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Updated 4/28/09
Draft Horses - The Gentle Giants
Click on any image to see a larger, full screen version. To go to specific images, click on the category below. Use your back button to return to this page. To see Elin's sold paintings of draft horses, click here.
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Finished! At least for this evening's work. Details, and more details. The entire painting process today was with a 3/8 inch brush and a small round. These are the calligraphic marks of line that create the visual tension between the larger areas and the linear quality. Also some edges are added with these lines. Look at the harness now, and the contrapunto of the red wagon tongue and the majority of greens. Yet your eye still goes to the thalo blue of the man's jacket in sunshine, and from there, up the arm to the horse's head. Delivering the goods, that's the ticket!
If you have any questions about disappearing edges, just ask yourself, "How important is that area?" Knowing which areas are focal points, or directional markers will go a long way to making good design, no matter what the subject.
Now I'm really happy with this one--an original oil, 12 x 16, for the good price of $400 directly from me.
Contact Elin or
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"Snow Country" Today's painting is a major change for an earlier daily painting. You can see the earlier version of this 10 x 20 inch oil on the dailypaintings.com web site, under the date of June 30 of this year. When I first painted it, the temperature outside was 90 degrees! Tonight I bring it to a different finished state, and change it tremendously--from summer to winter! Why do artists go after work they've done and change it so drastically? One reason is growth of the artist's knowledge. We learn something new, and we want to practice the new knowledge because we see what we didn't know manifest in our earlier work. Another reason is a deep dissatisfaction with the work as it stood before, and a great desire to take on the challenge to see if it is possible to produce an evolution of sorts. And then there's just my reason--having run out of small canvases, I'm painting over bigger ones! (The order is in, they'll be here any day now.)
It is fun to change the colors so drastically, and enjoy the finished result. Oh, I could work more on it if I was of a mind to, but for now, this one still remains in a new finished state! $375 Contact Elin or
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"Watching the Parade" An original oil on board, this 24 x 30 is one I had planned on showing at the opening this week (with delivery tomorrow), but when I went to look for a frame, I found none, having used up the other frames of that size already on other work. I have 24 paintings to deliver tomorrow to the gallery space with 54 linear feet of wall space--I wonder how they will manage to hang them all? Not my problem, which is good, since I have a full plate this coming week with other things.
This painting wouldn't have made it into the shown pieces anyway, because I got it on the easel and went after it, after studying it for a while. In the image I've attached, you can see the new areas because of their sheen and my bad photograph. I like working over pieces, as I have a certain amount of confidence that they are not finished until I have a gut feeling that they are. Comes with time and practice, I imagine. I especially like the design of this one, and the brushwork. Each of the parade watchers is done with as minimal of brush strokes as possible. I think this one will have some value some day. (Beyond today's offer at $650). Contact Elin or
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"Morning Light Team" Done as a study for my workshops, this one turned out so well, I've used it in an ad in Southwest Art, and it has been exhibited both at the American Southwest Art Exhibition at the Reagan Presential Library and at the Horse Expo in Sacramento. Original oil on canvas, 9 x 12 inches sold to Sue Johnston of Gainesville, Florida
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"Before the Storm, Drafters" Elin paints a man in a pink shirt with his team of Belgian crosses, coming in before the storm. This painting is depicted in the book on painting horses in acrylics, due in stores January 2005. At the Horse Expo in Sacramento in June, this painting took first place in acrylics. Original acrylic, 18 x 24 inches, available through Bob Ferguson Fine Art in Escondido. Email the gallery. |
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"Here's Lookin' at You, Kid" The evening light glows on the side of this Clydesdale foal in the Spring pasture. Beautiful color and brushwork, this 12 x 9 painting is available for US $800 Contact Elin or
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"Behind the Blacks" "I had the opportunity to ride with and even drive these beautiful, black Percheron geldings on their morning workout at a farm in Temecula. A few days later they went to the Pasadena Rose Parade as the wheel team to pull a float along with their six identical partners." Featured on the back cover of the Spring issue of Equine Vision Magazine - (now Horses in Art). Original oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches, unframed $1100 Contact Elin or
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"Long Harvest Days" Painting stellar pieces filled with light and color for exhibition at the Draft Horse Classic in Grass Valley, Elin pulls out all the stops with this 24 x 48 inch canvas. Original oil, US $2800 Contact Elin or
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"Heading to the Arena" Heading through the gate to the arena, this man and huge Percheron draft horse are calmly proceding to where the horse will be freed for his morning "at liberty" exercise. Original 12 x 9 inch acrylic. US $450. Contact Elin or
