Sunday, October 26, 2008

Spirit Horse?

"Back to the Wind"
pastel on black stock
copyright Jan Gibson

I seem to have done several things in the past few days that are pretty much out of the norm for me. The first is the pastel painting of the horse shown above which just about painted itself. It also broke the artistic slump I've been in for some time for which I'm very grateful!

I posted this painting at one of my art forums and one responder said that it made her feel slightly disturbed because it looked ghost-like. I guess the translucent quality of the painting might give that impression but it was never intended to do so.

I think it came out this way because I'd been looking at photos trying to spark an interest in painting again and had found a bunch of carousel horse photos. None really moved me to paint them though.

Then, I've been spending a lot of time with my own horse as she evidently got tangled in a fence as her front legs are cut just above the hooves. She also was limping slightly on a rear leg probably as the result of the same incident. So, she's been receiving treatments to the cuts several times a day and I've also had to give her "horse aspirin" and a powdered antibiotic both of which she hates and refuses to take no matter how well hidden they are. As you can imagine, she's been on my mind a lot.

I think the carousel horse photos plus being with Bonnie so much merged in my mind to become the above painting. A blend of reality and fantasy. It's also similar to the painting of the dog, Lucky, that I posted here some time ago. Maybe that's the direction my art is supposed to take as both paintings came quickly and naturally to me. However, only certain subjects lend themselves well to this style and I think I'd get bored very quickly if it's all I ever painted!

Oh, well, enjoy the horse - perhaps there will be more in this style in the future (or maybe there won't)!





2 comments:

Christine Perry | Graphite Art said...

I think this is gorgeous and wonderfully creative! Just love it!
I am very sorry to hear that Bonnie got hurt, and hope that she will be better again soon!

Jan said...

Thanks, Christine,

I'm glad you like it. Bon is doing much better and the cuts are somewhat superficial anyway. I'm just sort of overprotective sometimes and feel it's better to be safe than sorry.

She's very level-headed and I'm sure she had enough smarts not to struggle to get out of the fence. My farrier was out soon after the incidence and he said it looked as if she had skidded into the fence instead of putting her feet into it.

Anyway. I'm glad you stopped by and liked the horse. Maybe I can get some painting done now! lol