Studio Time

Category: A Rocking Horse Dream

Finish Line

I decided that I was going to wait until this was finished to post about it again.

For now… it’s finished. It could stand a little cleanup but I’m going to wait until it’s cured for a bit before I do that. For one thing, it’s a bit easier… for another… I’m at the point where every time I look at this thing I see something else that needs to be “fixed”. I need to leave it alone for a while. 🙂

This is scheduled for a show I have coming up in March. I’ve got plenty of time to pull it off of the wall and completely re-work it. 🙂

Colors are the same.

September 28, 2023
Home Stretch

It finally “clicked”. 🙂 That’s technical, artsy talk for “the forms all work, everything fits, the composition is fairly tight and the motion flows unimpeded across the face of the image.” Nearly time to stop, in other words.

I realized this afternoon that this painting channels, pretty well, the psychedelic, stoner music that I’ve been listening to for the entire time I’ve been working on it. I did listen to Renaissance for most of this last session. 🙂 I suppose that’s appropriate for refining things. It will still probably take another session or two.

Colors are the same.

September 21, 2023
A Break for Clover

I’m somewhere in the middle of the “stand back and stare at the thing, work on something, wipe it off and re-do it, stand back and tell yourself it works then re-do it again phase.

I’m happy with the way things are going… I do wish they would go a little faster.

Colors are the same with the addition of Sennelier’s Indian Yellow.

September 16, 2023
Stuck on the Third Turn

Strangely, I’ve felt a real need to listen to psychedelic stoner stuff for the entire time I’ve worked on this.

Looks like my previous estimates were a little overly optimistic. Still… this is fun and is turning out pretty well. I’ve spent a lot of time just playing with stuff and seeing what I can do with it.

I did spend some time yesterday trying not to scream in frustration at that bottom, center area but I’m pretty sure I can get it to work. It does look a lot better in this shot than it seems to in real life.

Colors are the same with the addition of Sennelier’s Alizarin Crimson.

September 13, 2023
Turn 3.5

I’m actually seeing the finish line on this one. A few more sessions and I’ll let it dry for a bit then brush in the highlights. Many bits of this are finished, again… aside from fitting them into the rest of the painting.

Tomorrow will probably be spent making prints.

Colors are the same with the addition of Winsor Newton’s Cobalt Turquoise, Sennelier’s Naples Yellow and Rembrandt’s Cadmium Orange.

September 9, 2023
Turn Three

I got back to this today. It’s hard to forget about. It sort of fills the studio. I think the forms are pretty much resolved. It’s a matter of colors and shading and molding and modeling from here on out. It is going to get a lot brighter. 🙂 Hopefully, that will make it easier to photograph.

Colors are the same. Oils stay usable on the palette for a long time.

September 7, 2023
Further Down the Track

Another session of building forms and working with colors. Some of this stuff is finished other than adjusting it to fit into the surrounding image. I don’t foresee any major changes.

I did add a fish.

Colors are the same as yesterday with the addition of Sennelier’s Chinese Orange

September 3, 2023
Somewhere on the Track

Again, there wasn’t much chance of getting a decent shot of this. It’s got 2 coats of gloss acrylic on it as well as a considerable amount of wet oil paint. Thanks to a polarizer cranked all the way up, gimp‘s autocolor functions and half a dozen graded (a “quick” mask made with a gradient fill… it lets you focus things like levels and color adjustments, gradually change the lighting across the image, etc) edits… um… it could be worse.

This is the first oil session. Yesterday, before I sealed this I painted large patches of phthalocyanine green across it and sprayed them down with a water bottle. The drips aren’t all that obvious but it did work very nicely as a sort of glaze to pull the whole thing together. Today, I’m just trying to get the (oil) colors started and rework a few of the forms so they fit together a little better. It is going a lot faster and using a lot less paint than the acrylics.

Colors: Gamblin’s Cadmium Yellow Deep (When I first opened this tube, I thought maybe I had the wrong color. It’s not nearly as “deep” as I expected. It has its uses though.), Sennelier’s Burnt Sienna, Sap Green, Ultramarine Blue and Titanium White… Winsor Newton’s Cadmium Red Deep and Cadmium Yellow Deep.

September 2, 2023
Second Turn

I basically just spent time filling in a few of the remaining forms. I’m sure there will be changes once I get this into oils but the under-painting is coming along nicely. I’ll probably spend an hour or so on it in the morning, give it a couple of heavyish seal coats and let it dry overnight… maybe go back to Poem for the day…

Colors are still the same.

August 31, 2023
Nearing the First Turn

This painting has three levels: Standing, chair and step stool. I spent much of this morning sitting on a step stool trying to get this to work. I managed to get a sort of temporary fix for the orange thing that was on the bottom. It seems a little simplistic. I’ll have to see how it works with the rest of the painting. Working at this size is a little odd after working on “normal” sized stuff for so long. Gauging the relative size of things is difficult.

I decided that this rocking horse needs to be a sort of walnut or red oak (we’ll see what fits), and that this needs a red under-painting. In real life, it’s sort of spooky and glowing. This little image doesn’t quite convey that.

It’s getting there. This canvas isn’t quite raw. It’s got a couple of light seal coats on it. It still sucks up paint like there’s no tomorrow. I love the dense colors I’m getting but I will be happy to move on to oils.

Colors are the same… Thankfully, Open Acrylics don’t dry out on the palette overnight.

August 30, 2023