What brush marks tell the story of wood? How much do you need to put down without going overboard and making the painting too tight?

Remember, we are not making a rendering (although some of the same techniques and symbology apply), nor are we making an illustration. We are making a painting, and that calls for some brevity in our brush "speech." Say what it is (boards), and say it quickly. If you'll do this, then your work will stay fresh and loose.