Summer Pasture



"Summer Pasture" 24x30 oil on linen

      In my last post I said I would show a before and after photo of the painting, the before being with just the two horses on the right (the third one was painted out) and the after when I added the new horse.  Sorry, but I just got involved in solving the problem and didn't stop to take photos.

      Here is what I am pondering now.....the two horses on the right were brought along from the beginning of the painting.  The brushwork is consistent with the rest of the painting and the edges of their contours are soft.  The new horse was being added after the paint was fairly dry.  I did paint up the area a bit where he was being added but his back hits a thickish impasto stroke of yellow paint making the line of his back look sharper than the other horses. So, since the eye seems to gravitate towards a sharper edge do I leave it alone and let him be a focal point?  Will the eye stop there?  I wanted the group of horses to lead  the eye to the tree and then from the tree to the back of the painting.  Do I perhaps want a fourth horse over on the left?  I can fix the new horse by loading a brush with a slightly lighter color than his back contour and matching the impasto of the field.  That would be fine if the one stroke succeeds.  If it doesn't I could be off the races overworking the horse.  No pun intended.  Seems to me this is an excellent time to stick the painting in the closet for a week and deal with it with fresh eyes.
www.jeanschwartzpaintings.com  http://wslp.org  The last link is for the Washington Society of Landscape Painters.  You can see a slide show of the images for the "Celebrating One Hundred Years" exhibit which is being held at the McBride Gallery in Annapolis.  Just click on the link at the top of the page. I will be delivering my paintings for this show tomorrow.