I have started a new painting but I'm not getting anywhere fast with it as most of my (limited!) painting time is being taken up with commissions at the moment. Managing to get bits done here and there! I'd like to enter this one for the next SEA exhibition in Newmarket but time is tight... will have to decide whether or not I'm likely to be happy enough with it by the end of the month before the entry deadline! So far I have completed the underpainting and added the first thin glaze of colour.... because I have been working in tiny bursts I haven't really kept much of a photo record.
The painting is based on some great photos I got of Rosie Thomas's horse Barry's Best being cooled off at Badminton this year; it is oil on linen 18" x 14".
I had a wonderful day out photographing beautiful Dales ponies at the Nipna Dales Pony Stud on Tuesday. I'm quite excited about a lot of the reference material I got! After promising myself to paint on smaller canvases after the trauma of lugging big paintings to and from London (not to mention the framing costs!) I succumbed to the lure of a 36" x 28" linen canvas (the biggest I have ever attempted) which I intend to paint ponies on! I now plan to start a really big detailed project to keep me slowly ticking over without any pressure during the winter months once our new baby arrives.
Lovely subject, the handler is fab. Watching this one as usual! How did you prep the linen?
ReplyDeleteThanks Steph. Prepped the linen in the same way as the canvas, takes a few less layers of gesso to get it smooth though which is good! It's a much nicer surface to work on I find, more expensive though.
ReplyDelete