Moving Afghan Hound

I got up this morning hoping to go painting in Plein Aire at the University, but it was windy, cold and trying to spit rain. I worked a bit on the computer getting packages ready to send to customers for the week. I then decided to watch a new video I had ordered from Susan Sarback. Susan is my mentor when it comes to painting with the palate knife. I have taken 2 workshops with her in the past and she actually started me using the palate knife. She has always said to me that I can paint my dogs with a palate knife but I have never given it a try from start to finish. Most of the time I might use the palate knife to finish up a painting for highlights and edges. So watching the video was very inspirational. I then found an 11 x 14 canvas and a photo of Apache that Wynne Kalish took at the 2006 nationals and started in painting with my knife. I got about 1/3 done and thought this is just awful. The paint was going nowhere. I then decided to step back and take a look at where I was going wrong. Trying to remember the steps I take to create a painting in Plein Aire, I started painting shapes instead of painting the dog. Got all the ground work in using the masses that I was seeing, painting the lights with warm colors and the darks with cool colors. Guess what it worked. I am very proud I finally did this technique that so many have said I should try. The photo does not really show you all the colors that I used, you will have to take my word that it is very colorful in real life. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it. Terry