Monday, April 19, 2010

Horse!

For a while now, I've been expanding my painting territory to include wildlife art, mostly focusing on wolves. At the suggestion of Scott Usher at Greenwich Workshop, I've decided to try out painting some horses. It's interesting--I miss painting the fur that wolves have, but the muscularity of the horse, being similar to a muscular human, really appeals to me. Good thing I don't need to choose between horses and wolves--there's plenty of paint for both of them!
--Julie

18 comments:

Unknown said...

a little off topic here, but was he by any chance Scott Usher the swimmer? it would be nice to know theres other fellow swimmers who are also interested in painting haha

Julie Bell said...

No, different guy! I knew that name sounded familiar!

Rty said...

Absolutely beautiful Julie as U may remember animals are my favourite subject I like to draw and paint and as usual you have out shone my work luv... not that i'm bitter or anything hehe...
only joking you have proven again what an amazing artist you are...

Joe Jusko said...

Geez, Julie, that's just spectacular!

Boża Siłaczka said...

niesamowicie wyszedł ten koń! Jest boski.

Julie Bell said...

Wow! Thanks for all the kind words!

Shany said...

Looks good! Keep it up!!

Chrissie A said...

Simply gorgeous work on this! (And something I wasn't expecting when I dropped by to see what's new today!)

beataalfa said...

This horse look better than in real!

Jennifer G. Oliver said...

He looks just like my sister's old thoroughbred Mr. Buckeye! You've captured the lighting. anatomy and textures perfectly Julie-I can almost feel his velvety nose and warm skin. :-)

Julie Bell said...

I'm so glad you all like this painting! Jen, this horse also looks just like one of the horses my sisters and I had--April. That darn horse actually kicked me and broke my jaw when I was 16! That pretty much sucked. She was a crazy kicker, but she was really pretty.

Anwar Allie said...

Wow!!!!

Jaime Gervais said...

What a beautiful painting. You really captured the subtleties of the short, silken fur. The textured background and foreground is a nice balance with the soft details of the face. The palette is beautiful - very complimentary on the color scale! I'm just amazed. You are so skilled and talented. Wonderful job, Mrs. Bell! :D

Jennifer G. Oliver said...

Ouch! A broken jaw? I've had mine wired shut for months at a time; no fun at all. That had to hurt, but thankfully you can't tell that you've ever had an encounter with a kicker now!

Julie Bell said...

Thanks Anwar Allie and NomadSoul! I've been thinking a lot lately about the use of variation in texture and color in the same way one uses variation in values from dark to light--to add depth and life to the painting. Thanks for noticing!
Jen, I didn't know that you had done your time with jaw wiring. That's horrible. All I could think about at the time was having onion rings! I wish I had known as much about nutrition back then as I do now. Oh well!

Anonymous said...

An amazing piece of work. I just don't feel the computer does this justice. Very inspirational though, the tones ans textures are captured perfectly!

Unknown said...

Wow! Amazing Julie.I have always been awed by the beauty,intelligence and raw power of horses.I just happen to live near a field that has a horse in that I like to draw from time to time.I can understand your motivation for painting one.

Anonymous said...

I love-love- love your work: for the ideas, for the message, for the similar sense of aestetic which I believe to recognize though it is so different from what I do. I knew you both from books (paintings! illustration-books only :) ) but somehow only now I had the idea of searching in internet too. glad to have found this :)
I know one never knows what´s actually inside but it made my smile to see the photo of the wolf, the simple painting of the horse. thank you :).