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"Kentucky Skyline"


"Kentucky Skyline," 8" x 16", acrylic on canvasboard, equine landscape painting. Inquiries to ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com.

The Kentucky bluegrass area has to be, in all seriousness, one of the most beautiful areas of the country. I visited two springs ago, and my head still swims from all I saw. The landscape undulates in every direction, dotted with horses and outlines with pristine fencing or ancient stone walls, graced with the sun's smile and gentle breezes. I wanted to paint a landscape today that nodded to all I remembered from Kentucky.

I've been looking at Wayne Thiebaud's landscape paintings which are aerial typographical sorts of maps, where each field or element has a separate and distinct shape and bright color. Obviously there is some influece creeping in from these. I also interested in intentionally placing the horizon line at the center of the canvas (a supposed "no-no" rule).

I had tried a similar composition on a much larger scale (see "Double Horizon" from last summer at http://www.turtledovedesigns.com/canvases_available_for_purchase.html), but was concentrating on color temperatures and the push and pull created by the horse in the extreme foreground and the landscape in the far distance. "Double Horizon" is more about the horse (well, there's much more of his body included, for one) and less about the space he lives in.

Even though this painting features a horse in the foreground, it's really all about the background landscape. I treated the landscape bit of the painting as I might an abstract painting (did you know that I painted huge abstract paintings for about 7 years?). I studied the colors and shapes more carefully once I got the values correct, and tweaked them just a bit to balance their aesthetics without losing any of the realism, enjoying the pattern they created.

Thanks, as always, for looking at these paintings and for sharing them with your friends and family.
See you tomorrow!
Kim

Kimberly Kelly Santini
http://www.turtledovedesigns.com/
distinctive pet portraits
& 4-legged paintings

http://www.paintingadogaday.com/
come. sit. stay.
enjoy the art.

Founding member of the Canine Art Guild
http://www.canineartguild.com/
the gateway to canine art on the web
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