Horse Paintings by Carrie L. Lewis

22″ x 28″ Oil on Prepared Panel

September 22, 2008
This is Guienne Hanover (photo by Jeff Coady, Coady Photography).

In 2007, Guienne Hanover became the world’s fastest three-year-old trotting filly when she trotted one mile in 1:51.2 on October 20, 2007. The previous track and world record was 1:54 and the North American record for the same distance was 1:52.

The record setting race was the Virginia Breeders Elimination at Colonial Downs and Guienne Hanover was the clear winner by 13-1⁄2 lengths in a wire-to-wire victory in which she simply outran the rest of the field. (You can read all about it here.)

The portrait was purchased at the 2007 Michigan Harness Horseman’s Association benefit auction, but it wasn’t until Guienne Hanover turned in her stunning performance at Colonial Downs that she became the subject of the portrait. The original 20×24 portrait was upgraded to 22×28 and the composition was selected by Guienne Hanover’s owner, who wanted to capture that particular moment in time rather then a traditional portrait of the horse.

The painting is a full racing image and includes some elements that were new to me. The tote board in the infield was the biggest challenge.

A full-size drawing was developed through a series of steps stretching across many days. Lots of tweaking, lots of adjustments and lots of corrections.

Some of the things unnecessary to the composition have been eliminated or de-emphasized in the drawing and will be further reduced in significance for the painting. Utility poles along the backstretch, for example.

Other areas, like the trees in the background, were merely suggested. Many landscape elements can only be suggested until the final stages of the painting process, so I didn’t put a lot of time into those areas.

But the view I have of Colonial Downs shows a beautiful track setting with tall trees and great atmosphere. Since I will be painting a ‘moment in time’ instead of just a snap shot of a race horse, enough of the details need to be retained to identify the track and the occasion as well as the horse in the drawing.

October 30, 2008
Colors Used: Titanium White and Raw Umber
Mediums: None

Painting begins with the burnt umber phase, step one in the Flemish technique.

Beginning with the distant background, I used a large bristle brush (about #18) to block in lights and darks, then blend them loosely to create the illusion of trees.

A base color of light value was then mixed and used to paint the infield between the backstretch and the tote board. A lighter strip was painted in to represent the track. The inside and outside rail along the backstretch was painted around, but not very carefully. I will have to repaint that once this work is dry.

Titanium White was added to the base color to lighten it still more and the grassy area in front of the tote board was painted. Still more white was added to paint the lightest areas in the track, then I darkened the track toward the bottom.

October 31, 2008
Colors Used: Titanium White and Raw Umber
Medium: None

All of today’s work was on the tote board because I am working primarily from the background forward and that is the thing that’s next in line.

The primary color is Raw Umber, though there is a little bit of Titanium White mixed in because the tote board is not the darkest value in the painting. That distinction actually belongs to the shadow areas on Guienne Hanover.

Using a short bristled brush of medium size, I carefully outlined the Colonial Downs logo on the left and the two rows of letters over the horse’s back. Some of the cutting in around the letters was also done before I ran out of time for the day.

November 3, 2008
Colors Used: Titanium White, Burnt Umber and Ivory Black
Medium: None

The first areas I worked on are still a little bit tacky where lots of white was used, so I was limited to what I could do.

The most likely area to paint was the area between the tote board and the track.

The inside rails were defined by painting the background around them. The rails will require a predominantly white mixture, which means they will also dry more slowly, so I’m holding back on painting them until after doing as much other work as possible.

The areas that were worked on today are finished for now. There may be adjustments later, once the entire painting is painted, but for now, they look good.

November 7, 2008
Colors Used: Titanium White and Raw Umber
Medium: None

More work on the tote board. The entire face was repainted with a slightly lighter value because I discovered that Guienne Hanover is quite a bit darker in value than the tote board.

The lettering was outlined, as well as the Colonial Downs logo.

Then I put some paint on Guienne Hanover, blocking in lights and darks in the largest areas. Additional detail will be added and the gradations between lights and darks refined later in the process.

I will also need to address the track rails before getting too much more work done on the horse and driver.

November 19, 24 & 26, 2008
Colors Used: Titanium White and Raw Umber
Medium: Walnut Oil

On November 19, I masked off as many track rails as possible and painted them. This is the usual technique for dealing with straight lines.

On November 24, after the previous work was well dry, I removed the tape and realized the rails were not correct. Rather than put tape back in place, however, I found the shortest, stiffest haired brush I have (a very well-worn brush) and used a t-square with raised edges to repaint the rails on the backstretch. I also painted the top of the tote board, as well as the shadow beneath it and the left side, though that area was not finished.

I was much more pleased with the result of this bit of ‘technical drawing’ technique on the painting and will need only for that work to dry to continue with the painting.

