Waking Up to Good News

I didn't set a lot of concrete goals for this year, but one I was determined to meet was to paint and submit something for the Inglis Equine Art Prize, a competition organized by Australian Art Sales out of New South Wales, Australia. From the time I received the prospectus, last December, I felt as if this competition was made for me, as the theme was, "Around the Horse Stud." Now, for the uninitiated, "stud" refers to a farm where breeding horses takes place, not actually to those handsome manly equines that may be found there (the stallions). :-D The painting had to depict registered Thoroughbreds. As I happen to have one or two of those around to serve as models, I didn't have much of an excuse to let this opportunity pass by. Lingering in my brain was a certain email four years earlier from Dubai, so I chose to believe cool stuff can happen when you take a chance.

I did battle with what I wanted to paint. It would be a mare and foal of course, but with several thousand reference photos to consider, it would be hard to pick what might be most appropriate. I settled on one of the images of Billy and Clever, and you've seen the resulting painting before. It's a 14 x 18 oil on linen, which I titled "Hush."

I sent off my entry on the first day of the postal strike, feeling somewhat like I was throwing it out into postal oblivion, but the entry made it there in four days. It's taken three weeks on occasion to get an envelope to me from a town ten minutes away via Canada Post in the past, so I was more than a little astounded by the speed with which this entry travelled. As someone who typically leaves stuff to the absolute last minute, it was a big deal to get an entry away with time to spare (and actually have it arrive with time to spare). This morning I woke up to the acceptance email. Who-hoo!

Now comes the most stressful part - packing up the work and sending it far, far away. If only I could go with it! Only 30 paintings worldwide have been chosen for the exhibit, which begins August 11 at the Sydney Inglis Newmarket Complex. The exhibit will remain there until August 14, then be in Melbourne from August 18-24, and on to Scone from August 25-28. How much for a ticket to Aus?