Often charities give me things to paint so that they can be auctioned off to support the charity. I’ve done all sorts of things – a violin, a mask, and now… an old beat up saddle!
In order to work on the saddle, I had to perch it on my barstools, see above. See also my Leonberger dog contemplated the universe in the background. I think he was relieved I resisted the impulse to try the saddle on him!
Because I was experimenting with different types of clays for my Creativity Central creativity therapy work, I decided to use clay as the basis for transforming this saddle into a piece of art.
I began working the clay on a dinner plate – one of my favorite working surfaces! What would Julia Childs or an Iron Chef say?
It’s pretty lumpy and doesn’t look to promising yet….but somehow it gets refined enough to place on the saddle, so I can see how I’m doing in the big picture of things.
Suddenly, inspiration hits. I am reminded of the beautiful Della Robbia glazed pottery terra-cotta roundels, with their beautiful blues, greens and yellows. I also am thinking a bit about Wedgewood blue relief work. These inspirations bring me to add a vine element:
I am really liking where this is going at this point. I try to get up the courage to paint the whole horse blue, but finally decide against it, and go for a soft sage green-blue main and detail work instead, with a little of blue individual detailing.
I struggle with deciding whether or not to add pale yellows, and decide instead to rely on the glaze for the yellowing effect, which leads to a lovely final result, turning this discarded old saddle into a treasure for a charity auction, benefitting disabled children and adults!
BEFORE:
AFTER:
