Starting Something New
The desire to do more abstract horse art has been brewing for quite some time. I am allowing myself today to experiement and have some fun with this idea. I have a large gallery wrapped canvas in which I slathered some paint on in a color palette I choose ahead of time. I let this sit overnight (acrylic underpainting) and came to it fresh this morning to see where the horse pops out of the canvas and then will let that develop.
I had a piece of art that I recently sold but one that was done in this vein. I got more comments on that piece than any other. Its kind of funny because as I was trying to do my more detailed 'portrait' styled commissions this one was what was recieving the attention and 'enaging' people in my studio. There was something there that drew people in. I ended up calling the piece 'Mystery' because it had a translucent, dreamlike quality that people seemed to like. My guess was that the work where all the answers or visual information is given to the viewer does not engage them in the same way. This intrigued me-- part of being in the 'business' of selling art is trying to walk that fine line between having a product that people want but also feeding your own creative spirit.
This more abstract art is even more so in that direction so we'll see. Art is just one big experiment anyways isn't it?
I love doing detailed work but at this stage in my life and artist development I also know that my preference is to zoom in on a specific point of interest and then let the other areas get fuzzy with bigger brushstrokes and movement. That kind of work is what I find exciting and feeds my creative spirit. I was able to pinpoint why I am at this stage now artistically and it seems to come down to having a house full of teenagers! LOL! In order to feel like I can sit down and do detailed work I have this quirk where my house/studio needs to be quiet and in order. Well, fat chance of that hapepning at least for a few more years! Certainly not this summer and most definitely not today. I am enjoying this stage of life with my kids but also realize the extra energy needs to be directed somewhere so it is in wild spalshes of color on a canvas. Not a bad place to direct that in the whole scheme of things! (Plan b- sell more paintings and hire a molly maid!)
So what I am doing here is painting this big splash of color and brushstrokes. I've looked at it now to see where I envision a horse and will go from here to try to bring that out as loose and colorful as I can. When I looked thru the camera lens the image jumped out at me so away we go!
Be back soon with updates.
Thanks for stopping by!
equine and animal artist
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