american west painting #3: piebald mustang

Posted on November 20th, 2015 by mountain girl  |  6 Comments »

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Here is another oil painting on beetle kill pine–the third in my series of Western American Plains animals.

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I made each of the three paintings with a primary color hue for the background, and for this amber yellow ground, I wanted to contrast it with a blue roan (opposite color scheme of the Pronghorn).Ā  After looking at lots of photos of blue roans, though, I decided to switch to a piebald with blue highlights. I’ve loved piebalds and skewbalds since I was little (piebalds are black and white paint horses, skewbalds are red, brown, or gold with white) and since they are often found in the wild, I really liked the idea of using one for this painting.

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As I mentioned in an earlier post, I ran into some trouble with this piece. I couldn’t get the area under the horse’s feet to work, and I ended up trying several different ways of creating a foreground. Beetle kill is not very forgiving (since my main goal is to keep the grain and beetle patterns visible) and my constant rubbing out and repainting was beginning to muddy the wood.

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I finally hit on a cloud of dust. It worked much better than the flat prairie I was trying to create, and I was able to pull in the reds and golds from the rest of the wood, instead of introducing a flat line of contrasting color, which was obviously not working.

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I am really happy with the final product. The wood has a warm, rustic feel, and the contrast of the piebald against the amber is just what I had in mind. I love how the cloud of dust materialized–just another of those unexpected turns and twists that come with the territory of making art.

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This is the last of my large semicircular pieces of wood, so until the next giant beetle kill tree comes along, I’ll be working with some small, irregular chunks. Any suggestions?

The piebald mustang is now available in my shop.

6 Responses to “american west painting #3: piebald mustang”

  1. Carie says on :

    Oh wow what a beautiful horse and the wood just brings it alive somehow, there’s such a sense of motion to your work šŸ™‚

  2. mountain girl says on :

    Thanks Carie!

  3. Your Lion says on :

    Awesomeness! I have my beady sights set on a sweet downed tree… jus’ have to git it /:O)

  4. mountain girl says on :

    You wood. šŸ™‚

  5. Mimi says on :

    Really good, Mia!

  6. Mom & Dad says on :

    Hi honeee…really nice – the colors are great! Luv u/mom