Homeward Bound – Oil on Linen Painting by Janice Lightowler

One of my art students brought a very old photograph to class of her Grandfather ploughing a field at their family farm in the Mourne Mountains. It made a beautiful image to paint, so the canvas was chosen and the very personal painting was started.

When she started working on the horse I remembered Clydesdale horses that I had drawn in Graphite nearly 35 years ago. I found the image of the drawing in my archive of photographs and shared my memories with the group. I was enjoying helping the artist paint the picture so much that it got me thinking about painting horses in oil. I had turned old black and white photos into colourful oil paintings before, so I decide to look no further than my old Graphite drawing image.

I painted the huge expanse of sky first and then the whole horizon, ignoring the horses completely at the start. The sky was so delicate with only the subtlest soft blues and even softer pinks and then my spinal condition made me too ill to continue for weeks. I had to wait patiently to return to the piece and when I did, to my horror, a kamikaze midget fly had flown straight onto the wet, easily marked sky. However I always tell my students not to panic but to confront any problems head on. When I actually studied how I was going to remove the alien from the painting, to my delight I realised that its shape represented the most amazing bird of prey and it changed the composition in the most unexpected way!

I often find myself talking to my paintings. Being left-handed I painted the farmer first but he was too far down the field to hear me so I painted the stallion’s head next, calling him “Jack” and talked to him while I painted “Jill”. I learned many years ago that the horse with its head down is doing most of the work, so unfortunately Jack seems too distracted by me to pull his weight.

You know they are Clydesdales because of their white stockings that come above their knees and the markings on their face.

While I was clearing an old building in Comber to build my new studio I met two elderly ladies. They were the granddaughter and great grand-daughter of the gentleman who had built the house and they reminisced about the Clydesdales ploughing the field behind the house. To my delight, later that week a huge horseshoe was discovered on the site!

I can see Scrabo Tower from my new studio and have painted it on the horizon. Soon I will be “Homeward Bound”.