“Beauty All Around Me”, mixed media (water mixable oil and acrylic) on stretched canvas, 36” x 36”

Art Musings

Oct 13

My latest painting, “Beauty All Around Me”, oil and acrylic on canvas, 36” x 36” is the second painting I’ve attempted that is of the Western or Native American persuasion (the first one being “Old Country”). The concept and the title arose from a Navajo prayer song that I once heard called “Walk in Beauty”:

“In beauty I walk
With beauty before me I walk
With beauty behind me I walk
With beauty above me I walk
With beauty around me I walk
It has become beauty again.”

This painting went through many iterations and due to its large size, took me at least 3 months to finish. I was clear about the initial concept and the basic elements: a sunset sky backdrop, a Native American man on horseback and buffalo in the distance. I wanted to portray the calm and peace but also the fierce pride and undeniable sense of ownership that a Native American man on horseback, perhaps heading home, feels as he marvels at the beauty of his land. I juxtaposed the horse and rider against a dramatic Arizona sunset (Arizona containing special significance for me) and an Arizona sunset being on my bucket list of things to see before I die. The buffalo in the distance, and the larger than life size of the horse and rider with the sun peeking through the neck of the horse provide a sense of atmospheric perspective. I intentionally under-rendered the the mountains and green hills (I’m not sure if Arizona has green hills but realism is not what I was going for) in order to push them further back into the distance, highlighting the sky and the sun setting behind the neck of the horse as the focal point. Despite the rider being in the foreground, I did not add too many details to his face as I wanted the vibrant sunset sky to be the main focal point of the painting, rather than there being too many elements to look at.

I did the first few layers in acrylic, finishing it off with the last couple of layers in water mixable oil. Even though, this is technically a mixed media piece, it will be sold as an oil painting.