Seeing Eye to Eye

"Eye to Eye"- Acrylic on 12 x 14 stretched canvas

I was completely intrigued by a photo my niece posted on her Facebook wall of a close-up of her horse Spartan's eye.  There was such expression and depth in the photo and I knew it would make a dramatic painting and so I started this 12 x 14 piece in acrylic a few weeks ago.


So as I put the final strokes of paint on this one, I decided to find out more about the vision of this amazing animal.  Frankly, I find that most eyes, regardless of the animal to be interesting.  But there is something special about a horse's eye.   Maybe that has something to do with just how very large, complex and expressive their eyes seem to be.  A horse is such a beloved animal and the bond between horse and man is very strong.

Just a few generations ago many of our ancestors depended on horses to provide their substance, travel and often their lives depended on their horse.  A few years back, my life was greatly impacted when my car was stolen.  It was then that I suddenly had a new appreciation for the wild west and their handling of horse thieves. That was a really big deal!

 Horse ownership has greatly decreased as has our dependency on horses for our livelihood.  A high percentage of households that own horses own more than one horse. Some of the statistics online were not as clear as I had hoped as I started to research the percentage of Americans that own horses but one thing I do know, owning a horse can be very expensive and labor intensive if they are only used as a pet.  So hats off to my niece Emily and her beautiful horse, Spartan!

Here are just a couple facts that I found to be just fascinating.

1. The equine eye is the largest eye of any land mammal—yes, including giraffes!
2. Horses can see a total of 350 degrees around them
3. Horses have “Dichromatic” color vision meaning they can see two colors—shades of blue and gold.  (https://woodsideequineclinic.com/the-amazing-eye-of-the-horse/)

I thought I would share with you a couple more equine themed paintings that I have worked on recently.  If you are interested in seeing more of my work, please check out my website gallery.  There is a little bit of everything there so you might just find something you really like.

"Riding the Buckskin"

Light-em Up

Fence Post Rendezvous

Heading Home

Something Has Gone AFOWL in the Studio

I thought you might enjoy seeing my progression on a piece that I am almost finished with.  It's been about a 3 week process because I don't paint very steady.  A little bit here and a few minutes there is my normal studio habit.  I want to work on that this year but I find I get pretty restless and need to get up after only 20-30 minutes of painting.  I've yet to find that "zone" that other artists speak of where they paint for hours on end and late into the night.  

  

Photo 1- Initial Rendering

This is my first rendering that I did in colored pencil.  It is certainly not a fine piece of artwork but here I'm not really looking for detail as much as a feel and mapping out some of the composition.  I knew I wanted it to be about a crowing rooster on a wooden rail fence with an old wagon wheel.  The piece also had to have the signature morning glories that I have painted into the three other pieces in this "Down Country Roads" series. (Photo 1)

Photo 2-Rough Blocking in of the composition

This next photo is now of me blocking in the main elements of the composition.  I had to repaint that fence at some point because I realized I had made the classic mistake of letting it drift upward and I needed it to be straight.  I pulled out the trusty straight edge and got it back on track.  The background took me sometime to work out.  I finally decided on a the distant ruins of a barn and I think that was a good choice here.  Because I'm working with the canvas in a vertical position, I have a lot of depth to fill in the background. (Photo 2)

Photo 3- Adding Focal elements

With this photo you can see I've straighten the fence line and now begun focusing on the wagon wheel.  This proves to be a really challenge because I want it to have the illusion of leaning against the fence and so my perspective isn't straight on.  I'm not a draftsman or architect so getting the wheel to appear correct and balanced is an issue.  I choose to let it go off the page because it really needed to be that large in comparison to the fence post to look realistic.  I still think it may be too small but that is the difficulty I often face when painting a number of random items from reference photos that are not in the same setting.  (Photo 3)

Photo 4- Adding flowers, grasses and foreground hens

Now we are getting into the final elements of the composition.  I have decided the best thing to do to handle my lack of skill at painting circular wheel and spokes is to have an old board also leaning up against the fence with a healthy growth of beautiful morning glories.  All in all I'm pretty sure I made the right decision there.  I have also begun blocking in the two hens in the foreground. (Photo 4)

Photo 5- Rendering of details to add

This is a little rendering I did of what I had in mind of adding to my painting.  I wanted a couple of chicks fighting over a juicy worm for breakfast.  The sketch has also been added to my greeting card designs and I've matted and framed the original.  The resourceful artist and accountant in me will not let a good sketch go to waste lying in a forgotten portfolio but rather try to turn it into a future revenue source. (Photo 5)

Photo 6-Still blocking in the composition and adding depth

In this photo you can see I have blocked in the chicks and added more layers to the hens and depth to the morning glories and foliage.  (Photo 6)

Photo 7- And this is what it looks like today

 So here we are today and I'm entering into the final stages of this painting.  Did I mention that this canvas is 24 x 36"?  That is a rather large piece and so it does take sometime to work your way to the bottom.  Now I'm obligated to focus on all the details that still need to be added to make this piece really pop.  With a little effort I'm hopeful that this piece will be finished by the weekend and soon be available on my website.  I've taken you from "What the heck were you thinking" to "This might just work after all" to finally "I'm Lov'in it" all in 7 photos.  That is the normal progression for me as an artist.  It progresses from Awful-to Awkward-to Amazing!  Well at least we hope for the AMAZING part.