On November 26, I worked on Guienne Hanover, the inside rail and the driver. In this working session, I used only Raw Umber thinned either with the walnut oil in the tube or with a little bit of added walnut oil. The paint is applied full strength, then brushed out to the value I need in each area. If that is still too dark, color is lifted with a clean brush in small areas or a clean cloth in larger areas.

December 20, 2008
Colors Used: Titanium White and Raw Umber
Medium: None

Not much progress to show for all the work I’ve done since the last update. The painting seems to advance through two or three sessions, then backslide pitifully. I’m not surprised. That is the rule, rather than the exception when it comes to geometric lines and shapes.

I worked on the portrait several days in December. Work focused on Guienne Hanover’s face and front legs, doing detail work with glazes and opague passages. The paint dries slowly enough that I was able to work wet-into-wet in those areas from one day to the next. I also tackled the bike and some of the harness, as well. The painting seemed to be coming together quite well.

Then on Friday, December 19, I looked at the composition and thought the rail closest to the tote board was too much of a distraction. So I used an opague mixture to extend the hedge at the foot of the tote board enough to cover up that rail. It looked all right when I finished.

When I looked at it the next day, on December 20, I decided the rail needed to be there. It is part of the track, after all, and there were ways to include it and still de-emphasize it. So I got out a t-square and level and stroked that rail back in.

Unfortunately, that turned out to be a near disaster and I ended up wiping off everything that had been painted across that part of the painting in the last two days. Two steps forward, two steps back.

Later in the day, I went back to the painting and drew in the top and bottom edges of that back rail the way I’d done it before. With a short haired brush and t-square. I didn’t paint the entire rail, but just those two edges. The end result was very pleasing and recovered some of the work I gained, then lost previously.

December 24, 2008
Colors Used: Titanium White and Raw Umber
Medium: None

December 22 was scheduled to be my last working day of the year because we had planned to be driving to Michigan on December 24. Unfortunately, the state of Michigan was pretty well under snow or ice from sometime in December 23 and travel was looking quite messy between Kansas and Michigan, so we put off our departure.

That meant I had a bonus day in the studio.

The entire first session was spent on painting the rails around the track. A lot of careful painting with a straight-edge and stiff bristled brush, along with a fair share of wiping out and repainting. Painting areas like this is almost like a tango: a few steps forward, a few steps backward.

The good news is that when I finished for the day, the rails looked complete.

January 5, 2009
Colors Used: Titanium White
Medium: None
I used the raised edge t-square and the small brush to stroke white highlights into the tops of the track rails and the top of the tote board. The white portions of the driver’s clothing were also painted and I worked on the frame-work of the bike, as well.

January 14, 2009
Colors Used: Burnt Umber
Medium: None
Today, I used a dry brush and Raw Umber straight from the tube to begin finishing the horse. My goal at this point is to complete the horse section by section. The paint should dry over night, so I should be able to do a section each night. When the horse is complete, then I will finish the driver and, finally, the bike.

January 15, 2009
Colors Used: Burnt Umber
Medium: None

More work on Guienne Hanover. I painted every part of the horse from the girth back. The only things left to do in that area are the tail and the backward extended hind leg. Good progress tonight!

I also worked on the driver, scrubbing a thin layer of color into all parts of his helmet, head and clothing, as well as a little bit around the bike wheels.

January 19, 2009
Colors Used: Burnt Umber and Titanium White
Medium: Alkyd/Walnut Oil Medium
I mixed the standard colors with alkyd medium. This medium makes paint more brushable, just like all the other mediums do, but it also speeds up drying time and improves adhesion between layers of paint. The objective is to shorten the amount of time necessary for the whites to dry.

The first thing I did was scrub lighter paint over most of the background. The values between the background and the horse were too close because the background was much too dark. It may still be too dark, but the balance was much better at the end of the session than it was before.

I also worked on the driver and the bike. The driver is now nearly complete except for his face and helmet. There are some details to add in other areas, as well, but most of the big shapes have been finished.

The bike still needs quite a bit of work, but at least the wheels are now in place. They will continue to be the biggest challenge. Technical shapes (smooth arcs and straight lines) have always been a special challenge and require that little bit extra intensity and persistence to get right.

January 20, 2009
Colors Used: Burnt Umber and Titanium White
Medium: Alkyd/Walnut Oil Medium

Tonight, I started with the horse’s head and painted back all the way into the shoulder.

I was going for the detail in this session, working toward completing each area at the under painting stage before moving on to the next. This is the final time to address each individual area at this stage of the process.

To achieve that type of meticulous detail, I used three tiny brushes – two rounds and one worn out filbert – and put paint on the canvas as though I was using a pencil, then blended the strokes of color together. I painted the head over the bridle and other parts, then painted them back in.

