Contentment

That's what came to mind as the two boys spent a large chunk of the afternoon grooming each other from head to toe. I couldn't believe how long and how thoroughly they went at it! Both were completely immersed - who knew two yearling colts could have that kind of attention span!


They had a slightly stressful morning. Really, these two have the life right now, but every six weeks they're expected to be big boys, when the blacksmith comes for their trims. When they're young, we just do the foals in their stalls, with walk-outs as necessary to check them. Today I finally decided it was time they both grew up, and stood in the aisle on the mats like the big horses!

They handled it pretty well. Leo had one good temper tantrum with a lurching half-rear, but Spider out-did that performance by basically falling/lying down. That's the ultimate cop-out for a horse, and I think they always feel somewhat embarrassed by it! Fortunately it was a slow-motion sort of deal, where he just kept sinking, until he found himself in a heap. He was certainly very good for the rest of the job!

Monster was next, up at the other farm, and after her trim I rode her. After that it was back home to work Gracie and do stalls, then a short break to watch another Canadian Gold at the Olympics before heading back to the barn to feed. That left the evening for painting! Tonight I started a new commission, working from a challenging reference photo - not that that's ever happened before! This one is a 16 x 20 oil on masonite panel.


Yesterday I started my "challenge" painting. My friend Elizabeth McCrindle of Scotland and I both want to improve our humans, artistically. When Elizabeth showed some photos from a trip to Ayr Racecourse this past weekend and said she now had lots of photos of the jockeys, so no excuses on the challenge. It made me think that I also have several photos of the riders, so we both agreed to do one this week. You can see the start Elizabeth made on her blog, and in keeping with accountability, I'll post the one I started here. I've got a much easier one than Elizabeth, I think - I find helmets really hard, and I found a shot with no helmet. I'm not going to tell you who it is. If you think you know, I want to hear it. Just a very rough start so far!

Another Birthday!

Today it was Gracie's turn to celebrate a birthday - her second. It's somehow appropriate that Gracie is a Valentine's baby - she's been the farm sweetheart from day one. While she has been getting a little big for her britches in the last little while, I've started breaking her, and that structure has helped bring things back in line, so to speak! She's quite a lovely filly - not that I'm biased or anything!


In honour of Valentine's Day and Gracie's birthday, I began a new painting. I've had this one earmarked since the day I shot the reference last March - how could I not? This is the first day Gracie and Billy were turned out together last year - and their first encounter was priceless. Seconds after this moment, they each ran off in opposite directions! I've already got a title for this one - "Boy Meets Girl." Knowing the rest of the story, it's more than a little funny to me! This one is 8 x 16 oil on Raymar cotton canvas panel.

As I've been on my own so far working with Gracie, I don't have any photos of us, but today after I was finished with her (no day off for the Birthday Girl!) I did a little quick sketch in pen from memory. I may try and turn this into a little painting - we'll see.


Tonight I went and got on Monster, who I've been in the process of rehabbing from a mishap - best I can figure, she slipped on the ice back in December, and threw her ribcage out of whack! I've finally started back riding her this past week, and tonight we had a great ride - so we're making progress! Then I came home to watch Canada's Alexandre Bilodeau win Gold in the men's moguls at the Olympics in Vancouver. A great day, all round!

Death of a Scanner

Um...yeah...that doesn't sound good!

I was going to scan one of my smaller, recently completed paintings to show you, but I think my scanner is giving it up. Never fear, I will take a photo of it, but for smaller works I usually scan them for the best print results. Guess I've got some shopping to do...

So now what? My landscape entry for last week is from a photo of a cottage sunset - something it looks like I won't get to see first-hand this summer. This is 8 x 10 oil on Fredrix linen panel. There are still some touches to be done, but as part of my goal with this project is to see how close I can get to a completed painting in a single session, I will dare to post it even though I'm not completely happy with it yet. I guess technically I'm not behind again yet - I do need to get on this week's entry!


I have to admit I've slacked off in the painting department the last couple of nights. Okay, so I bought the second season of Dexter and have been watching that. At least I've only been watching a couple of episodes a day - though to be honest it was probably the broadcast of the Olympic Individual Show Jumping final that kept it to that! If I had any photos of Hickstead you can be sure I'd be posting about that tremendous GOLD he and rider Eric Lamaze captured yesterday.

All right...this could possibly rate as my most boring post ever! Rather than babble on, I'll leave it at this, and catch up with you all when I have a photo of the painting I intended to show you!