If you enjoyed my little assemblage of progression photos, leave me a comment below and take a minute to check out my website at JulieTownsendStudio.com.   

Fuzzy Chicks and Tasty Worms

I had plans for my weekend to spend much of my time finishing the painting that is taking up all of my easel space but as often happens those plans didn't come to fruition.  Not to say that all was lost on the creative artist front, but it just wasn't as productive of a weekend as I had hoped and with my solo show "Down Country Roads" coming up quickly on April 1st I'm getting a bit of an overwhelming feeling.  So much painting and so little time.  What's an artist to do?

My pencil and ink sketch called "The Early Birds"

This little sketch I started yesterday while enjoying my usual morning McDonald's coffee time with my husband.  Today, I decided to add some color and used my new set of Prismacolor pencils.  I have found that drawing is an excellent exercise to prepare me before I pick up my paint brushes.  These little chicks are going to be added to the composition in my painting "Something to Crow About" that I am currently working on.  

The sketch actually turned out cute enough that I'm going to matte and frame it and also add it to the show. I also decided that the sketch of my little early birds made a cute addition to my greeting card designs.  I started playing around with my new printer this weekend and have come up with 4 designs so far that I think work well printed on greeting cards.  As you can see both the chicks and the crowing rooster are featured both on canvas and on the front of a card.  

If you are interested, cards will soon be available on the Country Store tab of my website at JulieTownsendStudio.com.  

Work in Progress

"Down Country Roads" greeting card line

Painting My Country Roots

I moved out west to Las Vegas back in 1978 from my childhood home of Eldon, Missouri.  I was only a teenager at the time, but there is something about one's childhood that shapes and influences your life, perhaps more than the rest of your years spent as an adult.  I may have lived in this large city for all of my adult years, but in my heart I still identify myself as a country girl.

That is why I'm painting a series right now I feel I have a strong connection to and that I am calling "Down Country Roads."  I lived the best years of my childhood on a dusty dirt road surrounded by trees, flowers, wildlife and farming.  I love old farm houses, gardens, livestock, barns, porch swings, old mail boxes, barbed wire fences and fence posts covered in morning glories dotting every dirt road and 2 lane highway across this amazing country and they are my inspiration.

When it feels like crazy is becoming the normal,  I have to only return to my roots to find that this country is still full of good folk that appreciate the freedom to work hard and get their hands dirty, to raise their families and take care of their neighbors. This series of paintings are my tribute to that way of life and looking at them, frankly makes me smile.

"Fence Post Curiosity"- 36 x 24 Original Acrylic

This is my newest piece, just finished this week.  I'm calling it "Fence Post Curiosity".  Cows are curious creatures and will often watch you as drive by, especially if all your children are hanging out of the windows yelling, "MOO."  I just couldn't help myself and found that I had to add the cow licking her nose to the composition.   The consistent themes of blue morning glories are present as they are in the previous two pieces along with cheerful Black-eyed Susans.

This piece was a real challenge as I have never painted such large animals before.  The canvas measures 36 x 24 inches so this jersey cow is at least 2 feet tall.

Lunch Under the Mailbox- 36 x 24 Original Acrylic 

My second piece in the series that I have painted is called "Lunch Under the Mailbox".  I've blogged about this one previously and so if you follow me you know that I loved little box turtles growing up.  They were everywhere in the spring and summer.  They may move slowly but they are so persistent.  I remember many times just running in for a moment to get a drink or snack, certain that I could return in time to prevent my little reptiles escape on to find that there was no longer any trace of him.   

Life at the Fence Post- 36 x 24 Original Acrylic

This is the piece first piece that I came up with and at the time that I painted it I wasn't thinking about a series.  I simply was painting a piece that reminded me of summer.  The predominate color of green makes me think of Missouri in the summer.  Everything is SO green unlike the Mojave Desert that I call home now. 

This series will be presented together as part of a solo show that will be held in the month of April at the Boulder City Art Gallery in Boulder City, Nevada.  My goal is to have at least 2 more pieces completed by that time along with a number of smaller related paintings.  It will be a show worth seeing.  All these piece can be found on my website where you can find a link to order prints and see the rest of my work.  Just visit JulieTownsendStudio.com and click on the gallery tab.