Draft Nap Gold

I love painting white/ gray horses. I can see so many colors in a white horse. But when I painted this draft, for some reason I approached him with a solid white,very graphic,and not shadowed at all. With a gold background and his bed of gold and yellow hay, I wanted to "keep it simple".

Years ago [it seems, in another life] I drew fashion illustrations, wrote a fashion article about what was "in" on the fashion scene in Italy. Now a days, one would find me in jeans, covered with hay, dog hair and paint. I would not change a thing about my life....and my training in fashion, in illustration and commercial art often colors my work that I produce today. My painting animals is a far cry from the fashion world.........but I love it here on our tiny farm that feeds my muse each day.

This 16 x 20" mixed media painting, titled "Draft Nap Gold" will be put up on my website.

New Work Started or "Sunday go to Meeting"

My mother hated to get dressed up. I think I got my aversion to dressing up from her. I will go to extremes to get out of putting on a dress. And can you believe it that I used to do fashion illustration and wrote a fashion article for an American newspaper when I lived in Italy?

But now my life is simple....and on the farm, jeans are the fashion statement of my day.

This painting I am working on now is of my Mom and her big sister...all dressed-up, getting ready to go somewhere..maybe to church? I have done a quick pen and ink sketch of this scene and gone into it with a watery casein wash to get an idea of values. I am working on Crescent illustration Board, a favourite of mine for a support. I am thinking of maybe staying with casein for the first layer..and maybe will finish up with oil ...or maybe tempera.......so many choices will work with this board.