"Close Approach"

6"x8"

Oil on Board

$100 plus $10 domestic s/h

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I haven't done a rodeo painting for awhile and enjoyed this.  One thing I really like about doing them is working with subjects in motion.  It's interesting to me how I can see my work changing in this, much looser.  For the past few years, brights have been my brush of choice, but now am branching out and adding rounds and filberts to my bag of tricks!.  Back in the 90's I went through a long period when only flats would do!

"Faster, Faster!" (sold)

6"x6"

Here's a barrel-racer from a rodeo I went to this summer. I really liked the sense of motion that she and her horse conveyed and I tried to keep this loose so it didn't look so frozen in time.

"Around the Barrel" (sold)

6"x6"

Oil on Gessoboard

$100 plus $10 domestic s/h

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This ended up being alot of fun to paint. The photo isn't so great, I'll have to replace this tomorrow. This painting, like many I've been working on lately, is the limited palette again. I think there's a challenge to see if I can get the color I want, or something. At any rate, I love the simplicity of using just a few colors. I appreciate the comments about yesterday's post regarding needing stronger reading glasses! Thanks! It's good to know I'm in good company!

I have been using some new brushes lately. I love it when they are fresh and hold their shape! These are Isabey Isacryl brights. I have used Winsor Newton Monarchs and Galleria brushes and really like those, but I'm thinking I may have found "my" brush! One of the catalogs I saw them in said they "wear like iron". I hope it's true!

"Barrel Racer" (sold)

6"x6"

Oil on Gessoboard

Another painting for the Ranch Life and Rodeo Show. I have a love/hate relationship with this painting! I am fine with how it turned out, but got so frustrated while doing a little painting of this subject!! Just kind of tired of little brush strokes, etc. It is good for me in that it is making me rethink the kind of subjects I want to do--or at least HOW I want to do them--for this small format. I love working with this size, but there is definitely an art of doing so!

Painting in Process--Barrel Racer (sold)

12"x12"

Oil on Board

Unfinished

I've been invited to exhibit some paintings in a show about "ranch life and rodeo", so am needing to concentrate on that for a bit. It feels great to revisit the subject. This painting is of a barrel racer. In this competition, there's three barrels positioned in a triangle in the arena and the riders are timed as they ride close and fast around each barrel and back to the starting line. It's a test of horsemanship and the agility of the horse and is mostly done by women. At least some rodeo events are obvious offshoots of the work that cowboys do, so I wonder about this one. I haven't found any information about the origin of barrel racing, but I wonder if the contest might have come about as a reflection of the skills needed by horses when they are cutting cattle. Hope to finish this tomorrow!

"Ride On!" (sold)

6"x8"
Oil on Board

One of the joys of doing these little paintings has been working with these rodeo scenes--I'd done a couple before last October, but was pretty intimidated by them, actually! I really like working with motion and trying to imply the action and it's interesting to me to see how my brushwork and treatment of different areas of the paintings has changed over the course of doing this blog. It's kind of funny to me, too, because I hadn't been to a rodeo in at least 25 years and I have always been allergic to horses, so never have spent time riding! That may have to change. . .

"Waiting Her Turn"

6"x6"

Oil on Board

$100 plus $10 US s/h

She's waiting for her turn at barrel-racing at the Sisters (OR) Rodeo. I posted a painting here of this subject on Feb. 12 which I actually painted last summer. I was curious just to see how my technique would be different after all these months and quite a few paintings. It's gratifying to see that there are changes! Hopefully for the best!

A note: I have been trying all afternoon to figure out how to get the Paypal buttons on some of these paintings--sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't! If not you can always email me to purchase through Paypal, but I hope to have this figured out soon!

"Barrel Racer" (sold)

6"x6"
Oil on Board


Another painting from the rodeo--these women are amazing to watch as they speed around three barrels as fast as they can and how they and their horses are so much one unit!

Backgrounds in these paintings mystify me. I think if I wanted, I could do a fairly realistic rendering of them, but I need to explore being alot looser than that! I'm enjoying these challenges.