patricia jane renwick

Made a little more progress on my polo pony Thursday and Friday, building up the layers and adding more detail, though to be honest I'm trying not to get too fussy with detail.  It's difficult, as I find the horse's form, the sheen of the coat, the muscle and bone, so fascinating.

I'm trying to get color into the shadowed areas too, because if you look really closely, there are so many variations.  It's not just brown or grey, which is what you see at first glance, there's warm and cool areas, which translate into color.  There's quite a lot of information if you look for it.  I use a lot of purple and blue in these areas, as I often do in my paintings.  I love pure color.  I think that's part of learning to be a better artist - seeing things that others can't, and translating that to canvas in a way that's appealing to the eye and makes sense.

I've also decided to keep the background red.  I got hung up on the background with my first polo pony painting, and going on advice from an artist friend, think it's best to just leave the background essentially blank so it doesn't distract from the subject.  I actually always start my paintings with a red-orange base coat to give my paintings warmth, but in this case, I think it really accentuates the horse and provides added vibrancy.  I've always been fond of red in my paintings.