Musings About Art, Horses, Life and Writing

My horse had just had a good roll in the indoor arena and was brushing the sand off his face when I took this photograph. The intention was to enter the painting in an equine art exhibit with the theme of "Flow". I thought this image fit the theme as the horse's body and the light on it seemed to flow across the sand. 

However, Life got in the way, and the painting remains unfinished. It will be completed in an Old Masters technique of layers of oil paint. The first layer is a simple tint on the whole canvas in a warm tone. The second layer is the drawing itself in burnt umber establishing the basis of lights and darks. You can still see that in the horse. The third layer, of gray tones, is called the "dead layer" which refines the shapes and lights and darks in a thicker application of the paint. Next will come multiple layers of "local" color; the actual colors of the horse and sand. 

"Flow" is only a working title. That may change as the painting progresses if something more fitting comes to mind.