Monday Night Painting Class for the Holidays

We painted two small canvases with a bluebird in the snow and a puppy in a wreath in our Monday night class during Sept. and Oct. (Sharon had her's made into Christmas cards that turned out beautiful). When we finished the puppy painting I asked if the ladies wanted to paint a Santa for our next project and they said yes, but could it be a cowboy Santa. So here is the beginning of the underpainting of those Santas. Here is how they are listed on the blog: Mine shows up first, then Sharon's, then Debbie's. All are on 16" x 20" canvas painted in oil.

Painting Class

At class yesterday Terry and I did a little more work on our white horses. Terry's is on the top and mine is below her's.

Alpha Wolf

This is a painting lesson in progress with my private student Sharon. I have a photo of the alpha male wolf , Komats, that Jim and Jamie Dutcher were studying in the Saw Tooth Mountians several years ago. He had such presence about him in this picture that I decided to do a painting of him, and Sharon wanted to learn to paint this wolf also.

I first did a large drawing and then we each transferred the drawing to a 30" x 40" gallery wrapped canvas. We went over all of the lines of the drawing with light gray oil paint. In our next lesson we added the background color and painted the eyes, and then started to add some of the dark markings. This is as far as we have gotten with this painting, as Sharon is recovering from a little surgery she had done. We should get back to it in the next week or so. I will post the progress of this painting as we go along. Mine is on the left and Sharon's is on the right.

I am very pleased with how well Sharon is progressing with her painting skills. It is so exciting to take a talented person and show them how to use that talent to create beautiful artwork. This painting is quite a challenge, but Sharon is loving every minute we get to work on it, and so am I.

About the painting lesson

One of my private students, Terry, wanted to learn to paint this white horse on a 36" x 36" canvas. This is a painting in progress --just the under-painting at this point. I am very pleased with her progrees so far. Terry has never painted anything this large before, so it is quite a challenge for her. She was hoping to do this painting in time for the Holidays, but because we only have two to three hours a week for her lessons, and this painting is so big with so much that she must learn, I am afraid it will take several more weeks to finish. Her painting is on top and mine is below her's.

White Horse Lesson in Progress

Bluebird In Snow

11" x 14" oil on gallery wrapped canvas. $250

Quahadi Stallion

This painting was done as an instruction piece for the Monday night painting class I teach. I had been reading through some interesting historical material about the Commanche Indians. One of their tribe families was called the Quahadi of which Quanah Parker was a member. The Commanche were well known for their horsemanship across the plains of the American West. The ladies in my class were wanting to paint a horse, so I decided that an Indian stallion would be the perfect subject for the class. Of course, each student's painting came out a little different from mine and from the drawing I did for them to use as reference, but that is the beauty of art. Each person has their own unique way of seeing and creating what they see.

Quahadi Stallion is a 16" X 20" oil on canvas panel. Available for purchase at $475.00. Contact me thru email at pyrmom@yahoo.com using "Painting" in the subject title of your email.