I admit it. I’m always ridiculously behind on my reading. So I just got around to the December 07 issue of Southwest Art, and a quote in the Woody Gwyn profile struck a chord:
“Subject matter is just an excuse to express a quality of light and space.”
What a neat summation of what moves me! I paint animals because they’re far and away more interesting to me than landscape or still life or whatever – such beauty and perfection in their forms – but without a sense of light I’m a lot less excited about the image. I’ve tried painting animals in flat-light situations, and it just ain’t as ‘on’.
Perhaps this is why some traditional animal art feels dull to me – many are without a strong sense of light. And my rodeo pieces depend on hot light for sizzling shadow colors – mmm mmm! Someday I’ll figure out how to paint overcast-light situations in a way that feels good . . . still working on that one.
Painting: “Git ‘r Done”, 13×18 oil on handmade canvas panel
Pitzer’s Fine Art (Wimberley, TX) – 888.564.6146
At my recent Artist Residency at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, a fellow stopped to tell me he used to be a bullrider, and he joked about the small hat sizes they wear.
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