Day Seven: Can't Help Myself...

Foals are always popular...and I always love painting them, so here we have another baby. Maybe it's really just wishful thinking on my part, as I still wait for Clever to foal. At least now she's looking like it will be in the next couple of days! Leo agreed to stand in again in the meantime. I know I've slacked off the last few days on my theme songs, but for this one it would have to be Ben Folds' Lullabye..."Good night, good night, sweet baby..."

This is 5 x 7, oil on masonite panel using the limited palette again. Painting low light settings is always a challenge and normally the reference photos for such paintings is dark and somewhat grainy...but it's kind of fun to see what you can pull out of them...at least when it works out!

I won't be listing this guy on Etsy, at least not right away...I need to let him sit for a few days and contemplate his future. I am happy to report that the little painting of Billy will be going to Belgium! I know he'll have a very good home there, so that bit of news made my day. Maybe I could send the colt, too, for a few months?

Hope to see everybody again tomorrow! In the meantime, everybody think happy foaling thoughts for Clever! What do you think, colt or filly?

I've Got You To Thank...

Okay, so that's part of another Ben Folds song. Sometimes I think the words 'thank you' are two of the most underused words in the English language. Let's face it, it takes two seconds to say them or type them and express appreciation. When I worked at the track, the trainer I worked for was good at always saying thanks, despite moments that earned him the nickname "Freddy Krueger" behind his back. :-) Because I appreciated that so much, I know I've always felt it important to do the same, if someone helps me out, or does something nice.


Why am I rambling about this? I've been given another blog award, courtesy of April Jarocka - again I'm a bit late in sharing that! As I did one recently, I'm not going to do another 7 favourite things at the moment, though I must applaud the creativity of Sheona Hamilton-Grant for her response to her latest award. She's done a pictoral of her favourite things. Have a look! In the meantime, I still haven't 'shared the love' and notified the recipients of my last award (from Sheona, if you recall) so I really need to do that! Anyway, thank-you, April! Please be sure to visit April's painting blog, as well as Ugly Rabbit, her illustration blog.

Here on the farm, I've just sent off the two chestnut boys - back to work for them. They both have such personality, their absence will be felt! The new colt continues to do well, though he's less than impressed with that chilly day out there today. The snow was interesting for him - rare that a February foal is born when there is none of the white stuff on the ground, but that's the way it was.

All right. Now that the somewhat insane horsey part of my day is taken care of, time to make a cappuccino and think about this work in progress so maybe I'll have a painting to talk about next time!

Happy Birthday, Babies...

While the rest of the world was saying 'Happy New Year' at midnight last night, I was out at the barn wishing all my crazy TBs a Happy Birthday. It's hard to believe the babies are officially yearlings now. Gracie celebrated in style with a show of her athleticism, and if I can borrow some Ben Folds lyrics again, "Who's got the looks, who's got the brains, who's got everything?"...that's our girl Gracie! As she was the one with the moves out there today, I'm letting her have the spotlight.


I'm getting even closer on the WIP I've been posting here of late - close enough that after last night's work I decided I needed to put it away for a day or so to gain some fresh perspective. Sometimes after working closely on a painting, we artists convince ourselves it is a disaster, and stepping back for a bit lets us see maybe it's not as bad as we'd feared. I'm hoping that's what happens with this painting!

Tonight I worked on my other potential Art Show at the Dog Show entry. I remember the same thing happened last year. I struggled with the first painting, but the second came easily and ended up being the stronger of the two pieces. I'm liking this one a lot better. There are good reasons for that, not the least of which this one is just more 'me.' I'm not going to share this one yet, so you'll just have to wait! In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed the Gracie Show!

A Whole New World!

Okay, so forgive me if a sappy song from some Walt Disney animated film is running through my head right now (where is that new Ben Folds CD, anyway??). I admit, I’ve been spending much too much time online lately – the heel of my right hand is hurting – but previously, on dialup, there was a lot of stuff I either couldn’t be bothered waiting for (ie. sites with photos that took eons to load) or couldn’t even access (one word: VIDEO!) so much of what was out there just wasn’t in the cards. Now, however…ha! So I have been spending some time checking out some of the resources (yeah, resources, that's it!).


Today, however, I did get some painting done. I set to work hoping to complete the underpainting of one of those works in progress I have in the studio. I posted an early image of this several months ago, when I started it. I actually showed it at the studio tour, just so I could explain the usual painting process. The underpainting at that point wasn’t complete – the burnt sienna with which I’d tinted the canvas was still showing through in the halters and some parts of the horses, but I had also slapped some greens into the background one day when I had some green left on my palette that was perfect for this piece. As it stands, I’ve still left some of the burnt sienna showing through – I kind of like it, so for now, it stays!

It’s possible I may work a little more on this underpainting, but most likely I’ll start into the colour once it’s dry. For the record, my working title (and one that will likely fit as it struck me as soon as I earmarked the photo ) is “Promises, Promises” and it is 18 x 24 oil on gallery wrap canvas. This is from some photos I took of Gladys and Jay last winter. While Jay recovered completely from his colic surgery and returned to training this summer, he aggravated an old leg injury and the decision was made to retire him. Jay is currently in the Long Run program looking for a new home, so if you're looking for a sweet, sensible forever horse, he's your man! You can see his page on the Long Run site under his real name, Just Always.

Gracie Knows!

Yes, I am stealing titles from Ben Folds again. There's just something about our Miss Gracie - it is like she just knows. She's a little tired of the compromised paddock situation at the moment, however - just a few more days, Gracie, and you and Billy can get at the grass!

I know I seem to have done a few winter scenes this summer - it's purely coincidental, not because of this summer we've been having in Southern Ontario! To be fair, it hasn't really been that cool (until the past few nights!) but we've sure had an awful lot of rain!

This painting is 10 x 8 oil on Raphael linen panel, done with a very simple limited palette of Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue and Titanium White. My goal with this one was to keep it loose and simple, so I hope I achieved that. I'll catch up with a couple more recently completed pieces soon, including last week's landscape challenge entry. Figures, just when I get caught up, another week shows up! Ah well....

Tomatoes, Still

Wait - those aren't horses! And you know what else? That's not oil! Yes folks, you'd better sit down, but this is acrylic on panel. With my repeated confession that acrylics and I just don't get along, I'm somewhat amazed by this. I'm not trying to say I think it's brilliant or anything, but it's a small miracle to me that I produced anything I would consider showing here at all! The size is 7 x 11.

So why, you ask? Well, it was somewhat last minute, but I decided to do a FASM workshop today, presented by our esteemed past president, Leigh Cockburn in his studio at Just a Wee Gallery. The workshop covered Composition and Design in the morning, and painting with acrylics in the afternoon. As a self-taught artist, it never hurts to have a refresher on the principles I've had to work out on my own, and I figured I could fight with acrylics for an afternoon for a change of pace. The only time I'd ever tried acrylics was in the one and only university art class I took, and it was a disaster. As it turns out, the way Leigh works in acrylics is very similar to how I work in oils, so things didn't go too badly.

My title is a little bit of a play on words that only I will probably get, as usual. The still life part is easy enough, but there is a song by Ben Folds called Still which is one of my favourites.

"Even the things that seem still are still changing..."