Day Five of Mural Project

I am taking a break from painting. I should send a picture of my palette. It is sooooo OCD compared to others!!I did squeeze out more paint today than before and it is making me paint like mad (for me anyway) because I don't want it to go bad!Here is what I have done this morning. I think I will go get a McD iced coffee for a reward!I have gone ahead and blocked in the Marengo body because I had to start visualizing it. I can make the tack accurate once I get the reference book.

Day Four of Mural Project

Popped out of bed and went off to the barn early with the intent of getting a reference photo for my Marengo figure because the lighting was perfect. Figured I would ride early too.
I got the shot I wanted, just in time, because then the vog arrived. My horses were both turned out already, so I sat and waited until their turnout was done. Put them in the stalls so they could drink and pee, lo and behold neither one had finished breakfast yet. BIG SIGH...so I headed home to eat my own breakfast and figured that I would upload the photograph and fiddle with it. Got to my door and realized that I had left the camera in the barn. grrrrr
Okay, good intentions 'nere won fair maiden and all that. I will finish my milk and head back out.

Day Three of Mural project

I didn't get as much paint on the panel today, BUT I found a great reference photo FINALLY for the cavalry tack.

I'm still waiting for my french cavalry reference book to come.

I am happy with how things are moving along. I have to admit, I spent about an hour at robert clark's website and admired his work before I started painting. But time well spent!

You can see his work at http://www.robertclark.us/

All for today....thanks for coming by!

Day Two of Mural project

I am feeling more relaxed and intuitive today. As an aside, I had not done any painting for over a year, ever since I moved here to the island. I missed it, but just never got started.

This has been a grand project to kick my heinie into gear!

Although it may not look it, I actually got a lot done today. The only reason that I stopped is because twice I nearly tipped my brush cleaning tub over into my lap (my space here is very limited)!

I am still working with a very limited palette. Today I added yellow. Which yellow, you ask? Good question!

Let me tell you a little story about my paint supply....before I moved here I squeezed out my paints into two big weekly pill containers. One for warm colors and one for cool colors. Then I got distracted by the move and when the art supplies finally arrived, I had forgotten what they were! Not only that, but I had forgotten an important step in the whole idea of taking the paint out of the tube and storing it in the pill container....it is supposed to be kept in the freezer when not in use.

But believe it or not, they are still good. A bit of a skin on each one but still soft and buttery inside.

I do lack a few colors that would be very helpful with this particular panel, but I will see how it goes. Maybe I can mix what I need.

So enough chatter! Here is day two of my panel:

the first day of paint on the panel

finally put paint on the panel

Here is the original panel,

and here is the first bit of painting,

and a detail of the leopard skin that is on Bucephalus that although doesn't look that great in the photo, I like quite a lot.

I used my fingers a lot in this stage which is one reason that I enjoy oils so much.I only used aliz crimson and cobalt blue with white. I thinned everything with a 4:1:1 mix of turps, damar, and linseed oil. I painted really thin at first and then realized that it wasn't covering my grid! yikes! So that is when I started in with fingers!! I will probably continue this way to cover and get in the shapes, darks and lights. Then I will go to brushes and details.

ahhhhhhh I feel such a sense of relief now that I have started. Like I always say, doing art is like laying an egg

Buk buk buk bukkah!!!

ahhh I looked at my calendar at work and realized that I had no meetings or major events to contend with, so I told my boss that I was taking the rest of the week off. She is a great supe, and she agreed that this was a good opportunity to use some personal time. So I have until Tuesday to work on my painting AND my horses! And I won't have to get up at 4am!!!...I probably will just out of habit, but I don't have to and that makes all the difference!
I have my composition worked out, and I am starting to transfer it to the panel.
My biggest anxiety is that I will mess up the base and thus mess up my portion of the mural. I am not the type of artist that plays well with others, I guess.
But I just have to start putting down paint. I know once I start it will be easy and come right out.
So, you are thinking, let's see the idea!...but no, because I have been thinking about copyrights and blogging and the world wide web and the Orphan Art Bill...so I think I will wait and let the main mural folks post the image first.
I can assure you that it is fantastic, take my word for it!
On the horse side, I was riding down the road today with both my horses (my friend Wayne was on my mare) and a friend of his stopped to say hi. He introduced me and my horses to her and she said ( VBG) "Oh is he the wonderful horse that everyone is talking about?!" ....I am grinning from ear to ear! People are talking about my boy?....well, he deserves it!

Le Cadeau DU Cheval

well, guess I should spell the title of the project correctly, eh?

this blogging thing, ...I dunno....I had a heck of a time figuring out how to make another entry! You'd think with the name 'blog' that it would be very intuitive and easy, right?...well maybe not intuitive, that sounds too intelligent....but it should be easy!...boy, I sound old to myself!!

anyhoo....I got the thumbs up from the organizers to go ahead with my idea and I am looking forward to the weekend so that I can start laying out the images onto the board.

as an aside; I have to make up my mind whether or not to enter a show with Sypher this Saturday too. it is the deadline for entries...I have not yet decided...he has been having some problems with tension which I think is a pain issue. and I haven't tracked down the cause yet. He feels better after a week of bute. I'll see if this new cosequin kicks in and helps him along. I know how he feels, my old body hurts too.

this island paradise is looking very overcast and odd this week. the vog (a smog made from volcanic fumes) has really gotten thick. the islanders say that the volcano has not acted like this before....of course not, I wasn't here. Now that I am here with my phobia(s): volcanos, tsunamis, sharks, jelly fish, and all the other various way to be killed by the ocean....of course the volcano is going to act up!.....I tortured myself last night by watching a special on how some archeologists figured out a plausible (hey mythbusters!) theory of when and why the Minoan civilization disappeared around 1600 BC. Very interesting! and of course it could happen here says my phobic imagination!

but I digress......
stay tuned for painting and whining in future posts.

Le Cadeau de Cheval

Well, two new beginnings!

I have a blog and a panel to transform into artistic statements.....yikes....

Here is my section of the giant mural project Le Cadeau de Cheval:

(I told them to send me whatever section they wanted. I believe in making peoples' lives easier when they volunteer to take on massive tasks). This is section 178: it is 16 x 16 inches.

Since I have a series called "Evolution" that I have been working on for some years, I decided to do another version of that theme. You can see my work on my website: http://www.marengoink.com/

guess that is it for right now;