The number card, ear muffs, backward check rein, neck and mane were also addressed and, for the most part, completed. Work went extremely well and before finishing for the day, everything from the end of Guienne Hanover’s muzzle to the point of her shoulder was completed or nearly completed.

The legs, body and rump are next on the list, then finishing up the driver and bike.

February 2, 2009
Colors Used: Burnt Umber and Titanium White
Medium: None

After again prepping the surface with a rubbing of walnut oil, I painted the off side hind leg. There are a lot of subtle variations in light and shadow in this area, so I spent a lot of time on it.

Interestingly enough, the most difficult thing to get a good fix on was not the leg, but the boot. it was repainted three or four times before it was right. In order to get it right, I had to get out my opti-visors to examine the reference photograph.

February 3, 2009
Colors Used: Burnt Umber and Titanium White
Medium: None

Rubbed the area I wanted to work with Walnut Oil; painted off side front leg, part of the body and the saddle cloth, as well as some of the gear and the surrounding background.

Once again, it was the boot that presented the most difficulty, but it turned out very well in spite of that. It will need a little bit more tweaking when the paint is dry.

Two more legs to go and the rest of the gear and the horse will be finished. Most of the harness and the bike will be painted as I work on the driver and bike.

February 17, 2009
Colors Used: Manganese Blue and Titanium White
Medium: None
Today, I began the color phase by painting in some sky color in the top portion of the painting. There isn’t much sky showing in the painting, but it did need to be put in place.

February 21, 2009
Colors Used: Manganese Blue, Transparent Yellow Oxide and Titanium White
Medium: None
I blocked in the greens for the background trees, adding lights and darks and a little bit of Azo Yellow to begin to establish the look and feel of autumn foliage. I also painted in the center field lawns and got a very satisfactory color and value range on that area.

February 26, 2009
Colors Used: Manganese Blue, Transparent Red Oxide, Azo Yellow and Titanium White
Medium: None
In today’s session, I mixed greens and painted the line of hedge in front of the tote board and the grassy area in front of the tote board. I also worked on the background trees. The lawns are looking good. The trees still need an awful lot of work.

March 9, 2009
Finished the trees in the background, cooled down the grass in the middle ground and rubbed Yellow Ochre over the track and parts of the horse.

March 16, 2009
I worked on all sections of the rail today. The background rail was done, though I’m not happy with the posts or with the brightness of those rails.

I then worked on the tote board and, other than the lettering, that is done. I’m very happy with that.

Next were the rails between the tote board and the horse and I’m only partially happy with them. The back most rail looks pretty good where I worked on it and the parts of the foreground rail look pretty good, too. The problem was that before I got them all painted, I was beginning to smear paint and had to stop. It would have been nice to completely finish them tonight, but that wasn’t possible.

I also painted one of the shafts on the bike, one that is on the horse’s off side.

To finish off, I painted the black part of the head number. All that remains on that is the white edging and the number, which is bright green.

May 5, 2009
I apologize for the lack photographs between this one and the last one. Sometimes, in the heat of painting, I forget to photograph the painting before each day’s session begins.

Today’s image shows all of the previous landscape work, as well as the work that was done today.

Today’s work included brushing a green over the green portions of the driver’s jersey and beginning the glazing process on Guienne Hanover.

The track is still in the under painting phase, so you can see the difference between the untouched under painting and the first glazes of earth tones over the horse.

The neat thing about the under painting process is the speed at which a painting begins to look finished. No details have been placed, but the process of under painting and glazes give the look of approaching completion very quickly.

July 6, 2009
A long time without much painting on this painting or any other. I dealt with two weeks of cold symptoms beginning on May 19. While I was able to keep up most of daily necessary activities and even do a little writing, but painting was out of the question for two weeks.

Work has continued on this portrait, though it was only with some trial and error.

As expected, the most challenging area of the painting proved to be the bike. The shafts and other straight lines were no problem. But those wheels! I think they were painted four or five times before getting them anywhere close to right.

Because they’re white, they dried slowly. The advantage to that is that if I saw a mistake, it could be wiped off as long as two or three days after it was painted. The disadvantage is that if I decided after the third or fourth day to change something, I had to wait a week for the paint to dry enough to be painted over.

Of all the work and hours put into the painting before today, the most frustrating hours were those spent on the bike and the wheels.

July 13, 2009
Guienne Hanover is finished!

I did a little bit more fine tuning today, making sure the painting was as close to my initial vision of it as possible.

When I got to the point at which I didn’t know what else to do, then the painting was finished. The last thing to do was paint on the text the client wanted at the bottom of the painting.

Guienne Hanover    October 20, 2007    1:51.2    New World’s Record

Then the painting was signed, photographed and set aside for the final drying period before framing and delivery.