So Where *does* the time go?

I'm ridiculously far behind on this blog, with no valid excuse. Yes I've been busy, but what else is new? In the past month I've been to Saratoga for our annual foray, painted a new oil for the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame induction ceremony's fundraiser, gone to said ceremony/fundraiser, and am now painting in preparation for the CTHS yearling sales this coming weekend.


The foals, as you can see, are tormenting their mothers - well, the two chestnut boys definitely are, while Sheldon remains more laid back (with a healthy respect for Twine!). Weaning time is very near! Today they get their vaccination boosters, so that will delay their weaning for a week or two.


I still intend to do separate posts addressing the visit to Saratoga, and the Hall of Fame painting. Naturally there will also be something more about the yearling sales. Fall is a busy time, with the Schomberg Village Street Gallery also coming up, September 17 and 18, and the FASM Milton Studio Tour, October 1&2. If you are in either area, maybe we'll see you out!

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?

One Month Old! Peek-a-boo

A week ago today, Jubie's baby girl was a month old! Where did the time go? She's quite the observant little thing, always looking out over her stall door, or into the barn when she's outside, watching what I'm doing. She's got her momma's eyes, and it's pretty tough to ignore her. And as she's still without a name, I guess it's no surprise when I call, "Baby Girl!!" she comes running, with the cutest of whinnies.

This is 8 x 6 oil on Old Holland linen.

The Fun Stuff

There's no time to waste these days, with the next event close on the heels of last night's Hall of Fame induction ceremony. I was mistaken about how my painting would be auctioned - it was actually part of the live auction. The painting fetched $3500.00 - pretty exciting. If you'd like to read about the induction ceremony, you can go to the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame website. It's always great to see these paintings do well at fundraisers. Only Dubai in 2007 topped this one for me.

I neglected to thank a very important individual the other day when I posted the final painting. I'm always saying a painting is only as good as the reference photos, and in the case of Somebeachsomewhere, I had none of my own to work from. Thanks to a series of great photos taken by Kim Fisher of TROT Magazine, I had no shortage of great images to work with.

Next on the agenda is preparation for an exhibit at the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society's annual yearling sale at Woodbine. I'll have some work set up starting the same time the horses start showing - September 5th. As a result I'm hard at work trying to finish up a few of the paintings I've got around here. One of the notables is this 18 x 24 oil on panel of Sealy Hill, Canada's 2007 Horse of the Year. I'm into the fun stuff now - the warm colours and details that will bring things to life. I love the transformation that happens with this stage. Still a ways to go yet, but for some reason things go a bit faster at this point! Hmm, wonder why...

Time to get back at it!