Just Chillin'

Just Chillin"
pastel on black card stock
copyright
Jan Gibson

I haven't been doing much in the way of my own art recently but had to paint this little one. I was in the pet store where I buy dog food and a couple came in with two Papillons and this little 10-week old Chihuahua puppy. All of the dogs were soooo cute that I just wanted to eat them up! I got permission to photograph all the dogs and plan to paint each of them eventually.

This puppy really got to me though, and even being busier than a one-armed paper hanger, I did this quick painting. I wish I'd done it on something other than black stock though. I just couldn't cover the black paper well enough to suit me so I may re-paint this at another time.

The puppy's name is Tia and she was dressed in a tiny pink hoodie and held close to her owner for warmth. I had to take some artistic license as a hand covered most of her body in the photo so I wrapped her in a blanket instead of the little shirt she was actually wearing.

Although I really love all kinds of animals, especially dogs, I'm not usually so taken with one. This little girl was certainly the exception! Hope you all enjoy her too.

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)!