Equestrian Artist - original fine oils by Gail Guirreri-Maslyk

Alpaca Portraits

2008-12-14T10:19:00.002-05:00

I moved this summer and so I forgot completely about this blog! I now live in hunt country and LOVE IT! I do miss the mountains and my pet deer but with all to do and see here it is worth it. Once settled into my new studio I've picked up the pace quite a bit. There are so many paintings to post. I did a portrait of a friend and this painting brought me around a corner I was hovering over. Confidence is stronger. But on to what I am posting. The alpaca paintings. They made a big impact as well lately. I've been working with the same palette for the last month and really finding how much depth there is in it.

Alpacas have so much expression in their faces as well as in real life. Cute and sweet then spitting nasty stinky green stuff if you look at them wrong. Hilarious! I've set out to paint them since they allow my color and brush stroke with such ease. They make great loose paintings for warm up or fun. This one is 24" x 36".

Rooster, IV

2008-05-21T09:18:00.003-04:00

My favorite rooster yet!! I started with cobalt turquoise, thinking of Van Gogh palette and added thalo turquoise for a bit more glow an depth. This photograph is a bit deep in the red so it's hard to see his determined eye. I'm not sure where he's headed, but he headed someplace!
I had a great time with this one and will keep the palette in mind for others as well.

Iris

2008-05-16T21:03:00.005-04:00

Welcome spring and summer!!! It's now mid May and been quite some time since I wrote here. My personal life is headed into a more healthy direction than I have ever known. It's all about me in this small cabin on a mountain top painting day and night. We all know what diesel prices are doing to our activities... gracious! So, I find it's a perfect time for quiet healing and focus on my painting more than ever. I'm painting flowers and roosters and anything else I find inspiring. Most paintings are small compared to the scale I have been working at last few years. Mind you , there is a 24" x 48" on my big easel. :) I painted this adorable 10" x 20" on my 40th birthday. I find it special to my heart.

Please feel free to write a comment,.. love it hate it, I don't mind.

gail

Blue Hors Matine and Andreas Helgstrand

2008-02-06T13:01:00.001-05:00

This is another of my favorite paintings. The mare is quite famous, having earned a silver medal in the World Championships as a 6 year old and made even more famous on u tube. She dances in her freestyle knowingly in beat with the music and her tail,... her tail swishes and swishes with her animated steps. This is not exactly the behavior suitable to upper lever dressage horse but everyone that sees her KNOWS she's enjoying her job and is very aware that she's dancing. (swishing is usually a sign of irritation) Andreas is such a lovely rider as well. Did I mention he was gorgeous!? :)

This is from Euro Dressage: (august 26, 2006)

http://www.eurodressage.com/reports/shows/2006/06weg/08-24-grandprix2-photo.html

The ride of the day, however, came from Danish Andreas Helgstrand on his 9-year old Danish warmblood mare Matine. The mare by Blue Hors Silver Moon (by Kostolany) out of a Matador dam is well known in Denmark as the former young horse champion but she only made her international break through at Grand Prix level this year at the CDI Wiesbaden and Lingen. If you are impressed by Elvis' passage, than wait and see Matine's. This mare bounces half a meter off the ground both in passage and piaffe without losing rhythm, power and suspension. The crowds were gasping during the final piaffe-passage on the center line and the combination was the only pair to receive a standing ovation from the crowds! They scored a fantastic 76.333%

However, the ride was not flawless. You can see the mare is still green at the level and there were some uneven steps in the passage and Helgstrand constantly had to work on the bit to keep the mare completely through. Her mouth opened regularly and you saw that all that power in the movement was not resolved in the contact with the bit. Furthermore, Matine has a helicopter tail that keeps swooshing all the time (mainly in the pi-pa), but mares are more easily prone to do so (Wansuela Suerte does it too) and you still get an impression that she is relaxed in the movement.

