Brass Bit Painting

Continuing along with my horse-tack series of paintings I came across this interesting horse bit. The first two I painted were of the chrome variety, but this one seems to be made of brass.

I really like painting brass. Maybe it’s because I painted two chrome horse bits before and they were not the easiest items to paint. They contained such a high level of polish their look changed dramatically with the slightest movement in their positioning.

This brass bit on the other hand had a satin-like finish. This less-than-mirrored finish did not change dramatically from different view points. Think about how different the surface of a mirror changes as you move it compared to a piece of paper.

I used mostly raw sienna, yellow ochre, and raw umber in this painting. Of course I used plenty of neutral colors. If you’re a regular reader of my blog you know I like to have 5 neutral-colored oil paints on my palette at all times. White, black and three grays of course!

While painting, my mind tends to wonder and I was thinking about the expression “chomping at the bit”. Actually the expression came up in the book The Goldfinch. Occasionally I listen to audio books when I paint (mostly when doing routine tasks that don’t require a high level of thought).

Anyway, while listening the author used the expression “Champing at the bit” and I thought that was strange. Did he pronounce it differently or have I been using and hearing the incorrect expression my whole life? Well as it turns out both expressions: “chomping at the bit” and “champing at the bit” are correct. There’s a really good explanation over here at the Grammarist.com.

Man, the internet is cool for research but it can sure be a distraction.

Back to painting!