Tuesday, July 11, 2006

New Horizons


Back last winter, I painted a flea bitten gray horse, butt to the viewer, cropped in tight, so that the curve of his hindquarters and back created a horizon against a clear sky. Prior to him, I did a lifesize study of the fall of a bay horse’s mane (Daybreak, 20x10, acrylic on gallery stretched canvas), again, creating a landscape. With these two pieces, I had inadvertantly stumbled across an idea I needed to further explore.

This is the next piece in that series, now titled “Horizon” (after the first piece, which carries that name). This painting, titled “Red Hills, Chestnut Horizon," depicts the crest of a thoroughbred’s neck, warmed by the sun, and rolling like the Kentucky hills where I took the reference photo (see the entry “Inspiration Xs 100”).

Painted only with cadmium red deep, cadmium yellow deep, and pthalo blue red, with some titanium white. I’m getting the hang of this restricted palette, warm in sun vs cool in shadow, sort of thing.

Hope you enjoy it.

Now I’m off to do another - the nite's still young!


Kimberly Kelly Santini
www.turtledovedesigns.com
distinctive pet portraits
& 4-legged paintings

1 comment:

Tumblewords: said...

Fascinating! I'm checking out all your work. Watercolor has fascinated me for a decade but I'm learning that color, in itself, is necessary for survival. Grin. Good job!