FOR RHONDA

Meet Rhonda. She is a friend and my riding trainer - positive, no-nonsense, down-to-earth.  She has kept me on the straight-and-narrow path of good horsemanship  with three horses.  I am lucky she loves my artwork, and does what she can to support and promote my art. I did this painting of her about 5 years ago. We were standing under some trees, chatting after a lesson,  so there was beautiful, filtered light coming though.

This is a portrait of one of Rhonda's dogs - Carmella.

A study I did of Carmella.

Another portrait of Carmella.

Batman - a dog belonging to one of Rhonda's friends.

I was just going to post what I've been working on lately, but came across all these  works to do with Rhonda, and felt the need to express my gratitude [having just finished a tough lesson].  I am very grateful to have her as a friend!

Thank you so much for visiting!

{Metaphorically} Hatching a Gosling - a Step by Step Process

My reference photo, taken a few weeks ago at a nearby farm in the late evening [subdued lighting].

I masked the gosling and did several wet-in-wet graded washes, using aureolin, quin. rose, quin. burnt orange and cobalt clue. This gave me a a soft and glowing grey.

I sponged on some water on the lower left, and drizzled in some aureolin, indanthrone blue and quin. burnt orange. I wanted to create the effect of a cast shadow on the grass without direct painting, to create something a bit different and lively. I used aureolin for the head and neck, and bum and legs, and started working on the bird's feathers with greys and browns made of aureolin, quin. pink and cobalt blue.  

More feathering, and some shadows on the legs, using aureolin, quin. burnt orange and indanthrone to make warm greens. For the beak and eye, I used mixtures on indanthrone with burnt orange and quin. violet. 

I went over the bottom third with aureolin to give a "ground'.

Then did some adjusting of shadows on the left of the bird, and VOILA!
The framable size is just over 7 inches square, and the painting is available on Artfinder.

Now I'm going to do some more painting, and feel sorry for myself. I badly pulled a lower back muscle last week, helping a friend load some huge, full water containers into the back of her car. And yesterday, I was in a car accident, and wrenched [sprained] my wrist, thankfully the left one. But ... ONWARD!

Thank you so much for dropping by!

The Gentle Man

This is the drawing I did of Cindy two months ago.  She really was quite a character in personality and appearance.

Freehand drawing of Mario and Cindy...
It is two pieces, as the original I did of Cindy was lacking in depth, so I did another of her and attached it over the original.

... from a photo I luckily took a year ago.

My horse vet truly is a gentle man ... as well as an artist, art-lover, art collector, and just a general all-round lovable person. Over the past two months, he has performed some veterinary services for me, and charged me only a framed drawing of his beloved dog, Cindy, a rescue dog. I have shown him the portrait I did of Cindy; he loved it and asked to have it framed. I thought it was much too little to offer as recompense for his work, so I have started this work as well. I'd like to get it on "real" drawing paper, not the sketch-book paper it is on now. So that is my next project. It will be a learning process, as I have never done a drawing on "real" drawing paper.
And of course I am still looking closely and adjusting the tug boat and tulip paintings ... I am surprised I have not yet taken a "finished" painting out of the frame to touch it up. Probably sometime ...

Thank you for dropping by, and your comments are most welcome!