Auction Results

I have been so busy getting the commissioned pieces done by Christmas, I haven't taken the time to update! I have had several e-mails from friends wanting to know how the NRHA Futurity auction turned out...unfortunately....there were no buyers! The reception started at 5:30p.m., with auction to begin @ 6:00p.m. At 6 I looked at Mark and said "Do you see any horse people here? All I see are artists!" His reply..."Looks like all artists to me". At 6:30 the auctioneer took the mic and said the auction needed to get started so that no one would miss the "$100,000.00 Shootout" beginning @8:00! Well, that explained alot! Having done a little bit of showing myself, I know that if you, your trainer, your family member, your horse or your friend is going to be competing in a class that offers $100,000.00 in prize money...the last thing on your mind is buying art! They had some "shill" buyers so that there were no "no sales", and we had a 2 hour drive home so we did not hang around for the entire evening, but I am pretty sure there were no sales!
It was fun, I had an opportunity to take alot of photos, so not all was lost! This is the first year the Oklahoma Art Guild has done this and I am certain they learned alot. The ladies I met that put the show together were energetic and excited and I look forward to participating in more of their shows.

Reining in the Arts

I have received my acceptance email from the Oklahoma Art Guild for the Reining in the Arts show and sale! I don't know how many pieces were actually entered in this, a juried exhibition of Oklahoma art, but 175 were chosen and of those 175 only 20 were chosen to be sold at the live auction...with mine being one of those 20!! I feel so blessed and honored to have my painting chosen, it will display and go on the auction block among some pieces done by some Very Accomplished Oklahoma artists!

To just name a few: Carol Armstrong, http://www.carolarmstrong.net/

Gayle Curry, http://www.gaylecurry.com/

Kathryn Leitner, http://www.kathrynleitnerwesternart.com/

Kim Norton, http://www.kimnortonart.com/

This show and sale is being held in conjunction with the National Reining Horse Futurity in Oklahoma City, OK. The Futurity starts on Wednesday, Nov 24th. The art pieces will be in a full color catalog that will be passed out to the reining participants on Thanksgiving day. The art will be displayed on Wednesday, December 1st and the Live Auction is @ 6:00 p.m. December 2nd. On the auction pieces, the artist gets 50% of the sale price and the other 50% is divided evenly among the Oklahoma Art Guild and the National Youth Reining Horse Association.

I guess I finally have something I can put on my Art Resume!!

Medicine Hat Finished

I think I am pretty much finished with this painting! I entered it in the Oklahoma Art Guild's "Reining in the Arts", a juried show and sale that is taking place at the National Reining Horse Association Futurity in OKC, OK the 1st of December. Won't know until November 15th if it will be accepted.

Animal Tracks

I have kind of bounced all over this painting today! Worked on the chest, laid down some base colors for the mane, tweaked one of the eyes just a little bit, and played with the animal tracks!

Playing with Color

I just couldn't resist...I had to put some color on the border! I thought I would work on the border when I had the horse finished, but I just couldn't help myself!

My original plan was to have the animal prints in the "saddle tan" color, but my husband mentioned that it would be kind of neat if I could make them look like indentations. I played with the deer track a little, still needs some more work, but I think I can get that look.

Muzzle

I have been working on the muzzle and the eyes, more to do on both, but I am happy with how it is progressing.

I was asked today "why the animal tracks?". I wanted to give this painting a Native American "flavor" and all of God's creatures seem to hold special meanings to the Indians. I pulled a book out of my library the other day "Horse Color" ( a complete guide to horse coat colors ), and found it interesting that the Medicine Hat Paint and the War Bonnet Paint were thought by some tribes of American Indians to have supernatural powers, many believed that warriors on "medicine hat" paints could not be wounded in battle!

As I read about this particular coat pattern, I think that Doc would actually be considered a "war bonnet" paint. The medicine hat, though predominately white, does have some body patches called "war shields". The war bonnet paint has very little, if any, markings on the body.

Laying down the base colors

I wanted the background to be a "saddle tan" so I have used Raw Sienna. I then put my first coat of white over the face and body of Doc. He has one blue eye and the other is half brown half blue!

