June 24, 2025
While I am working on many other new paintings, I am also still busy with my new large horse portrait and before diving into the detailing of the first layers of the painting, I wanted to do a close-up study of the horse’s eye.
Doing a study before continuing the main work is important to get a better feel for some of the details. A study makes the painting process less precious, if you know what I mean. And by the time the study is completed in a satisfactory way, implementing it in the main work is a much easier job.
You may remember that I did a black and white study before even getting to the main work to begin with. This is not something I do for smaller panels, but in a 40×40″ painting there is no place to hide. So it is important to get it right.
Doing a study gives me more freedom, less pressure. It does not really matter whether the study is any good, as long as I learn about the subject.
In this case, I was actually pretty happy with the result, and I even put it in a small frame for presentation purposes. Things do not always run so smoothly, but I guess that with my previous large collection of horse pastels, the equestrian world is familiar enough to me to get a good result!
I hope you will save the date for 27-28 September later this year, when my studio opens its doors for a weekend. Come by at ‘Art Studio Happy Cat’ and see this horse-eye study and many other works in person! Details of the tour can be found on the website www.elgincountystudiotour.ca