"Sycamore Trail" (23.5x28.5) oil on linen

This image was comprised from sketchbook drawings, photos, plein air sketches and imagination...

I always go thru a series of thumbnails-to-tighter pencil drawings, working out a composition, and this was no different except that I had some small plein air paintings as a foundation to springboard from...

 Sketch book thumbnails

The painting below (sans the horse which was added later) was done in the foot hills of Saddleback Mountain in Orange County, CA last spring. The horse was added later via a photograph my dad provided from near his home in Mexico. For the larger, "Sycamore Trail" I wanted the rider and pack horse to be scaled way back in  mid-ground so the painting would be formerly a 'landscape' rather than the horses & rider taking the spot light. The supporting trees in the background came from another plein air sketch I did in Irvine Park not far from the painting below...

 

"Waiting" (field sketch 9x12) oil on panel SOLD

I am not quite adept enough yet at pulling accurate horse anatomy purely from imagination, so photo reference was necessary, especially for the horses in motion (something I am constantly studying) but overall I'm pretty happy with the somewhat early California Impressionist feel this one turned out having...