I love the photo of this cute little dog in the doorway and wanted to paint him. I challenged myself to see if I could paint him using only a pallet knife so I could get some nice juicy paint on the canvas. I did pretty well with my goal. I only resorted to a big brush for a few strokes. I thought the expression was captured in the one exposed eye so I had to switch to a small round for that stroke.

I wanted a Louisa May Alcott look to this painting with Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy and their friends having a picnic. I found a still photograph searching for movies on Netflix that was just what I was looking for. It was a 1975 movie called Picnic at Hanging Rock. The story is about an austere Australian boarding school where teachers take a group of students on an outing to the mysterious Hanging Rock. Soon after the party starts, the headmistress and three girls go exploring and mysteriously disappear. One week later, a sole survivor returns to school__ with hardly any memory of the incident.
Sounds like something I should rent now that I've done a painting about it.

This was a fun little painting to do even though all the horse's tack was a bit of a challenge. The Percheron horse is indeed a gentle giant and the young boy leading him is in full control. He is probably taking him to join the rest of the team for a little farm work in the field.