Day 24. Glass Hood Ornament

How many people do you know who went to the Sarasota Classic Car Museum in Florida on spring vacation? Most people probably opt for the beach or Ringling Museum. Under protest from Jay, we squeezed in a quick trip to the car museum before Bonnie arrived. And I was rewarded with the inspiration for this painting.

The subject might come as a surprise to new readers, but I’m a native Detroiter so it makes sense to me. As Bonnie said, you can take a girl out of the Motor City, but you can’t take the Motor City out of the girl.

During my first Challenge, I discovered that I enjoy painting details of cars when I painted my first metal hood ornament from a vintage Chevy. Next came the  Mustang decal, and finally the Jetson-like fins and lights from a classic Dodge.

Tomorrow I’ll call the museum and find out what car this horse hood ornament belongs to. It must be rare because I can’t find it anywhere on the internet. FYI, Jay perked up during the visit when he found a car owned by one of the Beatles.

Unfortunately I was so engrossed in this painting that I forgot to take pictures until the very end. You can see the photo that I started with.

Early on I thought maybe I made a mistake by not darkening the background. However, once I started painting the horse and car, there was no going back.

After laying down the background color, I used a large (2 inch) brush to smooth out the paint. The good news is that the surface looks beautiful. The bad news is that it’s impossible to touch up.

I decided to focus on the dark car for contrast, and added alizaron crimson to the palette hoping it would positively impact the background – and it did. Also, it made it easier to anchor the bottom of the horse head.

This was an ambitious painting, which is why I saved it for the last week of the Challenge. After 3 weeks of painting every day, I’m painting better from all the practice. I’m more willing to push myself and try new things such as Glass Hood Ornament.

Painting just seemed to happen today, even with all the details. I’m sure there are spots without white paint on it, but that’s ok. It’s the Challenge after all.

Thanks for stopping by. See you tomorrow.