My initial "gut feeling" on the blanket pattern is Turquoise/Yellow/Red with paw prints in the Raw Sienna. I am laying out some colors on a piece of scrap canvas to see if there might be another combination I like better....so far I am sticking with my gut.

Painting Doc

So I have been "slacking" for about a month now! Actually, I have been looking for "inspiration" :) , going through alot of photographs...looking for something to catch my eye.

Labor day weekend my dressage instructor had 2 of her students come up and spend the weekend at her place with their horses, one of which is a Medicine Hat Paint (Doc). Looking at the photos I had taken of him gave me the idea of doing something with a little Southwest or Indian twist to it. This painting is on an 18" x 24" x 1" canvas, and I am going to put kind of an Indian blanket style border down the left side. When I first drew the border out it looked a little plain so I decided to put some animal tracks in it. This should be fun!

Sheebee is Finished

She's finished...I am really happy with how it turned out, just love the muzzle!

Sheebee

I was going through my photos looking for something to catch my eye "on canvas"! Came across this one of Sheebee, an Arab cross mare, she had a sweet face and a kind eye that I thought would look good on blue.

This painting is 18" x 24" x 1" deep. Still has a ways to go, but I am happy with how it is progressing.

Lisel-Ready to be Varnished

She is officially finished! All that is left to do is to put on 2 coats of varnish and give it several days to dry.

The Longhorn is finished

Finally!

Lisel's Guard Hairs

The last couple of days have been spent adding hairs to Lisel's head and body! Mainly the white "wire" hairs. The painting is beginning to look more and more like Lisel's photo!

Lisel Muzzle

This dog just has the cutest muzzle! I have layered soooo many colors on to get all the variations in that mustache of hers! Am battling with the eyes a bit, I am coming to the conclusion that there are some hairs that I am not able to see in the photo that are covering the corner of her right eye (left when you are looking at the painting) which make it look a bit smaller than the other eye. Still have some work to do there! Her nose is looking good, and I started working on her white guard hairs, they will need glazed over and painted again, and glazed over again, I think, to get the effect of alot of little white hairs and not clumps of white.

The Layers of Lisel

I am gradually adding layers of color to Lisel's coat to get depth before I add any white hairs.

Meet Lisel!

I have been commissioned to paint a 24"x30" portrait of Lisel, she is a Deutsch-Drahthaar, a German hunting dog!

I started with a base of raw sienna mixed with white, I have gone over it several times with mixtures of Burnt Umber, Naphthol Red Light and Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue (the background, that is!). Lisel has had Burnt Umber painted on her darker shadows, a mixture of Raw Sienna and White on some of her lighter areas and I then covered a majority of her in a mixture of Burnt Umber and Naphthol Red Light. She'll have several layers of color to give her depth before I work on adding in the white "guard hairs". The blades of grass on the lower half of the painting will be added "here and there" throughout the process!! (Depends on my mood, I guess!)

Finished Sunny Dressage Horse

OK, I'm finished, I have added a few stray hairs to the top of the forelock and now I just give it a couple of days to dry fully before I varnish it!

Sunny Dressage Horse

I am still "battling" with the sunroom dressage horse! I disliked the look of his mane and forelock running together (couldn't put my finger on it, it just wasn't right). So I thought I would just paint over that section and start again...HA! Yellow doesn't cover black very well, even if you seal it with gesso! Now I am thinking I may just throw some "stray hairs" in there and see how it will look.

If you look close at the photo, between his ears, you can see where I have attempted a cover up!

Longhorn progress

I have been slacking a bit lately! I have been painting "bits and pieces", but not photographing the steps as often.

The longhorn is progressing nicely. Some days I think to myself "this is easier because it is not someone's special animal, I don't have to get the expression exactly"!! Then a day later I'm thinking "this is not as easy, I don't have a longhorn in my pasture to look at if I am not sure of something that is not real clear in the photograph"!

Longhorn

Well I have the longhorn drawn on the canvas, but have been inspired to work on the "sunroom dressage horse"!!

Another painting

It seems as if I have been slacking lately!! But now have inspiration for 2 new paintings. The first is a dressage horse that I photographed this past winter, I am putting it on a 24" x 30" box canvas, he is chestnut in color and I have decided to paint him on yellow. I may have to call it my "sunroom painting"!!

