~Carrie L. Lewis ~ Horse Painter~USA~

Original Colored Pencil, Afternoon Graze — Afternoon Graze

~Carrie L. Lewis~

Newton, Kansas ~ USA

“The focus of my artworks for the past 40-plus years has been portrait work. It has been the highest calling to create portraits of beloved animal companions that do more then just capture the likeliness of the subject.”

“All those years of experience and learning have provided the means to teach new artists and artists looking to improve their skills in oil painting and pencil drawing. I currently have two colored pencil drawing instruction books and one oil painting instruction book available as ebooks. Each book follows one painting beginning to end and includes special advice and tips.”

“I’ve also started to give online courses in both of these subjects. Courses are “work at your own pace” style and students can choose between courses in which they do one complete drawing or painting and courses in which they would do two.”

“Of course, I’m always looking to improve my own skills as well, so taking part in an art course or workshop is always possibility.”~

To find out more about Carrie’s art books, click here.

To find out more about Carrie’s art courses, click here.

Portrait of All Heart by Carrie L. Lewis — All Heart

Do you own any horses that you use as models for your work?

No. I have always been in the position to work to support my art. From the beginning, my models have always been other people’s horses, ether observed at farms and shows or though photo references that clients supply for portrait work.

Do you ride competitively?

I’ve actually ridden very little in my life. A couple of trail rides at the Kentucky Horse Park (Kentucky, USA) and a few rare occasions at home. I’ve always been more interested in observing horses, seeing how they move and how the light plays on their coats. It is easier to do that from a distance, so I have always been the bystander with a camera.

What is your favorite thing about the art that you do?

That’s a good and tough question. I could list a number of things in response.

But I’ll go back to something that happened a several years ago. I had painted a portrait of a horse that was the champion at the county fair. A year or two later, I was at the same show and met the horse’s owner. He sat at the arena and told me how much the portrait meant to him. The mare had passed away since the portrait was painted. He had it hanging up in his dining room, where he saw it every time he sat down for a meal. This long time horseman teared up telling me his story.

A similar incident happened a few years later when the subject of a portrait died between the time I photographed her and the time I delivered the painting. I didn’t know about the death until I delivered the portrait to the horse’s trainer. She too, teared up upon seeing the portrait.

Those kind of responses are my favorite part about the art I do; those moments of connecting the horse owners and sometimes horse handlers with the animals they have lost.

Why do you like colored pencils?

I like too many things about colored pencils to list them all here but will start with the color themselves. All the colors are an artists dream. Opening a box of pencils, all unsharpened and fresh is like Christmas all year round!

Colored pencils are great for drawing detail. Yes, it takes more time to develop a drawing with colored pencils then oils, but the time is well worth the results.

They’re great for travel too because there is no clean up, no drying time and I can stop work at a moments notice, pack up the pencils and drawing and not worry about damaging the drawing.

Are you planning on publishing any more art books?

Yes. In fact a couple are already in progress now, including a book on how to draw a black horse on white paper and another on how to draw a black dog on black paper.

Are there any artists that you admire and/or inspire you to draw?

The artists who inspire me are the Old Maters. Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) and William Bouguereau (1825-1905) are my favorites, but there are many from that era that I admire.

Favorite contemporary artists are Tim Cox (Oil) Michelle Grant (acrylic/oil), Helen Bailey (colored pencil) and Rickelle Nelson (mixed media). All of them paint the horse in some form and they all have an ability to capture the look and personality in a manner that I aspire towards.

Do you work in any other mediums?

I learned and started my career on oil painting. I love the smell of oil paints. They are still my primary medium.

Do you have any shows/exhibits coming up?

At the present, there are no events or art shows on the horizon. Most of the time, I show art at horse shows, which makes more sense then showing at art shows. The local arena stopped hosting shows a few years ago and other circumstances combined with that change make it difficult to go to horse shows.

But that’s all right. Writing, publishing, and marketing art books , working with students on my online art courses and other art related activities have kept me so busy that I’m not sure if I could fit a hose show in!~

“At the beginning of 2007, I initiated a personal challenge to finish one new ACEO (Art Cards, Editions & Originals) landscape miniature painting every day except Sundays. I had so much fun with that project that by the end of April, I had completed over 130 tiny paintings … nearly 20 extras!”

“By the end of the year, I had painted 315 original ACEOs in oils, colored pencil, pen and ink, and even Crayons.” Below are two miniatures featuring horses.