Art Techniques

Since I have the luxury and extreme good fortune to have my studio at our home in the woods, I can sketch, paint, or work on ideas for my paintings almost every day without ever leaving home.

My favorite subjects are constantly around me, and the beautiful and tranquil surroundings certainly lend themselves to creating the type of paintings I like to create.

I work primarily in acrylics and pastels, but sometimes incorporate colored pencils and other mediums into my mixed media pieces.

When working with acrylics I paint on any variety of surfaces that include stretched canvas, masonite panels or wood panels primed with multiple layers of gesso. After the final layer of gesso has been allowed to dry completely it is sanded to a smooth texture if the painting requires it, or in some cases left in a rougher state to actually add more texture to the finished painting. I am currently experimenting with additives that increase the texture on the painting surface.

Acrylic paints can be mixed (or thinned) with water or with any number of purchased mediums. I make my decision of what I will use with the paint depending on the individual project I am working on at any given time, therefore I make sure that I always have lots of options available to me in the studio.

Acrylics can be thinned down enough to be applied almost like watercolors on paper, however, I almost never do that, preferring instead to apply them like oils - much thicker and on heavier surfaces such as the ones mentioned above.

The artist with a treasured friend.

The artist with her English Setter pup and her young gelding.

"God forbid there be a heaven without horses."
- unknown

I work in many, many layers of paint, usually starting with a wash of one color, or a combination of several colors, over the entire canvas. Then, most often I start working from back to front, background to foreground, with the most layers of washes, glazes and boldest strokes and detail work saved for the subject and foreground of the piece. I usually choose to work with a fairly limited palette and use those color choices throughout the painting.

As a final step, after each painting is finished and the paint has been allowed to dry completely for several days, it will be protected with a non-yellowing, permanent varnish.

When doing a pastel painting I love working on a surface that has a lot of "tooth" or roughness to grab onto the pastel. I like to apply many layers of pastels, working from darker tones and colors to the lighter highlights. I prefer softer pastel sticks for the majority of the painting, applied on a colored surface, rather than on white.

Then, when it gets down to the detail work I like to use pastel pencils or hard pastels, in some instances. I utilize a workable fixative spray as needed between layers to help replace some of the "tooth" to the surface, allowing me to continue painting.

Inspiration
People often ask me where I get my ideas from. When I first started painting I thought I wouldn't be able to easily come up with the ideas for my work, but so far that hasn't been a problem. Ideas for the paintings actually come to me in some fairly unusual ways. Of course, I often use combinations of photographs we've taken ( I have quite an extensive file of reference photos), or from scenes experienced in our daily life, but I often also dream entire paintings.

That is extremely handy - to just get up in the morning knowing what I want to paint that day! Inspiration really can come from anywhere, I guess. Since I love painting animals of all sorts, the domestic and wild animals around our home are also a constant source of material for my paintings.

Having always held a fascination of the old west and the cowboy lifestyle itself (both past and present) that interest has also provided an unending source of inspiration for me.

A Note About Framing - Quality framing is an important part of the finished art work, so before presentation each painting is professionally matting and/or framed in order to complement your home or office. Occasionally a painting is completed on gallery wrapped or cradled board, in which case the edges are finished to compliment the work. Either way these works of art are ready to hang upon arrival.

"I dream of painting and then I paint my dream."
- Vincent van Gogh

All artwork shown is copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced in any way without the written permission of Debbie Hughbanks.

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