My latest drawing is a mate of the little burro that I painted before. There were three horses in the paddock with him and he was the boss.
I love drawing animals but horses and dogs seem to be the most requested for commissions. While most of my work has been drawing, I also work in water colour portraits.
Pencils used in this drawing are Faber Castell polychromos, Caran D’acné luminance and Derwent lightfast, coloursoft and procolour.
The paper is Strathmore bristol smooth 300 series
This little guy looks after several big horses at the equestrian centre near me. He’s the boss! We were actually able to take some good photos of him (mainly because he’d push the horses away when we tried to photograph them). I was going to do a full body painting of him but thought a head portrait would be better and allow for more detail.
I used to have a close friend and one of the things we had in common was our love of horses. Over time we lost touch. Life has a habit of doing that.
However I still have photos taken back in our day. This portrait is from one I intended on using as a reference for a painting. I changed it a little, making the halter red instead of the original blue in the photo.
I hope she still has some connection to horses as I do with my art. But then most of us never really outgrow horses do we?
Watercolour painting on Arches 140 lb cold pressed paper.
Once in a while I get to do a painting with a person as one of the subjects. Most of my commissions are of animals only and it’s a bit of a change when asked to bring a human into the picture.
This is a watercolour painting on Arches 140lb cold pressed paper.
This is a drawing of three horses I saw in a parade.
The finished work is in a private collection.
This is another horse I saw at the Renfrew Fair several years ago. He was one of the entries in the heavy horse division and I liked the way he stood, quietly waiting for the judge to make his decision. This artwork wasn’t a commission just a fellow I wanted to paint.
Trail Horse
I’m going to post some work I did before starting this blog as it will be a while before I finish my latest painting. This is a watercolour of a trail horse I saw in Alberta and loved the way the light played on his face and bridle.
When I was younger I worked at a riding stable and from what I’d heard of other riding establishments, we were one of the better ones. You couldn’t take a horse out on your own unless we knew you could be counted on not to gallop the whole way as soon as you were out of sight. Our horses would be able to rest for an hour after being out a couple of times in a row. Things like that. I like to think that times have changed for horses in riding stables. For the better.