Pick-up Man

The last couple weeks we've had perfect weather.   Today the heat came in, whew, blah!    So that chases me back inside, which isnt' all bad, I was able to finally finish this large pastel of a rodeo scene.

This baby is a whopping 27x38, which is pretty big for me.   I took the reference photo at last year's Burke Rodeo, which is coming up again next weekend.  So I kind of wanted to finish it before then.   I don't know the fella riding, but loved the action of all the fringes and dirt flying and the deep sun hitting the side of the pick-up horses' face. 

There were lots of challenges with this piece, as I don't do a lot of rodeo scenes.   I don't know a thing about the gear, and was lucky enough to find a flank strap in real life and study it.     The size of this painting gave some issue too, but its' fun to break away from my normal sizes sometimes!

I used Uart paper, 500grit, and started with an underpainting using mineral spirits.   I let that liquid drip and run and then I splattered it too.   This is where painting big gets fun--those sorts of things can really over power a smaller painting, but on a larger one, they are such fun!!     I will probably do some tweaking on this yet, but for the most part, I'm calling it done.  

And for anyone who's confused at the title, a pick-up man is that brave fella who rides up along side a bucking horse, and helps the crazy feller riding it, get off safely.   Then, pulls that flank strap off, and helps the horse go back to his pen.   Good to watch, but I dont' think that's my cup of tea!

This week I took a little trip to Mitchell SD and checked out the new South Dakota Art Gallery; run by Pasty Burkholder.   I liked what I saw and left 4 paintings there, so if you are in that area, stop in!   I will also be doing an artist reception sometime next month!   I'll post that information when time is closer.   I'll be doing some demo's and just milling around to talk art to anyone who'd like to!

The set up for Pick-up Man...using my laptop to work from, lots of lighting, pastels all laid out on my right