Blossom

Medium: Acrylic

Paper: Stretched Canvas

Size: 40 × 50cm (20in x 16in)
Duration: 10 hours

Heres is my second horse in acrylic, I started this yesterday morning and finished it this afternoon. For the reference I used one of the many photos I was lucky to take last Saturday when I visited the Marshall Meadows Farm just past Berwick-upon-Tweed. John and Christine Fairburn, breed shires and have several on their land and show them off pulling a wagon at various agricultural shows and fairs around the North-East.

I spent a wonderful afternoon getting up close to these magnificent beasts, they didn’t take too well to me clicking my camera, but within 15-20 minutes their curiosity got the better of them, and the all wanted their pictures, taken, pushing and nudging each other to get in closer. I couldn’t believe how many shots I too (over 600) I reckon I’ve got enough to keep me painting shires for quite a wee while LOL.

I spent the first day painting just the background, I painted the entire canvas and wasn’t happy till I achieved some kind of depth of field, with the fields fading away (it was that kind of day). When my daughter Jasmine (8yrs) asked why I painted an empty field, I just told her the horse ran off.

I found the second day’s painting was really intense, you forget where time goes, and when your done you can’t quite realise you’ve just spent about 8 hours solid painting!

This Shire horse is one of four similar coloured and still had it’s winter coat, which I think looks great and natural, but I’ll be back when they are all groomed for showing in the summer.

Anywhoo hope you like my second attempt at equestrian art (see even a heathen like me can learn the right words!)

White Horse - Ziggy

Medium: Acrylic
Paper: Stretched canvas board
Size: 30” x 40”
Duration: 12 hours

This is a painting I’ve just recently completed of a beautiful white horse (pretty obvious I know) in acrylic, the painting took me 12 hours over three days. As the reference source for my painting, I was lucky enough to get the kind permission of a local photographer, David Parkin to use some of his great photos of horses he had taken (Thanks David).

I really love this painting and keep returning to look at it, not only because it is a truly magnificent animal, but I also loved the challenged of painting this scene for two reasons. The first it was the biggest painting I’ve ever done, and if that wasn’t challenging enough I loved the POV (point of view) of the person looking up from the ground at the horse just over the brow of a hill.