Stage 1
This painting started as they always do - as a blank 36"x24" canvas texturized with gesso. I rubbed in shades of red and orange paint, and transferred the composition of the 3 prancing horses to the canvas in pencil when the paint was dry. The images weren't dynamic enough so I painted the outlines with black paint and then added thin layers of color to change each horse. I left it on my easel for a few days to contemplate my next step.
Stage 2
I added diluted white paint and rice paper to the surface... (sorry there's no photo of that step) and decided that wasn't working and changed direction.... I peeled off the paper, rubbed the paint around to obliterate the dark outline and let it dry.
A few days later I decided to cover the whole canvas and start over. But while I was spreading on the thick gesso it came to me to selectively leave 'lines' showing from the original composition of three horses.
Stage 3