Cinderella, Cinderella...

Turning a cool photo into a painting...

Last year, Woodbine Entertainment initiated a contest to select "The Official Queen's Plate Artist." I did enter, what I thought was a beautiful painting of 2014 winner Lexie Lou, and was disappointed when it didn't make the top five – after all, painting Canadian racehorses is what I do!  Anyway, such is the life of the artist – we have to know how to handle rejection, because we don't always fit with that the powers that be are looking for. I decided to enter again this year, and went with something much more generic – a horse in the walking ring, rider up, groom leading her. I had taken the reference photo last summer at the races, and as soon as I saw it, I knew I needed to paint it.  When they announced the 2016 contest – late enough that I'd been convinced they weren't going to run it – I didn't have a lot of time to contemplate what I was going to paint, and picked up the reference photo, already printed. I managed to get the painting done and entry made a week before the deadline, as I was travelling to San Francisco!

One of the photos I shot that day.

The notification date for the five finalists came and went, and I figured once again my work had been bypassed – though last year they'd sent out an email passing along that information. I went to check out the Plate website, and there was the announcement. Clicked through to see the top five...and there was my painting!  That was a pleasant surprise! Now, the painful part begins - the winner is determined by a voting process, and shameless self-promotion is NOT my strong suit. Popularity contests are not things I win. I'd rather see work chosen on merit than on who has the most friends. That said, I've been humbled by the show of loyal friends who have shown their support in my Facebook posts!

Janet and "Cinderella" – that's what the halter plate says!

Now...the title of this post doesn't mean what you think it might.  The grey filly in the painting, named Letter Fly, was bred by a friend of mine. Due to unfortunate circumstances, my friend had to sell her at the yearling sales. She ended up making her first start as a three-year old in Iowa, of all places. After showing little in those early races, my friend was able to buy her back and return her to Ontario, and she was christened "Cinderella" by the trainer's granddaughter. Here, she's gone from a cheap maiden claimer in Iowa to an allowance winner. She is sound and still racing as a five-year old, but when she no longer wants to be a racehorse, she'll be safe.

So, I hate asking for votes for myself, I really do. Cinderella, on the other hand, is very deserving of them! To vote, visit Woodbine's Queen's Plate website, and scroll down to follow the link that will take you to the  voting site.  There has been a bit of confusion in the voting process – you will need to rate the options given from first to fifth. I hope you enjoy all the artwork that has made the finals!

Warm Ups As Avoidance Behaviour

Study on Raymar archival canvas panel, first attempt, revisited.

I admit it, I started a study the other day, and I have been using it entirely as an avoidance tactic.  Big, detailed paintings are intimidating.  Little studies are easier to tackle.  If they get messed up, it seems to be easier to take.  I started this most recent study on Thursday and sure enough, I messed that up! I did something I very rarely do - I started over, on a completely different surface, abandoning the quick sketch of paint on canvas, for a new quick sketch of paint on linen.  Smaller dimensions, which, apparently, I could handle better than the first, slightly larger attempt.

Today I worked on the smaller study, and got it to the point where I'm pretty sure it's done.  Then I looked at the discarded start.  Another thing I very rarely do, is work from the same photo more than once, but as I'd let the sketch in paint dry, and ghosting isn't something I wanted to contend with, I thought I'd see what I could do with it as is.  I already had the palette set, a very limited one of four colours (and a combination of colours I hadn't used before).  So I played.  And avoided the big painting.  And now I'm writing this blog post, to further avoid the big painting.  It has, at least, made it back on my easel.  Time to pony up and get to it, I guess!  :-D

Study on unstretched linen, second attempt, ready to abandon.

Five Days In February – Days Four and Five!

"Baby Parker" 6 x 4 oil study.

Apparently I forgot to post the last two paintings on the blog!  The last two were both 6 x 4 on Raymar archival cotton canvas panel.  Day Four was a study of Parker (formerly known as Billy) as a foal, looking all sweet and innocent (yeah, right!). Day Five was a portrait of Sheldon, who celebrated his fifth birthday this week.  All five studies are now on my website in the "Studies" section, and for sale, $65.00 each including shipping in North America, until the end of the month.  After that, they'll be going to Equis Art Gallery to replenish the supply of my studies there. They seem to get snapped up there, so if you're thinking about it, don't wait too long!  ;-) 

"Sheldon," 6 x 4 oil study.

Sometimes, You Just Have To Give Yourself a Kick In The...

"New Digs With Toys," 5 x 7 oil study.

Facebook.  We love it. Hate it. Love to hate it.  Every so often these "challenges" come along – we've been having some fun with a music challenge, posting different favourite songs, and recently the art challenge has resurfaced.  I did it a couple of weeks ago – but it's inevitable that one will get tagged again to do it.  When that happened, I decided to make my own challenge, to do a painting a day for five days.  Having done several thirty day challenges (see my Thirty Horses, Thirty Days blog for many of them!) I figured I could pull off five, and maybe get myself jump-started back into a better studio routine.

