of the point, a strategy that brings about broad statements
and deliciously fresh swatches of lively color.
As she worked up Finish Line, Ordman reorganized vari-
ous elements of the image to increase the strength of the
piece. “I chose the dark background at the top to highlight
the contour of the jockeys’ heads and horses,” she says. She
was also careful to take away detail at the bottom of the
painting. “Losing the legs and hooves to the ground adds to
the feeling of movement, but the image doesn’t really come
together until the whips and the white spots on the horses’
heads are created.” These liberties—arranging whips for
pictorial impact and adding white markings to the horses
to make them feel more present—add to the scene.
“I’m inspired by what I see but not wedded to it,”
Ordman says. “I feel a blue sky doesn’t have to be blue in
my painting. I look for color harmony and react to what
I feel about the color, not necessarily to what that color is
in life. I actually paint with lots of ‘grays’—colors that are
combinations of the three primaries of red, blue and yel-
low. These are the supporting players for that special hit
of intense color.”The Four Ss
Ordman’s approach, in which the image is built from
patches of color and nearly abstract shapes, relies on the
power of suggestion—the willingness of the viewer to
complete the image. It’s an approach that doesn’t tolerate
much fussing or reworking. It’s also critical that the artist
takes care to stop early rather than too late.ArtistsNetwork.com 33