Tag Archives: Belgian draft horse

Hair is hard

November 27th, 2009 | Posted in Judy Johnson

Here’s what’s on my easel and on my unused Nordictrack this week.  You can get a glimpse of my ultra organized studio and the barn out back.  It’s a beautiful spot to work in.  Virtually finished with these two paintings.  I may go back in and mess up the mane a little more, and yellow up the lighter one.  I tried to keep loose, and almost succeeded.  They do look good from far away :-)
They are titled “Scenes from a Marriage 2 & 3.”

©Copyright 2009 by Judy Johnson. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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What’s on my easel

November 5th, 2009 | Posted in Judy Johnson


Here are two paintings just waiting to be finished. �The two heads has more to go but I am going to try to go lightly and painterly and try to keep it looser. �I may go back into the back scratcher one and try to loosen up some of the details there. �I love the sky so much in the first one that I think I am going to change �the second sky to the more gray tone. �Seems more interesting.
So in a few days when I stay home long enough to do some painting we’ll see how things shape up.

©Copyright 2009 by Judy Johnson. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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Monday Guest Artist ~ Karen Baker Thumm

April 27th, 2009 | Posted in Linda Shantz

We’re getting some interesting weather right now in Southern Ontario. On Saturday, summer decided to pay us a visit, but by 5pm a powerful storm system moved in and made bringing-in time at the barn a bit wild! The temperature dropped a good 20 degrees for Sunday…and today it’s supposed to be like summer again. The bad news for me is I really need to get on my taxes (no kidding), so my “day off” this time around will be spent crunching numbers instead of enjoying the weather. I know…that’s what procrastination gets me!

Today’s guest artist is another Equine Art Guild member I’ve “known” for years. Karen is an Associate Member of the prestigious American Academy of Equine Art, and has always been very generous in sharing her knowledge and experience with aspiring equine artists. There is a wealth of information, as well as a number of examples of her beautiful work, on her website. You can also see some of these paintings develop on her blog. Thanks Karen!

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Growing Pains
Karen Baker Thumm


I’d like to start off by thanking Linda for inviting me to be a guest
blogger on her blog this month. It is an honor to be chosen by an
artist whom I greatly admire.

In sticking with this month’s theme of growth, I decided to address
a subject that many of us traditional realist artists face at some
point in our development as artists, and that is the need to wean
ourselves from too much dependence on photographs. As equine artists,
it’s almost a necessity to rely on photographs to produce our art
since our subjects are not the kind to sit still for hours (or even
seconds!) while we capture their likenesses.The trick is to move
beyond the photograph at some point to make a more unique work of
art, and that is where the growth part of our development as artists
comes to the fore.

One of my recent paintings is a perfect example of moving beyond the
photograph. “Meet The Green Team” is its title, and so we shall. The
first image is my reference photo for this painting. I very much
liked the expressions of these two gentle giants, their connectedness
to each other and their mild interest in the viewer who has
interrupted their quiet moments together. In order to convert this
photograph into a work of art that was more of my own concept, I made
a number of changes.

The first choice I made was to change the left hand horse’s coat and
mane colors since I wanted the painting to be of a pair of Belgians.

Next I decided to eliminate the sweat on the horses in order to go
along with a theme of quiet relaxation.

Thirdly, I decided to pretty up the trailer by eliminating the rust
and broken railing and giving it back some shine.

Since I’m not fond of wide blazes that go over the nostrils, the
right hand horse got a blaze adjustment which worked out very well.
You can see that he actually has a very fine muzzle which was
disguised by that wide blaze.

The two ears almost touching in the center created a weird tangent,
so I changed one ear to a more forward position and eliminated that
problem.

But, the changes didn’t stop there. The wheel fender was eliminated
since it added nothing to the compositon. I changed the far side of
the trailer to show more openings and make better sense of it. And,
finally, I played around with different crops until I found one which
worked well and which allowed the image to fit onto a standard size
canvas.

It’s a good thing that I like to challenge myself because, Boy! did
this painting challenge me! The first thing I did was to make a color
study in pastel to use as a guide for the oil painting. Other
reference photos were used for the highlights and shadows on the
horses and for reflections on the trailer. A couple of Breyer horses
and a mirror also helped show me where the reflections should go.
Using all of these tools helped me to create a painting that was both
challenging and very rewarding.


