As I was looking for a reference photo of a horse so I could paint him standing in a field of flowers, I came across a painted horse in a perfect pose with a beautiful background. My original idea will still happen, but I just had to paint this beautiful horse. I typically paint white horses, and this guy quickly became quite challenging. He nearly kicked my butt. I actually gave up – maybe not completely but at least for the moment. There was a tiny bit of a slam of my clipboard which holds my watercolor paper as I rested my chin in my hands feeling very discouraged. It’s true I don’t paint like I used to. I don’t have as much time with a full-time job and managing 2 shops and quite a few shows. I finally had an opportunity to sit down and paint only to feel like it was defeating me.
My almost 12-year-old son (who wants to be an artist) was painting nearby and was witness to this frustration. “I’m just disappointed because it’s not meeting my expectations.” He came over to stand beside me offering a side hug with advice similar to what I had just given to him not an hour before. It went something like, “Just because you don’t like a painting doesn’t mean someone else might not love it. Doing art isn’t about getting frustrated but having fun. If it’s good enough to sell you sell it. If you don’t think it’s good enough, then you keep it for yourself. Not every painting has to be sold.” He paused before adding with a smile, “I basically just repeated what you told me earlier, but I changed it a little.”
That was all I needed. I thanked him and was able to finish the painting. The title of this painting came from the challenge he was to paint. Below is “The Challenger”. 🥰
The Challenger
The background was going to be bokeh but it just wasn’t working so I went back to my predictable textured background instead.
I paint many, many birds so I don’t have a lot of experience with horses. I find their elongated faces a challenge to get proportionally right; and combined with the pose of this horse did not help.
In the end, it turned out much better than I anticipated and I’m so glad I stuck with it.
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