Tally Ho!

This works beautifully Thea, great colours, and great flow of movement with the riders arm raised ready to strike and at the same time the horse has all four legs off the ground, as you commented yourself, you have captured that elusive continual flow of the movements, tiny bits of earth flying up as well adding to the overall flow, your tree looks fine at the back there as well, everything centres on the polo pony and its rider and you really have caught them perfectly Thea, well done xx

And believe it or not, that tree caught my eye! Another truly inspiring and gorgeous piece, Thea - superb tonal work, clean and luminous washes and so vibrant and full of movement. And a beautifully painted tree to provide the perfect backdrop! You have nothing to fear about trees, Thea - top notch job! I hope to see more!

Thank you so much, Ros and Seok, for such lovely feedback. I really means a lot to have viewers like what they see - makes it all worthwhile. Can't believe that you like the tree, Seok, so thank you especially for that. I have a very ambivalent relationship with anything green, but I am trying to train myself not to flinch so much when I see the colour. I always love greens when other people paint them but when I use it I do tend to shudder at my basic attempts. A single horse was a bit difficult because I usually use the relationship between two or more horses to convey excitement and movement. On my Charles Reid course (apologies for mentioning it yet again!) - Charles said 'aim to solve one problem in each painting', but there were two in this one - the dreaded tree and the single horse, so hopefully Charles would be pleased with me, lol!

I do like this. It has captured the movement of the horse well with nice placement of the legs and the flying soil gives it lots of energy. We don't see polo depictions often. Is it a favourtie sport of you?

That tree caught my eye as well, it's rather a nice mix of greens! This painting certainly works, you've achieved what you set out to do. Good colour choice and why do you flinch at the mention of green? I'd like to see more trees from you! (green ones..lol). Well balanced composition as well.

Lovely movement and fresh colours, great painting. Thank you for all you kind comments on my paintings

Charles Reid would give you a pat on the back. Excellent. You obviously know horses well. Perfect, as is that tree that just balances out the composition.

Thank you so much Lin, Louise, Kris, Glennis and Gudrun for such super comments. It is very kind of you and I think you know how much I appreciate your input. Lin, I have never even been to a polo match but I have had a lot to do with horses through my younger daughter riding and doing dressage. I just find horses very fulfilling to draw and paint.

Great forward thrust to this one - all topped off by that wonderful tail, like a great exclamation mark!!

Thanks, Debs, you are very kind and I appreciate your taking the time to look when I know that life isn't easy for you at the moment. I had to really think about this one so it did what art is wonderful at doing - it took my mind off my current worries. What would we do with painting!

A wonderful painting, it comes alive.

Thank you very much, Karyl - very kind of you.

This is such a humorous image - brought a smile to my lips. The horse has a deeply resigned expression ("why can't he play elephant polo?") contrasting with the rider's gusto! Tree's great (Oxide of Chromium, Viridian?). Are you using Raw Umber on the horse Thea? You're often using white borders to delimit areas? Are these highlights or just a technique? Perhaps I'd have blended certain areas - girth, reins, boots. I've never tackled a horse in my life: yours is super.

Thank you, Kim - your comment made me giggle! I have a theory that regardless of riders always saying that their horses enjoy racing/polo/showing/dressage, I don't think they are that chuffed about anything that takes them out of their field and away from their companions, so it is probably very true that this horse was wondering when it could go home. Spot on about the tree - Oxide of Chromium and Viridian,with a few other colours slung in along the way, but for the life of me I don't know what they were. I tend to reach for colours almost without knowing what I am doing, so when I go back and try and remember how I got a certain effect I am often flummoxed. I do use raw umber a lot although it is a relatively new addition to my palette. I love the combination of raw umber and cerulean, done with a double dip so you get a bit of each on the brush - very useful colour. The horse was done with burnt sienna, burnt umber, cerulean, raw umber, cobalt, verona gold ochre, ultramarine and the odd touch of cad red (not exactly a limited palette, lol!) The white bits are deliberate for no other reason than I like the look of them. I did ponder about the boots and reins but I was worried that I would just get a darkish indistinct mess if I tried to blend them. I would have liked to have done it but just couldn't work out the best way, so basically chickened out. I have no idea why I like drawing and painting horses so much. I did have a lot to do with them when we ran a livery yard, but mucking out is a million miles from being artistic about them. I am not eventhat fond on them now either after my daughter's thoroughbred mare kicked me and broke four of my ribs, one of which collapsed my lung. Safer to paint them now I feel!

Exactly what I thought, Thea, on seeing this....'The Tree' Nice bit of watercolour there! Horse looks determined too, and beautifully painted.

Hello Ruth! How nice to have your lovely comment. Thank you very much - take care.

Beautifully drawn and painted horse, finely detailed Thea.

Thank you very much, Carole, that's very kind of you.

I love this. The horse is extremely good and the sense of movement is fabulous. More trees please.

The sense of movement is so good I can hear the thunder of hooves:) Wonderful !