I'm going to start off with a bit of a story, as stories are what my paintings are about. This particular one begins with a particular carousel horse, I purchased from....how should a I put it? a junk dealer and sort of antiques dealer. The man owned an apartment complex and he collected both items people left behind as well as a number of really priceless art pieces he had picked up in his travels. He had a few exciting tails of his own.
This picture of the carousel horse, I found it wedged behind saw horses and some building materials. At the time he was covered in multilayers of peeling and chipped paint. He was mostly white with some horrible pastels shades of green pink and yellow showing through. He was a sort of sad looking creature with his head carved downward and pitifully tailless.
I was immediately excited.... I mean what an opportunity. I quickly determined he was carved from wood and figured he could be a great beginner project for me as I couldn't make him look much worse.
Sooooo getting to the point I purchased him and spent hours sanding him down. There must be something satisfying about chipping away old paint, because my barracks roommates saw me chipping and sanding and quickly jump in too.( Thanks Guys! :) Eventually I got to the fun part and repainted him. After removing so much white paint I figured enough with white, I made him a buckskin and for a finishing touch I bought him a show horse extension, so he could have a tail too :)
and well long story short this little guy inspired my carousel horse painting....
At this point, I knew the painting needed something and on suggestion .......
.......I cleaned it up a bit added a few highlights and added some moonlight
