From the artist's desk... 

Happy New Year!  After taking a break over the holidays, I am feeling refreshed and ready to get on board with some new projects!  I've also finished a major portrait project that began in September, and that is what I'd like to share with you today.

I photographed Katie, an award-winning dressage rider, together with Bogota, her beautiful Oldenburg mare, at the end of September when the evening Texas light was perfect.  I would love to have started the painting from life, but when working with animals I'm usually forced to use photographic reference.  I try not to work from one specific shot, since I'm not going for photorealism, but rather for the perfect artistic composition that says the most about the subject.  After taking over 400 photographs, I took my camera back to my studio and began to narrow down the choices.  I used Photoshop to splice images together.  For example, Bogota tended to have her ears down in many of the photos, so I was able to swap out her "unhappy" ears for perkier ones.  I eventually narrowed the potential poses down to four or five and prepared a very large canvas, 48" x 30", with high-quality stretcher bars and fine-textured portrait linen.  The original pose that I chose was full-length, under the pretense that a formal pose with her riding gear and boots might be dynamic and more impressive.  However, halfway through I decided to make a radical change and go back to the pose I originally liked - a three-quarter length pose of Katie giving Bogota a hug.  This composition is much more emotional and draws the viewer into an intimate moment between horse and rider.  I painted over the entire canvas, with the exception of some of the trees in the background (see my blog for more images of what the painting looked like before!).

 

"Katie and Bogota" - 48" x 30" - oil on linen
 

I'm extremely happy with the finished portrait of Katie and Bogota - in some respects, the layers of extra paint now hidden beneath the final painting add a great quality and texture to it.  There are very thick applications of white and blue, especially in the background and parts of Katie's hair, while detailed areas such as the face and hands are painted with thin glazes and delicate brush strokes.  I believe I've captured my focal point in this painting: Katie's expressive face and hands tell all about the emotional connection between horse and rider. 

If you are looking to capture a similar relationship on canvas, whether it be with a loved one or a pet, perhaps 2010 is your year to commission a portrait.  Give it some thought -
I'll be here. 
 
Sincerely,
Anna Rose Bain