Cowboys and Miniatures are like peas and carrots...

Saddlin' Up, 11X14, oil on linen panel

Hi Everybody,
This painting is of a Texas Cowboy. After lunch he's ready to get back out to finish the day's work. It's a simple scene, with a simple story. But those are the one's I seem to gravitate to. Nothing preachy or profound or political. Just regular people going about their business. Of course, when I try to saddle up, my horse jigs and dances all over the place. Cow horses have a lot more training than the one's I get to ride. Or maybe it's just user error (more likely).

In this sun drenched painting, there is light bouncing all over the place. It really does hurt your eyes when you are actually on site. So it's important to paint reflected light, but not to paint it so brightly that it competes with the sunlit areas. I used to paint the reflected light too bright and wondered why things were out of whack. After all, if a little is good, then a lot must be better, right? Always control and compare your values and you won't have to regret (or repaint) it later.

I'm going through this stage where I'm finding that I enjoy painting the miniatures more than I enjoy doing the larger paintings. Although, I really like how the larger paintings look when they're done and hanging on a wall. There is much more enjoyment for me to paint something quickly and see it come together. It must be AADD, Artist Attention Deficit Disorder.

I'll be visiting Alaska to see family, and will be bringing my paintbox to finally get out of the studio and get some location work done! I expect to do a lot of scraping. I'll post anything that makes it past my palette knife.

Thanks for lookin', Steve