I am finally catching up to date with my blog posts, just a few more to do now:) This is Ralphie, the first pet portrait I have painted in my “Inspire me to Paint” series.
Ralphie - Pet Portrait ©2010 Michelle Wrighton
I can’t help myself, I take thousands of photographs of everything around me, both for reference material for my artwork and because my camera is just another medium to create art. I don’t always have time to go through all my photos and select my favorites to display, but the other day I realized that my photography galleries were very outdated and thought I had better add some new ones. This is just a few of the new additions, the rest rest can be seen in the Landscape and Animal& Wildlife Photography Galleries. These photos were all taken within a short distance of my home, except the Tawny Frogmouth which was found a little further south. Enjoy!
Harvest Landscape © 2010 Michelle Wrighton | South West Photography
Sunset Silhouette © 2010 Michelle Wrighton | South West Photography
Long Shadows © 2010 Michelle Wrighton | South West Photography
Dark Sky © 2010 Michelle Wrighton | South West Photography
Up Close and Personal - Tawny Frogmouth © 2010 Michelle Wrighton | South West Photography
I was a very good little blogger and had this post of a black and tan Saluki Dog that I drew in graphite all ready to post a day or so after my lamb drawing. However, life was turned upside down when my little girl was involved in a serious horse riding accident. She was rushed by air to Princess Margaret Hospital in Perth by the Royal Fying Doctor Service and underwent emergency surgery in the middle of the night. It will take time, but she was extremely lucky and should make a full recovery (LOL and now that she is starting to feel better she is quite happy to have an extra few weeks off school;).
My intention over the past few weeks with getting my new studio sorted out was to start promoting my commission work and start taking pet portrait commissions again. However the timing of this accident has giving me time to think about both the past and the future. I have realized that there have been so many similar situations over the years that has made working to deadlines for commissions very stressful and at time simply beyond reasonable possibility. This has caused additional stress that my family and I really don’t need while dealing with long term serious health issues that on many occasions over the last seven years have been life threatening.
I have looked back at the last few years and have reassessed my future plans for my art. I realize that the last 12 months of painting digitally and my recent graphite drawings that I have created for myself from whatever has inspired me has been wonderfully enjoyable stress-free therapy. Given my personal circumstances, the happiness and ‘time out’ that my artwork brings me is something that I desperately need to retain for my own sanity and health. So by posting this, I am publicly giving myself permission to just enjoy my art, to experiment and create whatever inspires me in which ever medium I feel like using, without the need to be concerned that the end result will meet anyone elses expectations. For a commissions artist, that thought is quite a liberating one!
Saluki Dog graphite drawing by Michelle Wrighton ©2010
Another graphite sketch, this is Lucky Baa, our first Dorper lamb. Baa was also the first ‘pet’ lamb that we have had to bring inside and bottle feed for the first few days as the poor little tyke broke his right front leg. Apparently its not uncommon for the mother to step on the lamb and break its leg, which is what we suspect happened with Baa. We made up an assortment of leg splints from carpet and pvc piping cut in half and wrapped the leg with vet wrap and kept changing the splint as he grew. Having a splinted leg certainly dosn’t stop him from doing anything the other lambs are doing!
Dorper Lamb graphite drawing
Well I tried very hard to get into my studio to start a painting, but with school holidays, kids, horses, sheep dogs and an assortment of others things (including my little studio laptop that I use to display reference photos dying unexpectedly) I haven’t made it into the studio to actually paint. The website re-design is also taking up some time, but once that is ready my website will revert back to being a full ‘static’ website with this blog part of the website.
In between everything else, I have managed a couple of graphite sketches to help me get back into the swing of things. I was a bit rusty at first as I haven’t done any graphite work for a couple of years, but these sketches have reminded me why I love graphite so much. I have deliberately created these as sketches rather than detailed photorealistic drawings and have found that not focusing on achieving strict photorealism has made the process so much more enjoyable and I can definitely see myself doing a lot more work that while still realistic is looser and more expressive that the traditional work I have created in the past. LOL I am sure that being able to start and finish a drawing within five hours instead of slaving over it for 50 hours is partly why I enjoyed it more!
Border Collie puppy graphite drawing on A4 drafting film by Michelle Wrighton
If you would like to commission a graphite sketch in this style of your own Border Collie, dog, cat, horse or other pet please contact me to discuss your requirements.
I’m currently in the process of setting up my new studio gallery:) Seeing as I have not yet formally ‘moved in’ and started painting, I thought it would be a good idea to post some photos before I start and it develops into messy disorganized chaos (LOL I’m sure most artists reading this will chuckle as ‘messy studio syndrome’ is a condition that seems to afflict many of us;).
I know that I am beyond lucky to have a dedicated, completely self contained studio gallery less than 200 metres from my home…even more so because I have stunning views right from my studio window as well as a verandah that will be perfect for painting plein air landscapes:)
The gallery won’t actually be open to the public for a while as most of my artwork was sold before we moved from the city so I need to get busy and build up an inventory of paintings!
My art studio gallery
Front View of studio
Partial view from my studio
Right Hand corner
Drafting table and computer table...minus the computer
Left hand side
Living in a rural area provides me with a never ending supply of subject matter to photograph and paint. Over the last few months, I’ve been able to obtain some beautiful reference photos of the calves and lambs on nearby farms, as well as many of our own Dorper sheep and our first lot of six lambs. This one was painted before calving season started, but the expression on this little guys face depicts the curiosity of cows perfectly.
