Painting Paints and Thinking Twice

"Painted Pony" oil on gesso panel 8x10 (on hold for future show)

A horse is worth more than riches.  Spanish Proverb

Brr…Our warm weather streak came to abrupt end this week. Today, I woke up to several inches of snow which is pretty from a landscape painting perspective but not enjoyable to drive in. 

It’s not going to be easy to get out and about today (I adore my old car Maxine but she’s not very snow worthy) so planning to work on finishing some paintings I started a while back. Do you have a stack of those in your studio? Mine's getting pretty high...

So yesterday I finally put the finishing touches on these daily oil horse painting studies. As a lifelong horse lover and painter, of course I love “paint” horses—How can you resist a horse splashed with color by Mother Nature?  Paint horses are not only valued for their fancy patterns but I’m told are also smart, friendly and wonderful equine companions. I'm always on the lookout for them when I'm out taking photos.

"Sweeter Grass" 8x10 oil  on gesso panel (on hold for future show)

Last week at Jay Moore’s color workshop I took a couple of dozen of pages of notes. A few key guidelines have come to mind while painting this week. One that’s really helped is: 

Think twice, paint once. 

Kind of simple right? But it’s true and it works. The more time you invest up front in a painting the less time you’ll spend correcting, scraping, etc. You’ll absolutely save time in the long run. Plus, you’ll likely craft better brush marks and shapes along the way.

Thanks everyone—I hope you have a safe, colorful and cozy winter week! P.S. You can find out more about my new upcoming painting workshops here.