The second painting I haven't yet photographed, so I will add it tomorrow. It is a Longhorn! I have been back and forth in my mind on background color, green or red? My first instinct was to put it on an red/orange background and I am thinking I will stick with that.

Friesian is finished!

Sometimes I could look at these paintings for weeks and still find little things I would like to change. I am learning to say "enough, it is done"!

Because this horse's mane was french braided, it had alot of little fly away hairs, I started to paint them, then didn't care for how they were looking so I painted a coat of turqoise over them...they took on the "fly away" look I was after! So I added more and painted over them again! They don't really show up in the photograph, and they are not real apparent when you look at the painting from a distance...which is great, because that is how it should be!

Gelding is Finished!

After darkening up the highlights on Mateo, he is Finished! Putting the final coat of gloss varnish on today.

Bridle and Mane

The bridle is pretty much finished, I spent at least 45 minutes just on the bit! I still have detail work on the mane, this morning I toned down the highlights on the horse with a very diluted black.

The Eyes

I have been working on this off and on the last few days. Spent an hour on the eyes Thursday! Will probably still tweak them a little more before it's all said and done.

"Friesian" undertones

I am doing this painting a little differently than my last one. The teal paint is rather thick and even with a thinning medium doesn't seem to paint on very smooth, so I painted around the horse and then went back and used different colors on different areas for the undertones. I forgot to photograph it, so the pic on the left is a step past that point! In the photo above, I have started working more detail into the muzzle and above the noseband on the left (the horse's right).

New Painting

As I wait for Mateo's owner to give the final "ok" on his painting, I have begun another large (48" x 24") painting.

Being new to the "blog" world, I thought that I could have another blog with the same web address (artbylisajewell), that is not the case and I also can't seem to change the "Mateo Painting" name. NO PROBLEM!! Seeing how Mateo is spanish for Matthew, and the name Matthew is of Hebrew origin with the meaning "Gift of God"....with no formal art instruction I have always felt that this talent is one of God's many gifts to me....it works!

So you can follow along as I "stretch" myself with this particular painting...When I was attending the same dressage clinic that I had photographed Mateo, I photographed several other horses as well. One in particular stuck out in my mind and as I worked on the Mateo painting I had some ideas in my head for this other horse, another black, he is a Friesian stallion. After much thought I have decided to paint just his head! Yes, this is going to be a 4 foot tall horse head! If it works, like I have it pictured in my mind it will be Dramatic! If it doesn't, well I've wasted a canvas!

It's getting close!

I still need to re-work and soften the highlights on Mateo's hind quarter and barrel, but I am really really close. I will now stare at it for a few days and probably still make some very subtle changes! Then it gets a couple of days to dry and after that, 3-4 coats of gloss varnish.

Softening some highlights

Saturday was a SNOW day! I didn't go outside too much so was able to work quite a bit on the painting. I added some more highlights to Mateo's right hind, and softened the chest and shoulder area. I painted the white in on his markings and today will add in some gray for shading and to soften the edges of his star.

Layers

Yesterday I worked the muzzle, still needs more work, the edges of the nostrils and highlights, but I feel I am getting real close! I also started blocking in some more on the chest, and worked on the hind legs, this is the point where it seems to slow down some for me because I spend so much time staring and comparing to the photograph! I make subtle changes and when I think I am "there" I will start on the hooves and mane and tail!

Then I usually make more subtle changes before varnishing. The chest and shoulder area still need alot of details and softening, will try and work on that today, I say try...it is supposed to be 70 and sunny today, tough for me to stay inside! If it weren't so windy, I would take my easel to the front porch and paint!

More face

I worked more on the face yesterday...still need to work the nostrils and muzzle more and soften up some of the shading, but I am liking it more and more!

The Face

I started on the face yesterday. Am going to focus on it some more today, I don't think it looks slender enough! Narrowed it some yesterday and will continue to adjust shading today.

Adding some highlights

Yesterday I blocked in some of the highlights with a mixture of Paynes gray and white. Then I began layering more gray and black on the body. It is starting to take on a little more depth!

I think I may work on his head today.

I save hooves and mane & tail for last and work on the face and eye on and off through the middle!? :)

The beginnings of detail

Here is where it starts to get a little more fun! I am painting black on the darkest areas of Mateo.