Painting Debuts

New Painting Debut! “Rocky Perch (Siberian Ibex Kid)”

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Rocky Perch (Siberian Ibex Kid) 12x9" oil
Rocky Perch (Siberian Ibex Kid) 12×9″ oil

I got hundreds of great photos of ibex at Ikh Nart last year. I’ve done some drawings to familiarize myself with what they look like and how they are put together. You can see those here. This is the first painting I’ve finished, a 12×9″ of a kid who was part of a small group I watched for over half an hour one morning. They were up in the rocks at the far end of the valley where the research camp is located, so an easy hike with great rewards.

Here’s a photo of the setting, which includes the nanny who, as you can see, is wearing a radio collar. The morning light was really lovely.

Ikh Nart 2012

New Painting Debut! “Cashmere Goat, Mongolia” And A Workshop Announcement

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"Cashmere Goat, Mongolia" oil 16x16"
“Cashmere Goat, Mongolia” oil 16×16″

The cashmere goats of Mongolia come in all sizes, colors and horn styles, but the super-soft undercoat wool from which the world’s finest cashmere is made is always the same neutral color.

This handsome billy was one of a large herd I spotted from the ger camp at Arburd Sands last year. They were grazing their way home in great late afternoon light so I grabbed my camera, caught up with them and followed along for awhile to the sounds of munching and bleating.

My big news is that in June I will be teaching a three-hour workshop “I Got In!” How To Enter Juried Art Shows” through Eureka Art Studios in Eureka, California. You can find out more and register here. As you will see, space is limited, so sign up soon!

New Painting Debut! “Bactrian Camel, Mongolia”

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Bactrian Camel, Mongolia oil 12x16"
Bactrian Camel, Mongolia oil 12×16″

I spent most of a morning this past August sketching and photographing a herd of domestic bactrian camels who had wandered near the Arburd Sands ger camp where I was staying. I remembered this white female because she was the subject of one of my first camel paintings “Done for the Day”, which was the first painting I’d ever had accepted into the Society of Animal Artists’ juried exhibition “Art and the Animal”. And there she was again, looking as beautiful as ever in the morning light.

Bactrian camels, including my model, at Arburd Sands
Bactrian camels, including my model, at Arburd Sands

And here she was in 2008 in great late afternoon light. She has a calf this year, too. And I plan to do a painting of the two of them at some point.

Done for the Day oil 17x30"
Done for the Day oil 17×30″

It’s pretty amazing to be able to go back to a place and recognize individuals that one has seen before. But she has a way about her and was leading the rest of the camels as they came towards me. Her white coloring also stands out.

New Painting Debut! “Ikh Nart Argali-

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Ikh Nart Argali: Morning Stretch
Ikh Nart Argali: Morning Stretch  oil  16×20″

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New Painting Debut! “Ikh Nart Argali-Cautious And Curious”

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Ikh Nart Argali: Cautious and Curious
Ikh Nart Argali: Cautious and Curious  oil  20×30″

This is the second, and largest, of the three argali paintings I’ve just finished. You can see the first one here. I’ll post the third one next Friday.

I spent over an hour watching these rams at Ikh Nartiin Chuluu Nature Reserve in 2010. And sometimes they watched me. But mostly they grazed, scratched, rested and did a little pre-rut testing.

One of the things I wanted to capture in this painting is how individual they all are, being different colors depending on their ages and having horns of various sizes and condition. It was a group of five and these were the three big boys, fully mature males, who probably weigh over 300 pounds each. Behind two of them is one of the younger rams,

New Painting Debut! “Ikh Nart Argali: Heading To Water”

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Ikh Nart Argali: Heading for Water oil 16x20"
Ikh Nart Argali: Heading for Water oil 16×20″

It’s been an intense two weeks since I decided to do a series of three argali paintings at the same time. My idea was to enter all three in a particular juried show, with the hope that maybe all three will get in because they will look good together on the wall. Will it work? Who knows? It was a good experience and something I haven’t tried before. It made sense to work back and forth on all of them since it was the same group of rams in the same light and location, so I was using the same colors.

I think I’m a little “argalied” out at the moment, so I’ll be moving on to some other pieces that I already have in progress, but I feel like I’m off to a good start for 2013.

New Painting Debut! “Mongol Horse Foals”

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I saw these lovely foals in the same group of horses that this painting came from. They were very unsure of a strange person and stayed close to the adults, but were still curious about me.

I started this painting with my new step of doing a pencil drawing at the final size first, tracing it and then doing a graphite transfer to the RayMar canvas board. My purpose was to solve any drawing problems, get the correct placement in the space and indicate the basic value pattern.

Foals 1

Once the drawing was transferred to the board, which had been previously toned with a wash of raw sienna to knock back the white, I re-stated the drawing with a brush, refining and correcting as I worked. This step was also done with raw sienna.

Foals 2

The next step was to indicate the shapes of the shadows in a dark value. I mixed a warm brownish-purple for this.

Foals 3

Then I started to lay in color, bringing up the shadows to a higher key since the foals were in really nice morning light.

Foals 4

The finished painting “Mongol Horse Foals” 14×18″  oil

Foals 5

Here’s the reference photo. I punched up the intensity of the color, as you can see, and left out all the other horses since the painting was about these two and their connection with each other.

Hustai to Arburd Sands

New Painting Debut! “Mongol Horse #9- Friends”

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Mongol Horse #9- Friends
Mongol Horse #9- Friends  18×24″  oil

I’ve been having fun painting Mongol horses. This and the previous one, which you can see here, were started  before my latest trip to Mongolia.

The reference photo was shot at the beginning of my 2011 trip with fellow artist Pokey Park. We had spent a few days in Hustai National Park photographing and observing takhi. Now we were on our way south. We had left the park and were driving to the only bridge for many miles that crosses the Tuul Gol, traveling along an upland area that overlooked the river valley.

Hustai to Arburd Sands The rocks on the right are part of a complex of Turkic graves, which are quite interesting. But not nearly as interesting to me as the herd of horses that were behind me when I took the above photo.

Hustai to Arburd SandsIt was August and there were a lot of flies. The horses were constantly circling, trying to get their heads as far into the middle of the group as possible. But they knew I was there and every once and awhile some would stop and look at me, which is when I got the reference photo I used for the painting.

Hustai to Arburd SandsI liked the contrast of color and head position of these two, so I cut out everyone else. The twisted blue khadag around the neck of the brown horse was a nice extra.

New Painting Debut! “Mongol Horse #8-Watching You”

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Mongol Horse #8-Watching You  oil  12×24″

We were driving on an upland area overlooking the Tuul Gol one morning in 2011 and saw a herd of horses right by the road. Photo time. They were circling and circling, all trying to get their heads into the middle of the group to keep the flies off, but sometimes for a very short time some would stop and see what I was doing. That’s when I snapped this photo. I simplified it by removing some parts of other horses so that the center of interest would that line of heads. I really liked the pattern and rhythm of their overlapping forms. And then there was the foal as a bonus.