Horses bath


	The Horse’s Bath copied from El bano del caballo by Joaquin Sorolla

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I just love the paintings of the Spanish painter Joaquin Sorolla. His colours are fantastic and his mastery of light is quite incredible. So for a while now I've wanted to have a go at copying one (or maybe more) of his paintings - partly because I don't have the many hundreds of thousands required to purchase one, and really because I want to learn from him. I want to learn his techniques and how he managed to get those amazing light effects. And, for me, the best way of learning these things is to copy a painting. (And also hopefully, I'll end up with a nice painting to hang on the wall as well!)

My wife tells me that now is not the time to start a major oil painting - we are hoping to move house in the next few weeks. But I just got itchy fingers the other day and so have made a start. I'll add postings here as I go along so you can see how I'm progressing, and hopefully we can all learn something from this experience.

So, here's the first step in my painting - getting the drawing down. I squared up the canvas and a photocopy of the original painting and then used a pencil to draw in the horse, boy, boats and sea line. The I went over the main lines with some yellow ochre acrylic paint, comparing them to the painting and tidying the lines up where necessary. Donna said the horse had a wonky back leg, so I had to check that out and re-instate it just a little bit shorter to get t to look right. She now approves, so I can get on with the next stage!

This drawing out took me about 2 hours in total.

Here's step 2, which took a further one and a half hours or so. I used acrylic paint again to speed up the drying time and because this painting is going to take a lot of paint and I have lots of acrylic paint lying around.

My aim was to get the canvas covered (so taking away the panic of seeing so much white canvas) and also to get a feel for the painting. I tried to get the colours roughly correct, although when I come to paint in oils I can correct and adjust as necessary. The object of this step was more to get blues where there should be blues, ochres where there should be ochres etc.. and to begin to 'feel' the painting.

I was amazed at how complex and how many colours are in the horse, and also how the sea, which looks just blue at first glance, is an amazingly complex structure with all sorts of colours and shapes. The more you look the more you see.....

Well, here's the 3rd days painting - well not a whole day, but about 2 hours worth. I started in oils and began to paint the sky, boats and the sea. Because I am right handed I chose to begin at the top and left of the painting and work my way across as the painting progresses so that I can rest my hand on the canvas without smudging the paint. I somehow still managed to get covered in paint, but these water-soluble oils are great because they just wash off!

As with all copies of another painting, it is never going to be exactly the same, (I have no idea how forgers get every brush stroke and nuance exactly right - that's a skill I don't have, but then neither do I have a criminal record!).
So as I found out with the sea, I can't get every coloured brushstroke in the same place as Sorolla did, but then neither do i want to. It's a matter of compromise. The end result will be a passable copy, but will not be a forgery. It will have my fingerprints all over it, as well as his.



	Day 4. Another couple of hours work. Well, not really work - I enjoy it too much! Time for some details, and I've started with the horses head and neck, followed by the hat and head and arm of the boy. Remember I'm working from top to bottom and left to right. There was much to go at here and I had to be careful to match my colours and tones as best I could. Painting is simply a matter of putting the right colour (hue and tone) in the right shape and into the right place, so in principle it should be easy to copy another painting. But of course it's not and much had to be reworked until it felt right. This painting is becoming more and more my version of the original, not a slavish copy, but it's working and I'm pleased with the progress.



			I've been away for a week and so haven't had any time to work on the painting, but I reached this stage just before I left. I spent a good couple of hours working away at the figure of the boy, and this took an awful lot of concentration! He looks simple at first glance, but this is deceptive as there are so many colours and shades and variety of brushmarks going on there. I've got him pretty well down but will need to come back at a later stage and do some re-adjusting. I think it pays to leave the painting for a week and then look at it with fresh eyes, as only then can you really appraise it. The figure isn't exactly the same as Sorolla's original, and I have to decide that actually it never will be exactly the same, but that's fine by me as long as it works in my painting. I'm painting at the same time of day with the same lighting conditions, so when I come back to the painting after a few days I can mix the same colours easily. Also I'm just using a few colours for all my mixes, so that means that I can always get back to the right colour mix without wondering how I got there.


	Here's the results of my 6th painting session - the horse. I was amazed at the number and subtlety of colours Sorolla used to depict a white horse! Lots of big brushwork and plenty of white paint mixed in with ochres, blues, greys, purples, greens...

Finally finished! Again lots of big brushwork on the sea and sand - I ended up with a big fist of brushes each with a different colour on it. Tried to get the swirl and swish of the breaking waves and the ebbing water.
Then small brushes to tweek and re-adjust areas that needed tweeking and re-adjusting. Donna (my wife) eventually told me to stop fiddling!

I have absolutely loved painting this incredible picture, and I'm really quite pleased with the results. It's always easier when you are copying from a brilliant painting in the first place. Hard to go wrong really.

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