I think cows may be as curious as cats, maybe even more so. Usually when I walk up to them with my camera they all run off a short distance then turn and look back at me. Then there will always be one cow that has to come straight back to find out who I am and what I am doing and this one gives courage to the rest of them:)
This is another digital painting created using Painter XI and a Wacom Intuos 4 drawing tablet.
South west baby cow painting
The step by step image below shows how I develop the painting from the initial sketch, the colours I use in the underpainting and how the painting is built up in semi transparent glazes to create depth and texture. I paint swatches of the colours I am using onto the background so that it is easy for me to pick up the correct base colour which I then lighten/darken as required. I use a variety of different brushes and ‘digital’ mediums when I paint digitally, this was done a while ago I can’t remember which specific brushes I used, but I usually swap and change between oils, acrylics and pastels depending on what I am trying to achieve. This is *not* something that you can do with traditional art mediums, although you can certainly mix mediums, there are specific processes required to ensure the stability of the painting such as oils over acrylic rather than the other way round.
Although I find it easy to paint very realistic details, creating a more ‘painterly’ image that I am happy with is more of a challenge. I have exactly the same problem with painting in traditional paints and drawing with graphite or colour pencils, but digital painting has finally given me the opportunity to experiment with creating images that are less photo-realistic than most of my previous artwork. Its a very refreshing change, and probably part of the reason that I enjoy digital painting so much.
step by step animal painting
Gifts for cow lovers, prints and other merchandise featuring ‘South West Calf’ are now available for purchase from the Farm Animal Section on my Zazzle giftshop.
I am slowly resigning myself to the idea that the ‘challenges’ of country wireless internet means I can’t necessarily update my blog whenever its suitable to me and that blog posts are probably better late than never. So in that spirit, this is an older digital painting of Annabelle, a black Standard Poodle, with a step by step progress image to show how the painting was created.
Black Standard Poodle Pet Portrait Painting
Although painted digitally using my Intuos 4 drawing tablet and ‘digital’ paintbrush, I develop the painting digitally just like I do when painting or drawing with traditional art mediums. I sketch the subject, and then start adding colour by blocking in the main shapes and values (shadows and highlights), and ‘glaze’ with varying degrees of transparent colour to create depth and form. Finally the details are added to complete the painting.
Painting in Progress images Black Standard Poodle
If you would like to commission a portrait of your poodle or other pet in traditional oil paints, graphite/charcoal or a digital painting such as this one, please contact me to discuss your requirements.
The 10th Light Horse Bunbury Troop also put on a riding and Tent Pegging display at the Dardanup Heavy Horse Show at Heritage Park. Although Tent Pegging originated as a Military maneuver in which cavalry soldiers would gallop through enemy camps, using their lances and swords to remove tent pegs to collapse tents and cause confusion in order to gain the upper hand in a surprise attack. Over time, tent pegging was used as a cavalry drill for weapons practice and as part of Military tournaments and competitions. The Australian State Mounted Police also used Tent Pegging for demonstrations of their riding skills, but it was not until 1964 that the first Australian civilian tent pegging team was formed. This equestrian sport was recognized Internationally in 1982, and International competitions are now conducted by the Federation Equestre International.
If you would like more information about the equestrian sport of Tent Pegging, please visit the Australian Tent Pegging Association website for more information.
LEST WE FORGET
Today was a rather auspicious day – its been a long time coming, but I am very excited to finally be setting up my studio gallery:) I had planned to just move the boxes in, but got a little carried away and started unpacking everything. I felt like a kid at Christmas unpacking all of my art supplies, books and art magazines – many of which I havn’t seen for well over 18 months! My mind is racing with all the things that I want to paint and draw, I really don’t know where to start first – oils, acrylics, colour pencils or something in graphite. I’d really like to have a go at some plein air oil paintings – all I have to do is step outside my studio for inspiration in every direction, from the beautiful landscape to the baby lambs and calves that are being born on all the farms around here – including ours, but thats a subject for another post, as I really need to catch up on posts that I meant to add last week but ran out of time to!
Following on from my last post with photos of the Clydesdales from the Dardanup Heritage Park Heavy Horse Show, I thought I would share some of the photos of the Team Australia Liberty Horse display performed by brother and sister team, Sam and Sasha Watson from Horses and Horsemen.
The performance shows the willingness, agility, intelligence and responsiveness of these magnificent animals and the incredible relationship that can be created between man and horse. The display involved a number of different and often very difficult maneuvers, with the liberty horses following instruction and direction from voice and subtle body language cues. What I found most amazing and awe inspiring was the willingness and enjoyment all the horses displayed, they were clearly enjoying the performance as much as the audience was, even the six month old weanlings were eager and willing to perform even with the noise and distraction of the large crowd and bright orange safety fences!
I was specifically taking photos for reference material for future paintings (and have already flagged a number of shots that are going to make a wonderful new series of paintings) but here are a few shots of the performance which I can *highly* recommend as a must see for anyone who loves horses!
Team Australia Liberty Horse display
Team Australia Liberty Horse Display
Team Australia Nine Horse Liberty Display
Team Australia Two by Two Liberty Horse Display
Liberty Horse Display
Roman Riding Liberty Horse display
Next post will include some photos from the tent pegging display by 10th Light Horse Bunbury Troop.