It's amazing how much better I feel about day two's painting than day one.  I'm hoping by Friday I'll be unstoppable!  Haha....please don't let my horses hear that, they may take on a challenge of their own to stop me!  ;-) 

"Leo ('Hey, Good-Looking!')" 6 x 6 oil study on Raymar canvas panel.

Go Lexie Lou!

Lexie Lou ~ oil on linen.

I've been working on a few smaller studies these days, on various surfaces, just to keep things going in the studio while other things still keep me from spending a more solid chunk of time painting.  I have ideas and blog posts running through my head all the time...they'll eventually get out.

I'm not sure I ever posted this completed painting, for whatever reason.  This is a painting I did of 2014 Queen's Plate winner, the filly Lexie Lou.  Lexie missed most of last season because of an eye injury, and returned to the races last month.  Today she is back in action...in tough, running against her stablemate, Breeders' Cup Mile winner, Tepin. I'll be cheering for the underdog, Ontario-bred! Just a little bit of trivia - Lexie Lou is a half-sister to the mother of our homebred, Rachel (Relocate the Bank).

Cold and sunny day here in Southern Ontario - sounds like a day to spend in the studio, after doing the stalls, of course!

Rachel...cheering for her Aunt Lexie today?

Them's The Breaks

Left-handed drawing of Briggi as a baby...she may look sweet!

I have often joked that when it comes to horses, I am more of a danger to myself on the ground than on board. It's not that I'm a terribly good rider, I just seem to have a certain degree of self-preservation that comes with riders as we get older, the cliché being, we don't bounce like we used to. It's not as if I avoid potential trouble – let's face it, I like to ride green OTTBs, not necessarily the most bomb-proof choice of mount in the world. The thing is, the ones I'm handling around the farm are younger and usually sillier than my riding horses, and coming off stall rest. Most of the time they are more of a danger to themselves than to me. But...as with anything, it just takes once to change that!

Selfie with glasses and cast?

It's been a month now, since Briggi Wild Child slammed me into the doorframe of her stall as she bolted in, catching my arm and fracturing (and dislocating) it in the process. That would be my right arm, of course. Can't write, can't draw or paint, can't do stalls – all  the things I do to make money. Can't ride. So, I'm paying someone to do my stalls, and paying someone to ride the princess. Now that part, at least, is not a bad thing – as much as I miss riding my mare, we will both benefit from the training she is getting right now. Financially, well, it hurts more than the arm! Naturally my truck needed $300 worth of maintenance, and my teeth more...please insert whiny face here.

 I'm still able to do quite a bit in the barn, and my poor parents have stepped up to help out (I'm trying to tell them it's like a free gym membership). Just for fun, I've been playing with drawing and painting with my left hand, and that's actually gone better than expected.  I'm even going to put some of the decent ones on my website to see if I might be able to sell some, and help pay for the growing pile of unexpected expenses. They'll be in the $25 range...just might be a few weeks before I can mail them out!

Left-handed Leo. Leo is bored, bored, bored, not being ridden!

So, here's your chance to own what I'm sure will be a valuable collector's item in the future, haha. If you'd like to commission the most affordable portrait you will ever have the opportunity to have me paint, drop me a line at lindashantz *at* gmail.com, or send me a message on my Facebook page!

Upgrade.

Loose Ends

Zippy, Lounging ~ 5 x 7 oil on panel.

I've been spending a lot of time glaring at my easel of late - knowing there is work to be done, but feeling as if I'm just going to make a mess of anything I touch...kind of a reverse-Midas thing, where everything turns to muck.  The oil pastel commission I've been working on is in a good place (by which I mean more than not in my studio, haha), and just getting a rest from my eyes before I put the final touches on it, so I felt I needed to at least be making an attempt with the paints.

My solution has been to finish up some studies that were abandoned somewhere along the road. Some of them were just done during one of my daily painting projects, so they got a day's work but I always wanted to go back to them.  One I actually started from scratch (how brave, haha).  One just involved cutting down and stretching over new stretcher bars.  All I figured I could play with, and if I turned them to muck, nothing much would be lost except a bit more of my self-esteem!  ;-)

At the top is Zippy as a baby - he still has that look of owning the world!  Another study from the same time frame has found a new home, with artist friend Elizabeth McCrindle – it's always an extra honour when another artist likes my work enough to want it!  I have one of Elizabeth's paintings hanging on my studio wall. You can see the paintings in a blog post she wrote when she received them - thanks again, Elizabeth!

Einstein ~ 10 x 8 oil on canvas.

