Wednesday, March 09, 2011

A Little Painting Between Foals


The last week has been a long one, and a bit stressful as well. Our little chestnut boy is up at the University of Guelph's OVC Teaching Hospital, and had surgery yesterday to repair a patent urachus. While outwardly he has always been bright and happy, he did have a few issues as I'd mentioned in my last post, and developed this problem Monday morning after being there since Saturday night. I can't help worrying about a baby that age, of course - so many challenges in his short life so far. I'm hoping very soon he'll be home again and bouncing back in full chestnut fashion. Interestingly, all three chestnut foals I've had born here have required special care off the farm. Peaker and Gracie are both big and strong today, so we'd like to see this guy follow suit! And in the absence of our flashy little boy, I give you our little Einstein! He's nearly two weeks old now, and if I ever need to be cheered up, I go visit him!


I finally settled down to some painting this week, after the disrupted schedule of the last couple of weeks. I completed the underpainting of the oil of Billy and Clever last night – it's currently drying so that I can jump into the colour. I have started to put some colour into one I have on the go of "the Widgets" Leo and Spider, but it's set firmly in the uglies right now! And last night, just so I could say I finished *something,* I got back to a little 5 x 7 oil on linen I started a while back of Miss Keller, one of the top turf mares last season. It needs a proper scan, but above is the preliminary photo.


And just for fun...this is what I saw when I came into the studio yesterday afternoon. I've taught Swish to sit on a chair, but this is the first time she's done it of her own accord! Well, maybe I'd better rephrase that - this is the first time I've seen her do it! I was hoping she'd done some work on the painting that was on the easel, but no such luck! Maybe next time?

3 comments:

Studio at the Farm said...

Your little Einstein looks like he is having a blast! And I do hope the little chestnut comes through with flying colors.

Carrie L. Lewis said...

Linda,

Best wishes on the colt. (You might want to explain the problem in layman's terms for some of us! grins).

I like the painting you shared. Looks pretty good to me.

As for Swish.... Don't feel too bad. The cats like to prance across my table when I'm painting and one of them curls up on whichever table I'm working near. Sometimes he lies there when I'm not working, but the only sign of 'work' I've ever since out of him are colorful paw prints and smudges in his hair .... and that was years ago, when he was a kitten and flopped down on the painting while I was working.

I guess that was enough for him!

Linda Shantz said...

Carrie I'll go put a link in the post that explains what it is - better than me trying to explain it!

Baby is apparently terrorizing them now, so that's good news. :-) They're planning to keep them till Monday now, partly because the mare had some trouble with the foaling and has also been undergoing some treatment. Weather isn't going to be so nice here anyway, so better for all of us if they're warm and cosy at OVC.