“Contemplating Always” - finished painting

Last October I had the opportunity to attend a workshop of one of my favorite oil painters - Anne Blair Brown. I started following her work several years ago, took an online class of hers, and finally had the chance to take a workshop taught by her last October at her beautiful Bluebird Hill Farmhouse in Tennessee. The workshop fell during the time I was in the thick of painting Holy Spirit Doves to raise money for the Wesley Ministry and taking commissions for Christmas gifts, so I didn’t have a chance to practice all the amazing things I learned from her until a couple weeks ago.

What I love so much about her painting style is her expressive brushstrokes, use of color and value, and ability to tell a story without painting every little fussy detail. Her paintings draw me in.

I want to share with you the complete process of my painting: drawing simple shapes, drawing with values, notan, distinct colors with gouache, practice in small oil, then finished product.

Above is my finished painting “Contemplating Always” painted in oil on 8x8 linen panel.

Simple shapes of the two small objects on a small plate on a small table

More detailed drawing of values and notes of specifics highlights and colors

Notan - Japanese technique of drawing the balance between dark and light in the subject matter

Gouache sketch figuring out some colors/values

Oil sketch playing with color and values

My latest horse painting is a departure of the way I have painted in the past with multiple, bright colors, lots of brush strokes, and the thickness of paint with the palette knife. I don’t know why the way I painted this horse changed. I wasn’t looking for it to change. But maybe it changed because of my return to the love of drawing horses and wanting to create something a little different than all the other things.

I experimented a little with another painting a few days ago — the painting of the face of the black horse. I like how it turned out: the way the paint was thinned and how the thinning of the paint gave the painting values (lights and darks). I LOVE good values in a painting.

When I painted that black horse, it reminded me a little of my underpaintings, or first layers of my finished oil paintings. I love underpaintings. That is where I establish my lights and darks. If the underpainting values don’t read correctly as far as light and shadow, then when the color comes in on top, the painting won’t look quite right.

Many times when I’m painting the underpainting I have stopped and appreciated what I see that no one else will ever see because I will paint another layer on top and cover it all up.

Which brings me to the way I painted this Blue horse. I painted the horse in one color (well, two — a mixture of Prussian Blue and Payne’s Gray). I left the paint at full strength for the places I wanted dark and I thinned out the paint (and even used paper towels dipped in thinner to wipe off color) for the places I wanted light. I wanted to see if I could take one color and make it work for the whole animal. And I did. I love the way it turned out.

If you have any questions about my process or have done something like this yourself, I would love for you to share it with me.

I wonder what color horse I will paint next…..