Amish Art 'work in progress'

' Work in progress' Amish Art




I will have to give you a 'work in progress' for today's post. My guess is I am halfway thru this oil painting. It is small, 6 x 6 on canvas. I want to keep it loose. Right now I am working on values and getting the basic structures in place. I hope to get some more time today but we'll see how the day goes. I apologize for the glare from the wet paint. The photo is certainly not very crisp but hopefully you can bear in mind this is just a step in the process toward a finished painting.



This scene is a familar one in my neck of the woods. I am familar with this team of horses since they belong to my neighbors. When I paint the Amish I make a point in not detailing faces and strive to make the painting more about a scene, expression or gesture rather tnan about a particular person. I am pretty certain the Amish would prefer it that way too. I have talked with some of my Amish friends and this is what I have gathered from our conversations so out of respect for them I hope to refine a looser, more impressionistic style in my Amish themed art. What I liked about this particular scene is the posture of the people, the slant of the hats, that slant of the wheels and most especially the two horses nuzzling each other. They were in this spot for quite some time and the horses were as patient as can be. One of the things I love about Amish culture is how they have time to talk with each other! As a person who loses track of time often I wish our culture would embrace more of this instead of always rushing off to the next thing to keep on schedule!



I've not picked out a title for this yet but it will probably have something to do with not keeping an eye toward the time! :)

To see finished work go to http://www.suesteiner.com/

Thanks for stopping by and take some time today to just chat! I know I am going to which is probably why this paitning didn't get finished today! :)

Sue Steiner

Update: I came back here to upload another image and while doing that came up with a title. This painting will be called 'On Amish Time'.