Hunt Landscape, V

2008-01-30T09:58:00.000-05:00

This hunt scene landscape painting is the second time for the composition. It measures 24" x 48" and warms a room with pink light. I sold the yellow Hunt Landscape last summer and had to immediately repaint it since it was hanging in my office. I didn't plan on changing the colors to a pink light from the indian yellow... it just happened. I like the grass and these hounds better; love the hip on the horse. His face became one of my own horses, Farlapp. I will never tire of painting hunt landscapes and always out taking photos for new material.
This painting makes me crave to paint hound portraits. I don't have any really good close up of hounds though I went to the MFHA Centennial Finals last summer and took hundreds of photos. They simply are not the easiest to photograph since they are always on the move. I was at the end of a drive awaiting with my camera as Rockbridge Hunt approached and here come the hounds. As they flew in there was almost a whooshing noise. I couldn't figure on which one to focus on they were just everywhere! I'll never forget that noise. It was so surprising in the quiet of early morning.
The Centennial art show had a few large hound portraits that were just stunning. Sporting art is a class all of it's own. I'm not sure my style will ever confine itself enough for such galleries but I understand the love of the subject and hope that my style will only bring another light to these amazing creatures.

Hunt Landscape, II

2008-01-28T09:43:00.001-05:00

This painting was on national tour for a year with the MFHA Centennial Celebration and Crossgate Gallery. It's 36" square with a gorgeous dark frame and got home just a couple days ago. Crossgate did a super job handling it on such a busy tour. I'm not sure where it will go next. I might keep it at home and enjoy it for a while. It was painted in 2006.

A good friend (hunter/jumper trainer) and I both agree that we WANT this horse. You can see the way he looks across on a long rein that he would canter down the line to a jump much the same way. He has perfect self carriage and is bold and honest. He never spooks away from you; he might spook in place which only enhances his form over a fence and quality of canter. This did not come from the model but out of my head.. he actually is the aura of one of my first stallions, Locksley Spotlight. Spotlight had this 'pose', topline balance and went on a long rein, had the perfect canter/jump, etc.. He would spook out form under me every so often but that was usually due to feeling too fresh. I'm not riding right now but this horse makes me wish I was. So whether or not I think this painting was mature in technique it's effect is.

Lucy's Red Roofed Hay Barn

2008-01-21T09:28:00.000-05:00

This is the first of three barns painted for a developer in Blacksburg, VA before they were torn down at 'Cow Hill'. I picked this one out to write about because it was the first I'd been out painting on site in a long time. I painted it under an umbrella on a fairly hot day in the bed of my truck. The entire painting was on site.

We had a good snow here a few days ago and I was out freezing my fingers off trying to take pictures late afternoon. I do most of my painting by photo rather than life; this is opposite of school where all painting was from life. That works for horses and dog portraits since I would not be able to focus on a single composition painting in life. Landscape on the other hand changes more slowly (light of day) and drawing a landscape from life verses a photo is completely different. There are no boundaries other than what your eye sees. That allows more flow and feel than painting from a photo. That's what makes this painting special to me. It's spontaneous and free flowing. I would love to go out and paint the valley today but I'm afraid my paint would be frozen in minutes. So maybe I'll wait for spring.

If it's not obvious I love Matisse's paintings in early 1900's along with Van Gogh in the south France landscape.

Corgies, II (Baby Tux and Spook)

2008-01-19T09:51:00.001-05:00

I have been painting more and more canine (dog) portraits and love them! These two adorable Corgies are owned by some close friends. We set them up in the grass one warm afternoon and they just posed away for the camera.

My only plan in this painting was the choice of a bright cheerful palette and a brush stroke that would enhance their fun coats. Of course all those swirls came easy for me. I painted most of it in one session as it was a reasonable size canvas and addictive to my eye.

This painting was donated for auction to aid a traveling jump crew member battling brain cancer. He has a young family and he's quite young himself. I will have to check for his name. Last I heard he was doing better. My thoughts and prayers to them...

Capriole

2008-01-18T10:10:00.001-05:00

This painting is quite large; 30 x 48". I set out to try something new and old. I have a fascination with raw canvas showing. Last few years I have obliged to standard technique and covered the entire canvas with a straight wash before the drawing. When I was in school I just started painting on raw canvas and if white showed, I left it. Quick expression rather than worked over gradients of paint offer more expression of my eye and intuitive view of balance. Yet I have to consider what most want as 'finished' and usually white showing through is not considered finished... and so the random washes become the happy middle.

In this case the washes actually had a purpose and were best suited to make the air glow around this flying Andalusian stallion. The dust rises with him against blue sky and turns the difference into a soft green. The freedom of the pooling washes suggests the energy in the air. His eye is so quiet in the middle of all this effort that he appears to be able to do jump into magic as he sleeps. Capriole is a job an Andalusian does not have to consider work.. it is his nature.

