Progressing Slowly….

Here’s an update on the White Horses painting I started a while back.

I’m using the sfumato techniques to apply the paint. Sfumato basically means I’m blending any hard edges. It’s a technique used with oil paint by the Renaissance artists.

The most famous painting produced using the sfumato techniques is probably Leonard Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

I chose this method of painting because there aren’t any hard edges in nature. It contributes greatly towards a realistic look for the horses.

I apply my paints, laying a dark next to a light. I then blend between the dark and light creating a soft, smoky blended area. I’m using a combination of a large fine bristle brush, rags and my fingers to blend the paint. Mostly my fingers.

I’m building this painting up with layer upon layer of very fine, thin oil paint.

The horse on the left has had 3 layers of paint applied. The right hand horse has 5 or 6 layers. The centre horse has received 10 or more layers of paint.

Each layer of paint is allowed to dry for at least 24 hrs before the next.

I’ve been slowly plodding on with it, regardless of my lack of artistic urge (blogged about that HERE). I’ve been able to continue working on this painting, I guess because I don’t see my equestrian art as creative. I don’t need to have ideas or motivation or urges, I just need to sit down and do it.

IMHO, you learn to master the techniques and materials you use as an artist. That is step one to becoming an artist, connecting with your creativity comes later, and it’s a very different approach/experience.

In the broadest sense it’s creative because I’m making something with raw materials. Yes my choice of composition, colours and subject matter is subjective. The manner in which I apply the paint is also my own style.

But it’s years worth of technical skills at work here, producing this painting, not my creative side.

Erin