Birthdays Are Overrated, Right?

"Reciprocal," 8 x 16 oil on panel

Today is Peaker's birthday - Peaker being the first foal that was born on my little farm that wasn't mine (cough*Monster*cough). She was born one very cold February morning, eight years ago, first foal of her mom, Too Clever.  I remember it was cold enough I went and bought a foal blanket for her...and when I put it on her, Clever decided she was an alien, so I had to take it off.  Poor little Peaker!  She grew up tough!  Last I heard Peaker was in Minnesota.  I hope she is doing well, and that she shows up on my radar again.

After remembering Peaker's birthday, it occurred to me that I had completely let Leo's birthday slip by!  Yesterday marked five years since my goofy boy arrived, and he's been causing trouble ever since.  He even broke his halter yesterday.  In hindsight, it was almost as if he was trying to get my attention. Haha! 

Both Peaker and Leo have been models for my paintings.  Above is the most recent one featuring Leo (and his buddy growing up, Spider), an 8 x 16 oil on Raymar panel called "Reciprocal."  Below is on of my favourites of Peaker, galloping through the snow with her friend Maria, both of them yearlings.  This one is 11 x 14 oil on Raphael panel.  Both paintings are still available; if you're interested, let me know!

The next birthday is one I never forget.  Anyone want to hazard a guess whose that might be?  ;-)

"Fresh Snow," 11 x 14 oil on linen

Your Daily Serving of Protein

Guess what? You don't get to eat this one. This little painting was done with casein paint. I've always joked that casein should be the perfect medium for me, with my Food Science degree, because it's made from the milk protein that gives it its name. I got to study casein (the milk protein, not the paint!) a bit in one of my fourth year courses. I won't enthral you with any of that knowledge right now! This painting is 5 x 7 on gessoed masonite panel. Earlier on in my progress I thought I would go farther than what you see her, but I may just leave it as it is. I kind of like the simplicity, and well, foals are so cute they deserve to be front and centre with as little distraction as possible! (Translation: I'm afraid I'll mess it up!)

I first became aware of casein paint because fellow EAGer Kathi Peters, who works extensively in this medium. Kathi is the Casein Guru ;-) I have a long way to go, that's for sure! Her latest casein WIP was well-timed for me, as I prepped some panels this week in hopes of playing sometime soon. Have a look at her blog to see the pro at work!


In case you're missing the weather report, we've had snow for the last three days. Wednesday was the most significant accumulation, but there has just seemed to be a constant snowfall since then. Apparently it's supposed to warm up tomorrow. None of us are holding our breath! My fellow blogging and artist friend April Jaroka posted a welcome photo of the sun on her blog today. Be sure to visit her painting blog as well for some amazing seascapes...especially if you're sick of all my snow paintings!

The Weather Report

That's what this blog has become, hasn't it? While in one sense it "warmed up" today, the wind chill made sure that it felt like -18. The snow started mid-afternoon, and I took pity on the horses and brought them in early. Remember that painting from a couple of days ago of Gladys and Monster waiting by the gate? Well, it actually wasn't like that. It was cold enough everyone was jumping around to keep warm, wondering why Gracie and Jubie got to come in early! Predictions are for as much as 15 cm of snow. I'll see how that's going shortly, when I go back out to the barn !

So, back to the artwork...I hadn't intended to do an underpainting with this one, but that's the direction I ended up going. It's a pretty loose underpainting at this point, and I may refine it a little bit before I start with the colour. The one thing about these snow paintings is that I inevitably use a lot of Titanium White, which means this one has some drying time ahead of it before I can go back to work. I need some 'distance' from it anyway, to regain some perspective ad see the things that need to be fixed before I go any further.

I have a couple other paintings I'd like to do of the boys in the back paddock. The next two include Billy. We'll see if I get to them before I get sick of the white stuff!

Like You Want to See More of It

Snow, that is. I don't think it snowed today, actually. I've lost track to tell you the truth. The scary part is, it's only the middle of January. I think last year we got most of our snow in February and March. Auuugggghhhh! Not that I'm making predictions or anything!

So what do I do tonight? I work on a snow painting! In my reference photo, the two girls weren't getting snowed on, but the way things developed as I went, it seemed a good fit! It's not as if we haven't had many scenes like this, this winter. Once it starts to get close to feed time, everybody inevitably hangs out at the gates. And typically they stand facing the house; like, okay, I can take the hint! My working title for this was "The Usual Suspects" but I won't call it that - I think that title's been used enough. I'll have to come up with something. This is 8 x 8 oil on gallery wrap canvas. It was a little hard to photograph, so it may be coming through a little dark.

The cold we've had the last few days has really taken its toll on my motivation - it saps my energy and after doing the barn it's hard to convince myself to pick up those paint brushes. Now it's just about time for the last trip out to the barn for today. At least at night I don't have nine sets of eyes like this , staring at me expectantly!

A Snow Painting, Before the Snow Disappears!

I started a new painting today. With all this snow, I figured I'd better try to get at least one snow painting done before it all disappears! So far I've just blocked things in. This is a very different approach from the Monster WIP - much looser, less restrictive! We'll see how it goes. This one is 11 x 14 oil on Raphael linen panel. I started with a wash of Terra Rosa, which is a new paint I've just added to the mix. It's one of Williamsburg's Italian Earth colours. So far toning this panel is all I've done with it! I find it's very similar to Old Holland's Burnt Sienna. After a very rough indication of tone I went on with this modified underpainting, which has kind of combined the best of both worlds - my usual Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue, then some Burnt Sienna, and the new Unbleached Titanium as well as a bit of the usual Titanium. Can I just call it done and leave it at this? :-)

The Monster painting got some more attention today as well. It won't photograph so well under artificial light, so no pic tonight. It's going to need to sit and dry for a few days now before I move on. In the meantime, I'm still looking for the perfect title!