Day One: So Tired, Tired of Waiting...

So, here we go, are you ready? I decided that the first day's painting would be of Clever, who is expecting her third foal...due, last Friday! As setting due dates for horses is somewhat of an arbitrary thing, I'm not worried - as of today she is 340 days which is still well within normal. And I'm not really all that tired of waiting...yet!

This oil painting is about 12 x 8.5 inches on unstretched canvas. I toned the canvas with a good layer of Burnt Sienna, and then used the palette I experimented with last night. It's very simple: Ivory Black, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red Medium and Titanium White. I know I was struggling with it last night, but I actually ended up being happy with the result. And I think Clever suits the theme of this month very well, as that belly is growing every day!

I'm going to list some of these oil studies for sale in my Etsy Store as I finish them. I'll keep them there for a short period of time at "give the poor fatigued artist a day off from mucking out" prices...that just means the ones I sell there will be priced at about what it costs me to hire someone to come do my stalls for a day! Consider it a charitable donation as well as an investment! Check the store a bit later if you're interested in today's study.

Thanks for checking in...see you tomorrow!

Promises, Promises!

Well as...ah...promised...I finished this painting so I can finally post it! I had such a lot of fun with this painting because of the horses' expressions. These two are Gladys, who you probably know by now (on the left with the blaze) and Jay, the big chestnut gelding that was here last winter. This is an 18 x 24 oil on gallery wrap canvas. I guess technically I'm not done because I have to paint the edges and sign it!

It's nice to get one of my big paintings done. I always like to balance the smaller, faster pieces with the larger more detailed works like this. I'll pull out the next bigger painting tonight and try to get it rolling. That one is still in the early stages of the underpainting – I don't think I've posted it here yet. It's another close crop which are probably still my favourite thing to do. I will likely start up some new smaller pieces before too long – it's time for some middle-of-the-night work, thanks to Twine's approaching due date.

On that note...time to head out to the barn and start getting things ready to bring in and feed. Can't have the ponies waiting now, can I?

Fitting It All In

Days like this are rare - where I near the end and realized I managed to do all the important stuff. It started off a little slow - believe it or not, I have entered the ranks of those privileged folk with high speed internet access! Could the whining really be at its end? Of course, it's not performing as it's supposed to (big surprise) but the bottom line is, bad high speed is still faster than really bad dialup. So first thing, I did waste a bit of time online - the novelty of it, you know.

First order at the barn was walking Medz, before it got too warm and the flies came out to torment him. The weanlings still managed to do that - they seem to think it's fun to get Uncle Medz going. After I finished the stalls, I knew it would be criminal to let a gorgeous fall day like today pass without getting on the Monster. We're both admittedly out of shape, so we just went on a short hack, and then did a little bit of flat work. The trails are a bit overgrown, and I have a nice scratch on my arm to show for that, but I was otherwise unscathed, and Monster was pretty agreeable.


Miss Maria has come to the end of her "sentence" and to help in her re-entry I gave her a shot of Atravet (or "sensible" as I like to call it!). I turned her out in the small paddock, and she was very civilized - the weanlings once again helping out by grazing curiously on the other side of the fence. I bedded the stalls and soaked the feeds, and then everybody came in for dinner. Yesterday I bought a storage box for the tack room, and hauled that out of the truck and put it together before heading to the house.

I'd promised Swish I'd throw a ball for her, so before getting something to eat (somehow in the midst of my ambitious plans for the day, lunch was bypassed) I let the little Border Collie chase a couple of round orange objects - next to sheep, I'm sure there's nothing a black and white likes better! After my own dinner, I stalled a bit on the painting thing - wasted some more time online, while not really watching the first episode of the first season of Dexter until the hockey game came on.


Finally, the paints came out. I thought I'd work on one of the pieces in progress waiting for attention, but instead I started a new piece. This is just a small one, and all I did was start to block things in...just enough to say I did paint today! It doesn't look like much right now, but I'm going to let it dry before I do any more. This is 6 x 8, oil on Raymar canvas panel.

Now it's time to clean my brushes, let the dogs out one more time, then make my last trip to the barn. I guess you'd call this a full day! The right team even won the hockey game. Just don't expect me to duplicate it tomorrow!

Putting the Pieces Together: The Monday Landscape Challenge

The thing about painting horses is that, sooner or later, you're going to have to paint landscapes. We horses artists tend to avoid them for as long as we can - just like we usually do our best to avoid painting figures! I've done a few plein air landscape courses, and gone on the odd paint-out, but normally I get so wrapped up in painting my horse-themed work that I neglect devoting some time to landscapes, specifically.

Last week fellow EAGer Carrie Lewis and I decided to do a "landscape challenge." In 2007, Carrie did a landscape-a-day challenge on her own, painting an ACEO (Art Cards Editions and Originals - 2.5 x 3.5 inch paintings, in other words, tiny!) each weekday. I haven't signed up for that big a commitment, but we settled on a landscape a week, starting today. My aim is to do this for the summer, at least, and see how it goes!

Today's painting is from a photo taken somewhere around Creemore, Ontario. Something about round bales in the field is visually appealing, be it hay or straw. I only used the photo as a starting point, manipulating things to come up with this composition. This is an 8 x 10 oil on canvas board. The summer so far has been so wet, we're still waiting for first cut hay, making this scene a bit of a dream!


Last night, I think I finished my little 5 x 7 oil on Raphael linen panel of the Shire in the snow, which I've titled "Man on a Mission." I still have to sign it, but otherwise all that's left is the drying!

Fast and Fun

I've fallen behind taking part in our Equine Art Guild "pARTys", with all that's been going on. I caught up a little today, doing two. This first one, I printed out the photo weeks ago - I like it as soon as I saw it. The photographer, Donna Ridgeway (also and artist, of course) is from Montana, and I drool over her photos all the time, so it was a treat to work from one. This painting is 10 x 12 oil on canvas, and I worked for two hours. It's certainly not done, but It least you can tell they're horses!

The next one is only 6 x 8, oil on canvas panel. I figured working small I had a shot. I actually find it harder to work small like this. It was still a lot of fun. I only spent half an hour on this one. Again, not done, as I won't be able to help tweaking it a bit, but starting with a blank canvas and getting to this in the time frame was kind of cool!


It was a foggy day today, kind of warm (had it not been so damp) so spending most of the day indoors painting seemed the thing to do. It's nice to get a break from the serious paintings for a bit, and hopefully get back to them with fresh perspective!