Milwaukee Brew ~ 8 x 10 oil on canvas.

Two of the paintings I was playing with a palette I haven't used much, favoured by artist Anders Zorn.  It's a limited palette of ivory black, cad red, yellow ochre and titanium white.  Admittedly I didn't push it much, but it was interesting just the same.  Both are studies of Thoroughbred stallions – Einstein (BRZ), sire of Sheldon, and Milwaukee Brew.

The last one is the restretch - I did this one as part of my daily painting projects, from a photo taken at Saratoga.  Now, I need to get these up on my website, in hopes that they, too, will find new homes!

Ready ~ 10 x 8 oil on linen.

 Oh, wait - one more!  This is Victor, a little study I started last year and finished up while I still had the Zorn palette open.  Catching a breeze on a warm spring day - which I hope we will see again, eventually!

Victor, Catching a Breeze  ~ 6 x 4 oil on canvas.

Just a PS - it's interesting to note the difference between my usual limited palette, which was used on the racehorse painting, compared with the stallion and Victor studies.  Which do you like better? I'm a time and place kind of person - I have to shake things up now and again, and studies are a great way to try out new things.

You've Come A Long Way, Baby....

They all look so sweet when they're sleeping!  5 x 7 oil on panel, sold.

Maybe it all started the day he was conceived - I took Twine up to be bred to Strut the Stage (standing at Colebrook at the time), baby Gracie at her side.  They didn't heed my warnings that she could be tough, not taking proper precautions, and she double-barreled him in the chest.  Poor Strut! I'm sure that did nothing for his self-esteem!  Anyway...about 338 days later, she had a cute little bay baby boy.  This colt had the slickest coat I've ever seen on a foal - clearly he thought he was landing in Florida, not Southwestern Ontario. He made me drag the vet out to tube him his first meal, because he couldn't figure out how to nurse in an acceptable time frame. And so began our series of adventures, which included a black eye for me.  Well, at least he didn't break my nose, like Hugo!

Lean, mean...well he wasn't mean...and fell a little short of being a racing machine! At Woodbine in 2013.

Close...but not quite (he's the one on the outside).

At the track, Leo started off showing promise...though he turned in to a wildman as a three-year-old.  More exploits were added to his list of accomplishments, like running off with his trainer, who gallops her own (the clockers even got a time on him!  No question he was fast!), escaping from his stall and running off down the shedrow, and antics behind the gate on race day which included dropping his rider and taking off, through the barrier and onto the harness racing track.  His best effort was a second place finish where he just missed winning, but then he hurt himself, and was retired.  And for some crazy reason, I said I'd take him.

That was a year and a half ago.  This is Leo today:



First day jumping from a canter!  Just goes to show you - never say never!

Stuck

"Watch and Learn..." Pip has a little advice for young Parker (ex. Billy).

This whole Your Turn Challenge was partly designed to get folks "unstuck" from their blogging avoidance.  Today's prompt is, what advice would I give people to get them unstuck?

I've always been an advocate of "Just Do It," even though I really don't want anything to do with Nike.  ;-) The thing about art - or writing, or probably anything - is, if you wait for the mood, or inspiration, or  your "muse", you'll never get anything done.  I think most of us psyche ourselves out.  We think when we sit down to work, we must create a masterpiece, or a best-seller.  Yeah, okay, some days you go through stretches where you're on fire and everything you paint/write is gold, but I know for me, that's not a realistic expectation 365 days a year. 

Think...or jump....outside the box! (Polly) 

I am currently in a major state of art and writing avoidance.  Part of that is related to what I wrote about earlier.  Part of it is legitimately a time factor.  In the past I've told myself, just start with 10-15 minutes.  And I've learned to be able to do short bits like that, so at least I feel as if I'm doing something.  The problem is when you do get unstuck, you're going to have to deal with the fact that you probably don't have 3-4 hours to spend at the easel, or immersed in Word.  In those times, I try to give myself a day or two a week that I can devote just to that.  The horses I'm riding can have days off to just be - they need that as much as we do.

Cross-training is important in any endeavour! Stevie demonstrates his prowess at Widgetball.

Another way to get unstuck, I'll take from riding.  I'm by no means an expert rider.  Most of my hours in the saddle have been galloping - and hence not really in the saddle so much as hovering above it!  I'm having to re-learn as much as my two horses are, and I can easily get locked into a rut when I'm riding, because I'm trying too hard (and usually failing miserably, haha).  The thing about riding Thoroughbreds - they're smart, most of them.  They get bored easily.  If you get too repetitive, sooner or later it's going to bite you in the butt...so, you have to think outside the box.  Do different stuff.  Challenge them a little, but not so much that they get worried or frustrated. 

