Greenville’s MAC (Metropolitan Arts Council) held its annual Flat Out Under Pressure art creation contest in mid-June. As their flier said, “On Friday morning,… artists will come to MAC to have their canvases, papers, and panels of wood stamped with the Flat Out Under Pressure logo. They will return 24 hours later with that same stamped medium as a completed work of art.”

I like to stretch a little when I enter FOUP. Try something I’m not that familiar with. Like painting a horse. And do it fast. I’ve lived with horses for 20 years. See them every day. I’ve sketched them countless times. But to do a full painting in a short time frame, I knew I couldn’t do a study. I’d have to do an impression. I worked from sketches and photos of our mare Shasta. I composed a view of her just as she’s turning toward the viewer in the early morning light.

After roughly sketching the outlines of the image I wanted in pencil, I washed the canvas with burnt sienna. Then I quickly scrubbed in the background and foreground colors. Always conscious of time, I mixed very few colors, using selected paint mostly right from the tube. Shasta is light blue, reflecting the morning sky before the warm sunlight reaches her. She’s in sharp contrast to the very dark green, almost flatly painted trees behind her. Above her and behind the trees, morning sun backlights brilliant red fall foliage. Softer, warm yellows and oranges, and hints of the burnt sienna underpainting streak forward across the foreground. The “grass” still in shadow picks up the soft blues on Shasta. Hot red and yellow highlights outline her tail and head. Another horse on the far left is almost invisible against the dark trees. A few strokes of warm sunlight suggest his presence. It’s a composition of light and dark, warm and cool; a quiet morning scene alive with contrasts.

It is a painting of a transitory moment. It captures the instant Shasta is beginning to take a step toward the viewer. It’s not necessarily a “picture-perfect” or elegant pose, but a suggestion of potential. And the sun is beginning to spill across the pasture. The day is starting. I wanted the loose paint handling to express that movement. I wanted the painting to say this was done quickly; this is a painting of a moment.