Ranchhand

Hallo,

  I finally got back into my studio after my Wyoming adventure, to finish off this last painting from the workshop I took at Eaton Ranch with Clare O'Neill. 

  This was a photo encaustic workshop hosted by Eaton Ranch. We got to see the herd wrangled in from the mountain pastures every morning, could ride every day if we wished (I only rode twice - it had been over 15 years and 2 knee replacements since I had ridden so I was just a 'bit' sore after the second ride.....)

If you ever wanted a 'Dude Ranch' experience, I would highly recommend Eaton Ranch!!! They do it right!!!

And if you want an awesome photo encaustic class then Clare O'Neill is the person to go to!!! I had such a wonderful time my week at the ranch with this class!!! I have enough painting fodder to last me a LONG time!!! I must have taken over 2000 pictures. (And another 8 or 900 during the week I spent at my brothers place near Centennial Wyoming !!)

   Anyhow the first 2 pictures are of the finished painting. The next 2 pictures are the photos I worked from. 

   The background photo was taken somewhere along Lone Bear Road/ Ttt Ranch Road. I printed it out and glued it to my wood panel and then covered it with several layers of encaustic as a base. I worked on the sky first and added some color and texture to the clouds while I was deciding what to add to the picture in the foreground. I had a few good pics of antelope from the same area as the background photo, but the colors were too similar, and the antelope just blended in too much. (Although I will probably try one in the future). 

  I printed out the horse - photo taken at Eaton Ranch - onto tissue paper and embedded that into the encaustic on the painting. The tissue paper sinks into the encaustic wax and pretty much disappears, leaving just your printed image (I did isolate the horse before I printed).

  I did some initial coloring with some wax crayons - which is represented by the last photo, mostly grasses in the foreground. That was all I had time for up in Wyoming.

   Yesterday I got out my hot pens and spent several hours adding color and texture to the hills and trees in the background - to the point where none of the original photo showed any more (I used the photo more as an under drawing to paint over) Last but not least I did a couple more hours work with the hot pen adding in the grasses and a bit of detail and texture to the horse too. Total all hot pen work was about 5 hours' worth, on top of what I had already done.

   All for today - Take Care!!

      Tera