The Festival of the Masters includes a street painting competition governed by the Central Florida Chalk Artists Association, as well as juried booths set up by over 200 award-winning artists from across the country. I was invited to compete with the chalk artists at Downtown Disney's Marketplace. There were sixty pieces of art produced directly on the sidewalks, using nothing but pastel chalks and a lot of talent. Most of the pieces, including mine, were 7' x 7'. I chose to paint from a photograph I took last year of my beloved quarter horse yearling, Casanova CoolkiesNTe, aka Skip.
Here I am on Saturday morning. Many of the artists started work on Friday but I wasn't one of them. You can see the photograph I am working from, as well as the basic outline of the horse. It also shows how large the horse will be. Drawing the horse shape was my first step, I did that in a light color to help me see it. It also gives spectators a chance to see what the finished product will be like. I always like to start with the horse's head, top to bottom. In this case as this had been my horse, the look of the head was of particular importance to me. In the photo the sun was setting on my horse as he lay in his paddock napping. The face takes on a lot of that reflected sunlight.
Here's a view of the finished head and neck. I have also started on the shoulders. The contrasting shading comes from layering a base color on the concrete and then adding light and dark colors to that base. Because I am using pastel chalks, the colors blend together beautifully. The chalks we use (provided to us by event managers) only come in 48 colors, many of which are useless when it comes to chalking horses. I have to use my imagination when combining colors to get the exact look I want.
Here I've been working into the afternoon. You can see the different types of shading where the sunlight hits the horse, and where his shadow falls on his leg. You can also see the box of chalks I am working from, and the lone towel that provides only the slightest cushioning from the ground. The spray can holding down the photograph is good old Aqua Net hairspray. We are not allowed to use any fixatives to keep the pastels on the sidewalks, as these will be washed away shortly after the competition. Hairspray is our only exception; while it doesn't keep anything permanent, it does give a little weight and hold to the chalk to help keep the wind from blowing away our progress. That's my son in the picture.
As we go into the evening, I am finishing up the horse. You can see here how I start each segment with an undercolor of reddish orange to get the chestnut look of the horse. I will then add cream, medium brown, or dark brown depending on whether I'm shading a muscle, crease, etc., and I will go back and add black very sparingly where the deep shadows are needed. Black can be a nightmare in these paintings, muddying up every color it touches, and when you draw on the sidewalk bits of chalk tend to fly every which way. I use it with extreme care. My goal for Saturday is to finish the horse, leaving the grass for Sunday. I accomplish the task just as it gets totally dark.
On Sunday morning we arrived to see my sweet Skippy sleeping peacefully in the morning sunlight as it streamed through the trees overhead. It's difficult to judge by the photograph, but my chalk drawing is just about life-sized, so in person this view of the drawing in the dappled sunlight was just incredible. This particular shot made it into a LOT of vacation photos!
Here I am, begrudgingly starting on the grass. I have about 4 hours left to complete my piece. 4 hours and about 20 olive green sticks of chalk, not to mention the last shreds of my fingertips being ground into the sidewalk. I've tried gloves, tape, band-aids, brushes, you name it, and nothing seems to work quite like human skin when it comes to working that chalk into the cement. However, I wouldn't want to leave my horse lying on the cement, so onwards with the grass it is!
I
've been working hard and the square is getting filled with grass. It's a little difficult to see the details of the grass blades in the foreground with the camera. You can see that leaves are falling from the trees overhead. At this point I discovered a hole that at some point I gouged in my pinkie finger. I run to the bathroom in an attempt to wash out some of the chalk that has packed itself into the wound. That's a pretty futile attempt but at least I thought to bring band-aids.
Here's the finished piece, completed with about an hour to spare. I am hot, tired, filthy, and couldn't be happier. The crowd is so delighted with my horse, they are posing whole families in front of it to take vacation photos. This was definitely a big crowd favorite. I think Skip would be very pleased with this special portrait!
Sign Guestbook ~ View Guestbook
Thanks for stopping in to experience the Masters with me!
I'm so glad you could see my work and the process involved, which is a very big part of street painting. These works of art may be gone, but the photos and memories can be shared for years to come. I'll be doing more of these in the months ahead, and can even do this for a private venue.
