"Morning's Kiss" (with reference photos and video!)

 

 

"Morning's Kiss" (pastel, 18x24 inches) $1750. Now available at Art Connections Gallery. 

I caught the reference photo of this mama and baby longhorn on one of my trips out to Round Top Texas to the Gallery there (sadly, now closed.) I'm always excited to find beautiful animals showing affection with one another. 

 

 original reference photo

 

 edited reference photo

 

This pastel painting has been featured in a couple of my Virtual Open Studio days. All in all, this painting took about 13-15 hours from start to finish. 

 

Here is a short 8 minute compilation video showing a choice selection of bits from the start to finish process of this painting:

 

You can watch almost the entire process through this series of videos on my Patreon page (the real-time videos, with narration and live Q&A, available to my Patreon subscribers at the Bunny Buddies and Moo-tastic Muses levels.)

The Underpainting, first part:  https://www.patreon.com/posts/early-of-baby-39533044 (speed demo - free) 

The Underpainting, second part: https://www.patreon.com/posts/39459487  

The Pastel, part 1:  https://www.patreon.com/posts/virtual-open-3-1-39556181 

The Pastel, part 2: https://www.patreon.com/posts/39564539

The Pastel Finish: https://www.patreon.com/posts/mornings-kiss-40668895 (speed demo - free)

"Winter/Spring"

"Winter/Spring" (pastel, 10x22 inches) $980

I just love how white wooly sheep look in late sunlight. This is my 4th or 5th medium/large sheep painting, all from the same "photo shoot" of a beautiful herd that I discovered on the way home from somewhere a few years ago. It was abut 5 o'clock and the light was fantastic, and the sheep were a wonderful mix of young and old, shorn and thickly unshorn. I must have taken over a hundred photos as they milled about. Sometimes I'll use various photos for my compositions, but these two happened to be standing next to each other just like this when I snapped the photo.

I loved the contrast of shapes and the challenge of using an even number of subjects in a composition.  I decided to crop it long and narrow to fit this gold frame. 

This one will be going to the Art Connections Gallery in La Grange Texas on Friday for my featured wall this month. I'm so excited to have been found by this gallery right after the Gallery at Round Top had closed. Serendipity!

You can see me working through most of the pastel process of these sheep (in real-time) in this post on my Patreon page (the Bunny Buddies level.)