Some of it was done from above standing on a chair and that was fun. Made me consider the possibility of longer brushes and length of the arm adding to the curve of my lines. Painting flat these washes pooled randomly and made a nice texture.

This painting was juried for inclusion in Ex Arte Equinus! The show will be available in a hardback or softback bound book. On line show will be published shortly. Visit my web site for a link: www.equine-impressions.com

Durk, Study in Blue and Orange

2008-01-16T09:43:00.001-05:00

This is a detail of Durk, Study in Blue and Orange. He was painted in early 2006 in just two sessions. First session was a basic light wash drawing that was dry before I came in with cobalt blue, indanthrone blue, transparent orange and white. Subject is Durk, a wheeler for Karen Waldron's 4 in hand coaching team (Bent Tree Farm). I have followed them to shows and even headed this team. It is one of the most moving experiences to be on a coach with glowing candles (real candles!) and the wheels crunching over gravel in the crisp night air. Even just as a memory now I get covered in chills.

He may be the painting I miss seeing the most. There is incredible freshness in the thick and wet paint that allowed the colors to mix. I spend more time being careful in current paintings. I think as I get back to some landscapes I will find this loose style again but with more education of the patient hand. I remember being home alone, focused and peaceful that evening. There was perfect aura when he came to life...

The Andalusian Horse, I

2008-01-15T09:09:00.001-05:00

This painting I did to study the eye and mane. I have since repainted it as a commission and the second may be better than the first. Each has some very special paint details though and I am thrilled with both. This image was used by the IALHA for their National finals program cover and is going to be used for a TV documentary as well. I have been out of touch with the owner of this painting since she purchased it and she does not yet know that her painting went out and got famous! Her twin sister owns the painting 'Durk, Study in Blue and Orange' (next) and it was on the cover of the Friesian Grand National this year!! She has no idea either. It will be fun to catch up with them some time soon.. they are great people and I wish I knew them better.

Afternoon Ride - fall fox hunting landscape with horse and pony

2008-01-15T08:58:00.001-05:00

I guess I'll start here.. this is Afternoon Ride painted I think early in 2006. It hangs in my father's office. I couldn't bear to sell this one and when he said he wanted it I was so happy because I knew it would stick around. Actually, I must paint it again; see what happens. I just painted Andalusian for someone since the first one had been sold some time ago. They get better each time and have their own new direction. Not a lot I would change about this one and therefor the reason I hesitate. There are so many paintings to paint on my list this one is not something I feel a great need to redo for myself... I sell premium luster prints and giclees of this piece. They are fabulous!!! I got a new lens (macro) for my Rebel xti and the prints have taken on a quality that I could only get with a $200 professional photo before.

Original equestrian oil landscape paintings

2008-01-15T08:41:00.001-05:00

Tuesday - January 15, 2008
I'm a Holsteiner sport horse breeder and equestrian artist in Virginia. I've been breeding horses for over 20 years and went to art school at Virginia Tech. Studied with Mary Ann Harmon, Janet Niewald and Ray Kass. The Virginia landscape is stunning. Throw some horses in the middle of it and it is absolutely perfect!

I use my horses as models every day; studying joints while I'm feeding or turning out. I also have worked as a graphic artist (equestrian magazines) for 8 years and do the same as I digitally extract legs etc from the background noise. It's very tedious work but could not replace it for studying tendons, bones etc. The daily hands on keeps the aura of their motion, thoughts, balance constantly in my awareness. I often find myself just watching them and how peaceful their days are when we aren't buggering them to do something. One of my favorite models was Flighty Birthday xx; a 36 year old TB mare that died a few years ago now. She had the most shapely neck I have ever seen. High out of her shoulder from a perfect back. I have her son here that was to be a fancy fancy show hunter that go kicked in the knee by a percheron; needless to say that ruined him. But, he's as shapely as his mother was and a great slinky type model... looks a good bit in line as his grandmother who is still here. Her name is Frascati. She's too old to breed but it's possible to try follicle aspiration yet. She has been a great mare as well. And then there's one of her stallion sons CHINN, sire line of the great Olympic horse Chin-Chin. He has this shapely neck and an amazing structure to his head. The bone is very curvy and angular at the same time. GORGEOUS!

I had not planned on making this a daily diary but I will give it a try. I do have a formal web site: www.equine-impressions.com for the equine art and www.cloverlone.com are my horses.

Let's see if I can post some pictures....

gail