2013 ~ A New Year and A New Start

 

With it being 2013 and being able to focus on my art, I decided it was time to restart my blog. In order to do that, I thought that I would introduce myself by posting my artist bio! Thanks for reading and I look forward to posting some of my favorite pieces and all of my latest works in progress!!!

 

Artist Bio

      The Horse holds constant fascination for Rickelle Nelson, an established artist specializing in equine racing, conformation, and portrait painting. Focusing almost exclusively on horses as her field of study, she is best known for capturing the true essence and personality of her equine subject.

      An artist since she could hold a pencil, Rickelle has explored all types of media. Through her self-taught methods, she has acquired a fondness for Prismacolor and Oil. She grew up with horses and quickly became drawn into the world of racing while watching the heroic duels of Affirmed and Alydar. Having lived in Lexington, access to some of the world's greatest thoroughbreds and horsemen has helped influence her style, and the accuracy of her work.

      After many years of working as an artist, framer, and photographer, Rickelle was finally able to focus on her painting career and become a full-time artist. She has gained recognition as an equestrian painter as a result of completing portraits of notable subjects, such as Horse of the Year Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra, Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup winners Unbridled and Street Sense, Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, Breeders' Cup Classic winners Blame and Drosselmeyer, and Grade I winners Student Council, Harlan's Holiday, and Lava Man. Rickelle has experienced great success exhibiting her work across the country in many art exhibitions and gallery shows, resulting in her pieces now hanging in numerous public and private collections. In addition to her well-known works, Rickelle has also won awards in International Art Competitions, most recently Ex Arte Equinus 4.

   Using her work to give back to the profession through charities is also very important to Rickelle, as she is very active in helping the Bluegrass Farms Charities. A charity that benefits the men, women, and families of the thoroughbred industry, it is the “heart and hands of Thoroughbred racing”.

      Rickelle's unique and detailed artwork captures the beauty, life, elegance, and personality of the equine, in exclusive, highly professional works of art. Her work can be seen at South Hill Gallery, located at 1401 Versailles Road in Lexington, KY, or by visiting her website www.deckthestalls.com and Facebook page Deck the Stalls.

Catching Up!

So, the title of this blog says alot! I had to put War Emblem on hold for awhile as I suddenly had some projects come up that took precedence over something for myself. The first and biggest was home remodeling, which of course my husband did most of because I had a commission to finish for a birthday. I then had two projects for charity to finish! So, my plate was full when it came to time for web work and blogging!

I wanted to post the three projects that I have finished in the time from the last blog and between the house work. The first that I have here is my piece for the Woodford Humane Society's Freedomfest. It's titled "Silks of Pin Oak". Tomorrow is the preview party and July is the actual event. It's alot of fun! To see more visit http://www.woodfordhumanesociety.org/FreedomFest2009.htm!

Next up is my Barbaro sketch that will be used for prints for other charity events that I have donations planned for. He is in graphite and charcoal!

Finally is my commission of Student Council. It is 30x24" oil on canvas. It was done for a birthday, so I had some time constraints, in addition to some humidity problems! Needless to say I am so happy with the way it turned out considering some added stresses!
Student Council is the Grade I winner of the Pimlico Special and Pacific Classic. He is owned by Millenium Farm and was trained by Steve Asmussen. He was such a neat horse to be around and it was a pleasure getting to paint this commission!

Thanks for the wait! Hopefully I will have a somewhat normal schedule, but there is still some house work to finish! I hope to be posting more updates soon!

War Emblem WIP

This is a work in progress of War Emblem from his work prior to the Belmont. I am showing two stages of the painting. The first is the burnt umber beginning.

The second is the start of underpainting. It will be the entire painting before adding the regular colors.

Finally....

I am able to finally show the finished product of Street Sense....Things have been a little crazy around here lately. Haven't had time to paint any of my four new paintings. As you know, there was a little bit of an ice storm here in Kentucky a week ago, and then a big wind storm that took care of the rest of the weakened trees.

Anyway...here is the completed piece!

All trophies and roses are done! It was such a pleasure to do and I am pleased with how he turned out.

As for the ice storm, I finally got the chance to get to see Keeneland in some real snow! I've always tried to get out there when there was some, but it was always gone or I was working and never got any. But, there was plenty this time!

Somehow this guy doesn't look too happy!

Street Sense 4

I am at the end of the work in progress of Street Sense. There are only a few pictures left to talk about until the final one.

The first picture shows that Street Sense is nearly complete, he is only needing his legs finished, some neck and face work and that's it. I've gotten the rose color blocked in, and have added his Breeders Cup and Eclipse Award trophies to the collection. The straw has some more color added to it and the background color is finished.

This next picture is the last one before the finished product. I changed the position of the reins on his neck and finished his body and face. I painted him in his bridle as it is unique to Mr. Nafzger. He has them custom made, so his horses and former asst. trainer Ian Wilkes use them pretty exclusively. I thought this a nice touch as compared to a halter. From this point all that was needed to do was finish the trophies and roses and a few other finishing touches!

Street Sense continued

The next three pictures are stages in the work Street Sense.

In the first photo I have started to block in the other objects in the painting, along with the beginning layers in his hip. The objects that are blocked in here are his Kentucky Derby roses blanket and his Derby trophy. They are blocked in with thinned down Burnt Umber. I wanted to have these in place so that when I started blocking in the straw I could work around them. The hip area has been started with layers to start giving shape to his body.

The next picture in the post shows more beginning layers in Street Sense's body. There is eventually quite a build up of layers to get all of the coloring right. I have also added small details to get started such as his white markings and his eye. And finally I have added some muscle definition with many layers. At this point his hip is basically done. I have started to paint the background color and started getting some layers down for the straw. This is to start grounding him and the trophys and giving them their space in the painting.

Street Sense Part Deux

Once the sketch has been completed and I have made any changes, I then draw the image onto my gessoed canvas. I always do the underdrawing in pencil and once I am happy with that I then go over the pencil with ink or marker, as the oil paint and mediums will erase graphite.

The next step on this painting was to tone the canvas with diluted burnt umber. This step gives the painting a warm or cold feel depending on the color that is used. Once that was dry I then went in with burnt umber and started painting the areas that would be darker.

With the photo that is here, I had only drawn the horse to get a feel of the space that was left for other objects that I wanted to incorporate into the painting, and had started the initial work to give it some depth.