Same goes for art, or writing, or working out, or....fill in your own blank.  Try something different.  Play around a bit.  Stop being so freaking serious all the time.  Words to live by?

Song of the day?  "New Low," by Middle Class Rut!  :-D

A Long Time Ago, We Used To Be Friends...

Brotherly Love - Sheldon and Zippy

Hey, how is everyone?  Who is everyone, these days, anyway?  I have been in hiding, of sorts, I believe.  It seems I have grown tired of Facebook, and the silly games over there –  meaning more the way that Facebook manipulates what we see, than the things people post.  It was fun, once upon a time.  It wasn't really so long ago we all "discovered" Facebook, was it?  Really, I'm not going to complain too much about the death of the public pages - we used to call them "fan" pages, didn't we?  I don't think it should come as a surprise to anyone that "free" wouldn't be forever. The thing is, it seems one would have to devote significant time, in addition to money, to make it worthwhile.  I don't have enough of either at the moment.  One day, maybe.  For now, well, I always liked blogging.  Perhaps this Facebook conundrum will inspire me to figure out a more consistent blogging schedule.

Leo and Gracie, hanging out with the Big Kids.

All is quiet on the horse front.  I go from taking care of the eight I have at home right now, to dashing over to the barn where I board Gracie and Leo.  Both are in consistent work now.  Leo has a part-boarder which is definitely a help.  I'm really happy with the progress both are making.  I had my doubts about trying to ride Gracie in the winter, as cold is not her friend (or maybe it is, and she's just exuberant about showing her affection!), but for the most part, she's been better than expected!

Donks in progress - Neddy and Jack.

I have been devoting my art time to working on commissions, and finally committing myself to practicing drawing humans.  Yes, you read that right.  I'm not brave enough to show off any of my sketches yet, but it's going okay.  Must. Improve! 

This winter has been much kinder than last, even if the past week has brought back memories of how endless it was last year.  I've noticed a couple of horses losing some hair this week - spring must be just around the corner, right? 

Happy (Rather Belated) New Year, everyone!

Studio Tour Time! Version 2014!

Well, I've been remarkably bad at keeping up with the blog, and have failed to post about a couple of recent shows, but at least I'm not missing the studio tour.  The fall colours here on the Niagara Escarpment are is full swing, so it's a great time to take a drive to the country to see some artwork!  My neighbour Tina Newlove and I are a mere 500 metres apart on the same laneway, so catch both studios! It's a great place to start off the tour. 

For more information, please feel free to contact me, or visit the FASM website.

Lara Strikes Again!

Well, the results are in for awards at this year's Art Show at the Dog Show. I was fortunate enough to have two pieces accepted this year. One was an oil pastel vignette of a crazy (the best kind!) Border Collie at an agility trial, called, appropriately, Bordering On Insanity. The other was a collection of Brittany pups, all sleeping in a heap. Amongst these pups was Lara, the puppy featured in the painting that went to this same show last year, and went on to win the award for Best Entry Depicting a Brittany.


The Brittany pups I called "Pile o' Britts" and I was very happy to find out that it was awarded the prize for Best Brittany entry this year. So here's to Lara and her littermates! Time to start planning for next year!

"Nobility Without Conceit"

Well, I signed the painting of "the girls" last night after doing the final work on it. There is a saying among some artists, that a piece of art is "never finished, just abandoned." While this is a rare piece I will keep for myself, I did have a couple of show deadlines to work towards that kept me working on it. This painting will be part of the EAG "Artist's Muse" online show, as well as From Heart to Hand, a group show this coming weekend of members of the Fine Arts Society of Milton.

Rather than babble on, I'm going to paste the information I submitted with the EAG show entry.

I struggled with a title for this painting, and have to admit I'm at a loss for a clever paragraph to describe my feelings. With a new foal on the ground at my farm, I'm reminded of the day my dark bay Thoroughbred mare Sass (reg'd Hallowed Be) foaled a tiny bay filly who has grown into the now seven-year-old mare we've come to know as Monster. It's been almost a year now that Sass has been gone, so painting this was more than a little difficult and bittersweet. While Monster is known for her attitude, her mother was the kindest, quietest mare on the planet. She was gentle enough to put a child on without concern. When I took the reference photo on which this painting was based -- just days before my sweet mare was put down -- the worry and respect on Monster's face was so different from the displays of attitude and fire I usually try to capture.

When trying to come up with a title, I was thinking of names in these mares' pedigrees. Sass's sire was a son of Vaguely Noble (FR) named Noble Saint. That brought to mind a favourite quote of mine that I'd forgotten, and it seemed a fitting tribute to Sass. Now, if I can just get Monster to read it!

"The Horse. Here is nobility without conceit, friendship without envy, Beauty without vanity. A willing servant, yet no slave" - Ronald Duncan