Thursday, April 17, 2008

Today's Project - You Know Who


The funny thing is, even with having him for 15 years, I have never painted Clifford. The only renderings I've done of him (or Tude for that matter) are the black and white drawings for the book illustrations. Why is this? I'm not sure. Maybe they are too intimate and I'm afraid I can't capture them.

Anyway, this is the first color portrait I've ever done of Cliffy. It's conte and oil pencil, on black pastel board. It's taken from one of my favorite photos of him. He was actually running for his life in the picture. We had turned him out with my cousin's big bully Arabians up on Drummond. While the herd embraces Trudy, they run Clifford off. This day, he was galloping full blast straight toward me, with them in hot pursuit. Though he was pretty freaked out, it made a nice photo!

Today I took him for a walk, a couple of miles along the road. It was sunny and warm. He was pretty content to walk along with me and didn't do any limping. I am trying a new product on his arthritis and waiting for results. Will write about it if things work out well.

3 comments:

Grey Horse Matters said...

It's a great picture. You have captured his spirit. I hope the new treatment you are trying works out for him, let us know if it does. Glad to hear you had a nice walk today. It is pretty nice here too.

Unknown said...

Thank you! I am staying cautiously optimistic about the treatment but we had a really good day today!

Janet Roper said...

What a beautiful picture!
Harmony,
Janet Roper