Monday, September 25, 2017

Completed

The last horse was more a challenge than I expected. The color seemed pretty straightforward - a golden tan. Once I stepped back from what I thought was the finished horse, it looked really dull. The coat did not shine like the other two. Taking a note from the last painting, Track Team, when I pushed the color, I started mixing what felt like outrageous combinations. When blended with the still wet paint, it worked.

With the last horse painted, it was time to revisit the background trees on the left side. Though there were some nice passages of light, I felt they needed more depth. Dark greens, browns, and navys were added to enhance the trees.

Note: The far left background has detail which is not showing up in this photo

The last step are the grasses. I could add streams of dust but these Pryor Mountain horses are in such good shape because of the abundance of grasses even in the dry months. Much of my time with them was spent watching them eat, hearing them crunch on the varied low growth vegetation.

Below is the finished piece scanned before it is varnished. Once the spray varnish is applied the darkest darks will be more pronounced.

Range Runners - Wild Horse Series
24" X 48"
Original Oil

2 comments:

Peter Brown said...

You must be very happy with this, Linda. Looks great on the screen, and I'm sure it has enormous impact "in the flesh".

Linda Besse said...

Thanks Peter. Whenever a painting comes out better than I envisioned in my head during the planning phase, I am very happy. Not sure how that happens, but can only guess that not tightly controlling the process helps.
So glad I decided to make the piece this big.
Thanks for following along and for your encouragement.