Abigail Gutting’s mother, landscape painter Susan Gutting, once worked at an equine facility. Her father, Randall, grew up around horses and, after a 20-year career in telecommunications, became a doctor in veterinary medicine in his 40s and practices in northern Idaho.
“My mom made space for me in her workspace when I was 3 or 4 years old,” Gutting recalls. “That’s how I grew up, with first-hand instruction. In my teens and early 20s I worked with my father and learned the anatomy of many animals. Even today, my father can come into my workspace and immediately see if something is wrong with the anatomy of an animal in my painting.”
Velocity, oil on linen, 40 x 60 in.
Susan Gutting has said, “The phenomenon of sunrises, sunsets, moonrises, moonsets, clouds moving across the sky, days changing from night to day and day to night, are all miracles of creation.”
One of those miracles occurred when she and her daughter were plein air painting in Yellowstone National Park at the time of the October hunter’s moon. “It was a supermoon,” Abigail explains. “As it rose, it was enormous and was distinctly spherical, not a flat disk in the sky. I knew I had to do a series of paintings of the wildlife of the region with that moon.”
One of those paintings, Winter Storm Warning, will appear in the exhibition Abigail Gutting – Hooves, Hats, & Wild Eyes,at McLarry Fine Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which opens August 22 and runs through September 3.
Winter Storm Warning, oil on linen, 20 x 16 in.
A bison’s head commands the center of the composition with the moon and clouds on the right and negative space on the left. She draws attention to the horns, delineating them against the background, and allows the soft edges of the head to blend into it. She learned about using negative space in a workshop with Greg Beecham who talked about “mass to line.” In this case the mass of the head, which is the center of attention, resolves into the line of the neck. “The use of negative space allows for limitless compositional possibilities,” she says.
Opposing Forces, oil on linen, 40 x 20 in.
In Velocity, she portrays a galloping horse with its four hooves off the ground, a phenomenon that was first demonstrated by the photographer Eadweard Muybridge in 1872. The mass of the horse sails as though effortlessly through the air. The painting demonstrates her command of equine anatomy and drawing skills. She starts with a pencil drawing and feels that applying paint is like drawing as well. Her mother taught her that drawing is key to any art form—drawing from life, an apple on the table, trees, flowers and the animals she paints. “Drawing from real life as much as possible trains hand-eye coordination,” she explains. “Drawing is key to observation and vice versa. They train each other.”
An artist reception for Hooves, Hats, & Wild Eyes will be held August 22 from 4 to 6 p.m. —
McLarry Fine Art 225 Canyon Road » Santa Fe, NM 87501 » (505) 988-1161 » www.mclarryfineart.com
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