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!

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.

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.

Dark Matter...Antimatter...What Does Matter?

Faceoff! 5 x 7 oil

Moving on to day two of the Your Turn Challenge, the prompt is to talk about something that is important to us. I could take that prompt in many directions, but as the focus of this blog is supposed to be the creation of art - my art, specifically - I thought I would address that.

Only...these days I'm seriously questioning how important art is to me.  Sure, in the greater context, I believe art is important - humans have been creating art for a seriously long time, so there must be something to it, right?  But...is my art important?  I'm not convinced.  Is making art important to me?  Right here, right now...I'm not so sure.

This post is far too serious.

 I know there will be some who will admonish me for those thoughts, but I think they're legitimate.  Overall, I consider myself a fairly practical person.  I've been blessed for much of my life to be able to make my living doing things I enjoy - working with horses being the primary source of my income.  While there are definite ups and downs, in general, it makes me happy to be able to spend much of my day talking to horses, instead of people.  I'm better at it. And when they talk back, well, it's easy to admit they're right.

Artwork, contrary to how many artists feel, is work.  Producing art is not the work part, per se; it's the marketing that is so painful.  It would be nice if talent alone equaled success for an artist, but many of us know too well, that is not the case.  I am the first to admit, I am quite horrible at marketing myself!  Self-promotion is tough, especially when one is experiencing something resembling a crisis of confidence.

I can produce the work.  I know that.  If I can't sell it...I have to question producing more work.  So right now, outside of the commission commitments I have, I'm not feeling compelled to churn out anything new.  I'm feeling my time is better spent working on improving some of my artistic skills - hence the sketching people, and painting landscapes - the stuff I'm not letting anyone see at the moment.  I guess that means I'm not completely abandoning my work;  I just can't rationalize painting something new.  I either need to get my head around believing my work is worth promoting, or content myself with relegating my work to hobby status. Maybe somewhere along the road, I'll figure out if it is important or not.

If you haven't seen the Fifth Wave cartoon to which my title somewhat refers...check it out here!

Leo says, "Can we all just lighten up now?"

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!