I’m so glad that I took the risk and created a painting that I can be
very proud of. Whether it wins any show awards or not, it’s already a
winner for me. Growing pains and all, it helped to build confidence
in myself and was one more step in my growth as an artist.

©Copyright 2009 by Linda Shantz. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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And, That’s A Wrap!

April 15th, 2009 | Posted in Karen Baker Thumm


What a whirlwind of a day I had today!

Not to bore you with a long list of what I accomplished, let me simply say that I wrapped up and mailed off an assortment of business and personal tax forms, got money transferred to pay the taxes, created and mailed my entry for the AAEA Mackinac Island show, made arrangements for an ad in Horses In Art magazine and last but far from least, I finished the Belgian draft horse painting. Whew! I never expected to accomplish so many important and stressful tasks in one day.

As they say in the movie industry, “That’s a wrap”. Now, on to new art and long neglected projects.

I think I’ll just leave it at that for tonight. Thanks for visiting, and please come visit again. Bring a friend if you care to!

©Copyright 2009 by Karen Baker Thumm. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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Don’t Count Yer Chickens!!

April 12th, 2009 | Posted in Karen Baker Thumm



You know that old saying about not counting your chickens before they hatch? Well, I pretty much ignored that sage advice when I more or less committed myself to entering this painting in a juried show and to using it in an ad in Horses In Art magazine. As you know, the painting is far from finished, and both deadlines are coming up this week! Now my chickens have come home to roost!

Friday was more or less a bad studio day. After painting the lower part of the trailer, I painted the neck and shoulder of the left hand horse. When I finished painting that evening, I realized that:

1. The paint was not going on smoothly despite having oiled the canvas ahead of time.

2. The highlights and shadows were not in the right places, consequently the bones and muscles were not in the right places.

3. The highlights had gone dull and the whole horse image had gone flat, showing little volume.

Making 3-d images believable on a 2-d surface is all about creating volume in your subject. Well, this poor horse had none and would have to be repainted. That night I figured that there was no way I could possibly get the painting done enough to send off the entry by Tuesday at the latest. Actually, it was kind of a relief because that left the beautiful weekend free for doing some much-needed yard work.

But, by yesterday morning I was feeling very disappointed at the prospect of missing a second invitation to an AAEA member show and felt as if I was letting the Academy down and setting a bad precedent in their minds. So, after lunch I sat down in front of the painting to study it and determine what needed to be done and if it would be possible to work on it that day.

The first consideration was whether or not the paint was dry enough to paint over, and it was. It occured to me then that the reason I’d had trouble laying down paint the day before might have been because I was trying to use up leftover mixes of paint from the previous day which had probably begun to dry and had become somewhat sticky. Fresh paint would solve that problem.

Secondly, I studied the painting and my reference photos and saw some places where I’d gone wrong in laying in the muscle masses and the scapula.

Thirdly, when I flipped on the easel light, a light bulb went off in my head as well. The highlights on the horse were much brighter under the light than they were when the light was turned off. Since paintings are rarely hung with lights directly on them, I would need to compensate.

After getting out a fresh palette and mixing up fresh paint, I began to make corrections to the horse. The paint went on smoothly and didn’t lift the layer underneath, so I kept going until the neck and shoulder were done to my satisfaction. After dinner, I began painting the head and got as far as the nose band of the halter before quitting for the day.

While I was painting, I thought I was getting this ole work horse show ring shiny, but this morning he is looking dull again. Clearly, more adjustments need to be made, but those can be done when he is dry in another day or two. I’ll just add some bright highlights in a few places and he should come alive again.

The first image above shows the BC view (before corrections), the second is after corrections were made.

I don’t think I’ve said this before, so let me mind my manners and thank each one of you for visiting my blog. I hope that you’ve found it informative and entertaining and will come back again for another visit. Please feel free to leave comments, especially to let me know whether or not you enjoy this blog. I’m always open to constructive feedback.

