Piedmont Foxhounds at Oakley, 2009

Art Detail Information:

• Artist Name: Gail D. Guirreri Maslyk
• Height (inches): 37
• Width (inches): 57
• Depth (inches): 2
• Current Location: Private Collection
• Purchase Price (dollars): $4,600.00

Painting by Gail Guirreri of Piedmont Foxhounds at Oakley, 2009.

"I had only been back in hunt country a year when I followed hounds the day I took this reference photo. There were quite a few special ones to choose from. Oakley is a beautiful fixture. I picked up on a pink light by mood more than visually. When I first started this canvas it was stretched on heavy bars. But after coming in to the studio's dry air the canvas was not tight enough. After spending a day hoping I could ignore it and I whiped off my days work, pulled the canvas and stretched it on a board back. Bill, my better half, built all my canvas boards for this show Tally Ho Holiday. I have gotten quite used to the feel of board behind my canvas and will not likely ever go back to normal stretching. The surface allows me to work faster and be more definite with my large brushes."

"I had opened a tube of naphol red scarlet to see how it might play with the other colors on my fall palette. When I whiped off my first start the scarlet mixed in with my asphaltum (brown) and made a beautiful tone on the canvas. I could hardly wait to get back to the painting. During the first start I had worked the hounds in very loosely and enjoyed the effect of the brush stroke representing their movement as they were starting off. Hounds to the left were drawn in but the hounds out front did not have strong edges. The horse is pleasantly forward and one I would happily take home. The scarlet worked nicely with hansa yellow deep, quin violet, asphaltum and some phthalo blue. My new favortie PR 102, transparent red ochre, has been used in all my hunting canvases this fall. It is not nearly as potent as PR 101s but one step away from flesh tones and a perfect mix with phthalo blue for warm and cool greys. This is the second largest canvas in the show and one of my favorites. Long Branch manor shows all my work beautifully. Special thanks goes to exectutive director Kelli Scarrow Patterson for hanging the paintings perfectly."