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"Jump for Joy (Percheron)" Here's a little gem of a painting, only 8 x 10 inches on canvas, but what color! All the show horses were turned out in the early morning hours to exercise and stretch, and Elin captured in oils this horse just full of himself. Available through Bob Ferguson Fine Art in Escondido. Email the gallery. |
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"Texture in Horses" "From one of the chapters in the upcoming Walter Foster book showing how I paint the textures of horses, this 16 x 20 acrylic is a similar view from the one I did in oils in "Idyllwild Transportation." Beautiful glazing created the colors on the brown horse, and the white one has many of the same textured layers. US $700 Contact Elin or
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"The Kind Eye" (Clydesdale) These gentle giants are so tolerant of all we ask of them. Curious, but calm, this fellow has the characteristic "kind eye" of a good horse. Original oil on board, 7 x 5 inches, unframed. US $275 Contact Elin or
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"Plowing the Line, Evening" Here are two beautiful Belgian draft horses plowing in the late evening light. You can almost hear the clink of the trace chains and the heavy breathing as these beauties turn the earth. Original oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches US $ 3600 Contact Elin or
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Mom's 'Round A tongue-in-cheek play on the shadow cast by this Clydesdale foal's mom, and the convex, beveled 24" round canvas on which the painting sits. Original oil, two feet in diameter $750 Contact Elin or
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Grazing the Piney Woods Painted specifically for the Draft Horse Classic, I've gone to a larger format and to a different palette. But the Clydesdales are still horses! in the evening light, these two mares and foals are in a pasture graced by huge pine trees, slightly leaning due to weather and wind. Original oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches. US $2100 Contact Elin or
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Well Rounded White Team This is a beveled 24" canvas round, almost 1.5" deep, and is a wonderfully fun surface on which to paint! I was doing some demonstration pieces for the Temecula Safe House program, and this complimentary yellow green and purple canvas came out. I chose the round canvases, because I didn't want to worry about framing. US $450 Contact Elin or
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Stallion Over Here, Judge Over There. I have to laugh at this scene. In the halter class at the Draft Horse Classic, the handler is concerned with the judge and where he or she was. The Belgian mare, on the other hand, only has eyes for a stallion outside the ring! Original oil on canvas backed board, 12 x 12 inches. US $550 Contact Elin or
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Well-rounded Fella On a twelve-inch beveled canvas that's 1.5 inches deep, I've painted just the one horse in a "quickie" using blue and orange as compliments. There's great reflected light on his shadow side. Original oil, US $300 Contact Elin or
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Nuzzle Nibble This draft horse gelding was being shown at the Draft Horse Classic by a young boy, and I thoroughly enjoyed photographing and then painting their comfortable, friendly relationship. Original oil on canvas, 9 x 12 inches. US $ 450 Contact Elin or
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Idyllwild Transportation Participating in the Idyllwild Plein Air event in September, Elin painted this team of horses used to take visitors throughout the village. Original oil on canvas 16 x 20 inches, available through Bob Ferguson Fine Art in Escondido. Email the gallery. |
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"Headin' In (Clydesdales)" One of the most beautiful things about winter is the lovely colors that happen during the morning and evening light. Elin has captured this light beautifully with a mare and foal coming into the barn area from the pasture. Original acrylic on canvas with handmade papers, 12 x 24 inches US $650 Contact Elin or
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"Winter Feed" This painting is the first draft of the third in the series of the four seasons with draft horses. In the low evening light, these ranchers are using the big horses to haul hay to their stock. Accepted into the prestigious 101st Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club Show in Gramercy Park, NY. Also has been shown at the American Academy of Equine Art's Fall Showcase in Lexington, KY. Original acrylic on prepared panel, 18 x 24 inches. US $850 Contact Elin or
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From the Dust An original acrylic painting measuring 30 x 40 inches, and combined with handmade paper creating a wonderful textured surfaace. These four mixed breed draft horses are emerging from the dust of a large field. US $4000 Contact Elin or
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"The Plowing Match" Two teamsters are "shooting the breeze" between demonstrations at a regional plowing match. One driver uses mules, the other horses. But why is he wearing the John Deer cap? Original acrylic painting, 30 x 40 inches US$ 2500. Contact Elin or
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"Black Beauties" These Percheron geldings belong to the Heinz hitch, which was in the 1999 Rose Parade. Elin was invited to the stable in Temecula to photograph these huge horses, some as tall as 19 hands. In the arena when they were let loose to run, one can litterally "feel the earth move" as they run past! Original oil painting, 24 x 36 inches. US $ 900 Contact Elin or
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