©Copyright 2009 by Karen Baker Thumm. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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Equine Art- draft horses

December 17th, 2008 | Posted in Sue Steiner

Draft Horses in Oils, work in progress 12 x 18

This team of Belgian draft horses is moving along. I really am enjoying the muscling and shading on these horses. I also realy enjoy the sharp contrast that I am developing between the horse on the rights neck and edge of his face. I like how that shadow will really accentuate his face. The same is true with the horse that is further along on the left. The deep shadow on his neck and shoulder highlight his muscling and the shape of his front end.

I am setting this aside now for the day so I can move on to my elk painting. I intend to bring a burnt sienna glaze over the horse on the left’s shoulder to tie his face in with this part of his body but for this I want the layer of paint down now to be dry. For the most part I have worked wet onto wet but I need to just be patient yet for this next step on him.

To see finished work or to get more info on commissioning me to do a pet or horse portrait go to http://www.suesteiner.com/ Thanks for stopping by!

©Copyright 2008 by Sue Steiner. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Sue Steiner’s website.

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‘Partners’ Belgian Draft Horses

August 27th, 2008 | Posted in Debbie Flood

Watercolor painting of two Belgian draft horses copyright Debbie Flood, all rights reserved.

Here is ‘Partners’. This Draft Horse watercolor painting has just been listed on eBay.

You can find “My eBay World” link in the navigation to the right. All my auction listings are grouped together on that page. These two draft horses enjoy a bit of hay in the evening summer sun. I really enjoy this painting, but I simply cannot keep them all.
Thanks for looking!

~Deb

Debbie Flood, Artist. Equine, Wildlife, and the natural world.

http://www.debfloodart.com

©Copyright 2008 by Debbie Flood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Debbie Flood’s website.

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The other side of creating art, collecting inspiration for free.

June 2nd, 2008 | Posted in Sheona Hamilton-Grant

Would you agree if I said the best things in life are free?

Would you still agree if I went on to say the

best things in life are not things at all?

Today the best thing was equine.My collection of vital reference photographs grew by 300 pics…

A little thing for most people.

For an artist who needs loads of well detailed photographic info as well as home made photos for inspiration it is pretty major.

We went to a small local show.

The weather was good.

The children love horses and are up for anything that allows them to be exuberant lively little girls.

Well by the time we had closed the car doors and had our first peak, they were not the most excited exuberant giggliest wee things there… their mother was like a child in a candy story!

Thrilled to bits…

Cold bloods were lined-up, rustic, unpolished, straight off the farms, out of their fields, foals in tow, the real deal.

Authentic Belgian (Brabant) draught horses.

Heaven…

I had my camera…a full battery, an extra card in the bag, a happy family, sun and amazingly… time.

The fun could begin and did!

3GB of photos were shot.

Photos of horses, big horses, young horses, sleeping horses, rearing horses, ponies,

hairy shetlands….

Photos of dogs, black dogs, hairy dogs, golden dogs, working dogs, little dogs, big dogs, dogs, puppies….

Photos of sheep, woolly sheep, black headed sheep, lambs, lambs in head collars…

The list, much like my enthusiasm, is endless.

This was one of the most rural, authentic and friendly shows I have been to.

In line with the Belgian draught who has a temperament to match its size.

Here are some facts about the authentic Belgian Brabant draught horse:

  • Height 16 hands – 18 hands
  • Colour: bay, brown, grey, red roan black points and chestnut.
  • weight: 2000 pounds (1 ton) (stallions can reach 2400 pds)
  • Kind temperament and easy to handle
  • The worlds largest Belgian draught horse was Brooklyn Supreme 3200pds (1450kg) 19.2 hands.
  • Carried knights into battle in medieval Europe.
  • Belgian heavy draught is one of the strongest breeds.
  • Provided generic material from which nearly all modern draft breeds originate.
  • Belgium exported 75000 horses yearly to other European countries where they were popular as a good strong working horse.
  • The first Belgian exported into the United States was in 1866.
  • Today, America’s favorite draught horse.
  • The last Belgians were transported out of Belgium at the beginning of the Second world War.

Here is a great link to a site dedicated to the Belgian draft horse in America. Here you can find out everything you would like to know: from the history of the breed, what fueled its’ renaissance to why it has become so popular today.

Thanks for popping by.

Time for me now to”organise” all my new collected inspiration.

©Copyright 2008 by Sheona Hamilton Grant. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Sheona Hamilton Grant’s website.

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