Painting with Layers of Light

As you might guess, I am as passionate about my love of color as I am horses!

There's just no excuse for muddy colors when you have the whole spectrum of light at your fingertips. The brand I use on silk are the French Sennelier Tin Fix alcohol based dyes. Their pigmentation is so rich, it literally feels like you are painting with light, especially when the transparent sheen of the silk fabric interacts in the finished painting. While they are a little tricky to master, I have found there to be no comparison among other brands I have tried.

I was driving early the other morning, in the general direction of sunrise, and I was struck by the wonderful combination of cloud colors - orange and magenta, against a sky that can only be described as a transparent light with just a tinge of yellow. The sun was just peeking above the treeline. I knew instantly that I had found my color combination for this painting. And, although Stumpy is a chestnut - or sorrel if you prefer, I do not feel limited in my color choices by that. I try to get a sense of "who" the horse is, and what their personality might be like. I love it if the owner shares some of their horse's quirks with me. It's always a pleasure to meet a
new horse and their person! To me, this was a perfect color choice, because Stumpy looks like he's enjoying the ride - and the colors I chose are very uplifting, don't you think?

I usually block in the background first, since I like it very loose. That way, I can make sure that the background is working well, before I move on to the details in the horse, which is where I want the focus to be.

This next image shows the background after it has completely dried and I have begun to lay in the darkest areas. I prefer to work the silk this was, but you can really take any approach you like. Look closely around where the mane is against the sky and you will see the gutta lines I drew on the silk in the beginning - they show up as white. I'll build more into the mane later.

At this stage, I layer on more and more colors, working the balance between the lightest areas and building my darks more. Some areas are very sharply defined . Notice how some areas are more blended than others? All this will change again before the painting is completed. The colors bleed and blend, forming new hues that I use to give the body a rounded, more realistic shading - even though I have made a big departure from natural horse colors!

Next time we get together, the painting will be nearing completion. I spend a lot of time tweaking the final light and dark areas until I feel it is just right - and somehow I just know when that is. The painting practically yells at me to stop, and I've learned the hard way to pay attention to that.

In silk painting, there is still a steam finishing process that changes the colors even more, so you don't fully experience the intensity of colors until the steaming is complete. Sometimes, even I am surprised!