Western

"Bronc" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Gessobord, 5 x 7". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

This bronc in a holding pen at the State Fair rodeo caught my eye. He stood with his head held high, watching the action in the arena. His long mane caught the last rays of light from the setting sun. He was magnificent.

Here are a few images taken along the way:

"Shades" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Gessobord, 5 x 7". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

After a week of painting pets, we’re back to the State Fair. This bronc rider had the rodeo in his eyes, or at least in his mirrored sunglasses.

Here are some photos taken along the way:

"Spurred On" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Gessobord, 5 x 7". Copyright ©2010 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved. $125

It was almost sunset when this white horse burst out of the chute at the State Fair rodeo with a cowboy clinging to his back. The only way to paint it was to throw caution to the wind and just go for it, just like that horse and rider.

Pssst! Don’t tell the rodeo guys, but I am rooting for the horse to win.

This painting may be purchased from my Artfire storefront.

"Sedona Morning" by Lesley Spanos. 6 x 6" oil painting on Ampersand Gessobord. ©Copyright Lesley Spanos 2010, all rights reserved.

What’s that wretched creaking sound? Must be my rusty painting skills! It seems like all my creative focus lately has been on planning paintings, rather than actually painting. But then along comes a good art challenge, and like the challenge whore I am, I can’t help but play along. This one is hosted by Lee Brown on his A Day Not Wasted blog. An artist and photographer himself, Lee is providing some drool-worthy HDR photos that are an absolute pleasure to work from. No dead shadows in his work! Go see his Sedona Sunrise Challenge yourself for some great visual treats, and play along, if you’re so inclined.

This one didn’t exactly fall off the brushes, but at least I finished something. Here are a few photos taken along the way:

Starting with a loose brush sketch over a red ground. When I sketch with a brush, I use an angled flat, which makes good lines as well as filling in large areas quickly. With the paint, I tried to approximate the tone of the deepest shadows.

As the painting progresses, I try to let bits of the red show through. Easier said than done.

Here’s where I wish I’d stopped. I prefer the painting at this stage because it’s looser, warmer, and the values are closer together. But, as usual, I thought it needed to be more finished…

…so I tightened up the details and added more light and contrast. Now it looks more like 10am than sunrise.

I really loved how those twigs in the foreground caught the light in the reference photo, but I was having a devil of a time painting them with a brush, so I scratched them out with an exacto knife. I had to really dig in to get down to clean gesso. It was an okay experiment, but next time I’ll make the lines more “lost and found” rather than continuous, ’cause that’s how twigs catch the light.

Many thanks to Lee Brown for a fun challenge!

"New Mexico Adobe" by Lesley Spanos. Oil on Raymar panel, 12 x 9". Copyright ©2009, all rights reserved.

I can’t seem to get enough of these art challenges. They so neatly answer the question of “what should I paint next,” while forcing me to explore subjects I wouldn’t normally choose. This painting is my answer to the Wet Canvas Southwest and Western Art forum challenge for May. The photo of an old adobe outside the Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico was kindly provided by Diane Cutter. (Check out Diane’s really cool woodcut of Karin Jurick’s dog Jack! It was completed after the deadline, so it didn’t get posted on the DSFDF blog.)

Here are a few images taken along the way:

I toned the canvas with shades of yellow and red acrylic, then sketched in some rough guidelines with ink.

Here I’ve started painting in oils, keeping with the orange theme. I make a mental note to myself to keep the shadows warm and the light cool.

If you’ve been following my blog, you already know that I’m an indecisive painter. I don’t start with a plan, and I don’t know what looks “right” until I see it. I’m the artist equivalent of the woman who tries on two dozen different outfits (some several times) before choosing one, or moves the living room furniture repeatedly to see what feels right. My paintings have to try on a few looks before I know which one I can live with.

For starters, I’ve tried painting what I saw in the reference photo, a series of white clouds. I liked the sky in the photo, but my version lacks punch. Really, it’s about as interesting as a bag of cotton balls. I paint it out and try…

…a simple cloudless sky. Which is even more boring than the previous version. You’d think it would be easy  to do a sky like this, and it probably is for many artists. Not me. Mine has that awful chalky look (in spite of using zinc white), and I can’t get the color right. I wish I had a tube of cerulean blue.

So, in frustration, I paint it out again…

…and slash in the hint of a distant storm. Hey, I like that! It makes the foreground pop. Okay, it’s a keeper.

See that mesa to the right? I like how it turned out, too!

And now it’s gone. I almost wish I hadn’t painted those trees over it. Parts of the mesa where supposed to peek through the leaves, but I got a little heavy handed with the foliage.

Then again, maybe it’s better this way. The composition was a little odd before, with a mesa on either side and a house in the middle. Now it has more of a diagonal flow.

Originally I wanted to paint a couple of saddled horses under the tree to give it that old west look, but I chickened out. I think I’ll just sign it and move on before I ruin it!