Captain Butler has a Face!

work in progress oil painting by Sue Steiner






I am adding more detail now to my bull painting of Captain Butler, a rare breed of cattle called a 'watusi'. As you can see the colors are darker and richer in his face and neck since I am moving from that area over toward the hind end. Soon the rest of the body will match and I will add some glazes and highlights to bring it all together. Still a 'work in progress' but soon it will all come together!



At this stage the painting reminds me a little of my yearling colt as it goes thru its spurts of growth. Many of you may know how at this stage young horses grow in bursts where at times one body part looks out of proportion to the others. Right now my colt is 'downhill' because his rump shoot up faster than his front end! :) I could almost SEE him growing since it happened so quickly! He also has a neck that seems to go on forever! But I am confident in the end all the parts will flow and come together as they should! I can see the beauty in the out of porportion areas just as I visualize how I want to move thru a painting.



Thanks for being a part of this process. It is fun to share my creative process with you. I sometimes think how I impulsively throw things up on the computer in blogs, twitter and facebook at times realizing others can't necessarily visualize what I have in my mind- wondering if I should just hold back and wait. Bringing people in to this process is where it gets fun and exciting, though. As an artist I have to do much of my work alone but the flip side to being an artist is having someone SEE your art. I enjoy the interaction and feedback of allowing people into the process. At my new art studio in Canton I will have more room to do this kind of thing as I participate in many of the art events in that area including First Fridays. I am asking my husband to help build 'drying shelves' so I can put my work in progress paintings up on the wall. Not only is that helpful to me to see them over and over again as I am working on them or allowing a layer to dry it is good for people to see how a painting changes and grows-- like my leggy colt! :)

thanks for stopping by!

Sue Steiner

equine and animal artist

As a side note I am adding to my farm animal murals at Lehman's on a regular basis now. Check out the events calendar on their web site or go to my Amish themed art blog at http://www.kidronarts.blogspot.com/ to see my schedule.