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.

Time For A Show

 

A few weeks ago I was asked if I'd like to take part in a local show with some fellow FASM members.  Well, that show is this weekend, and yes I'm going to have work there.  It's being held at Crawford's Garden Centre in Milton, and 10% of all sales are going to the Milton District Hospital Foundation. Milton has grown so much in recent years, it's sorely in need of expansion.  Hopefully our little group will be able to help out with lots of sales this weekend!

I'll be hanging a number of pieces at very special prices in order to encourage local sales, so if you're in the neighbourhood, I hope you'll stop by!  There will also be prints and notecards available. The show runs from 9am-9pm Saturday July 5th and 10am-5pm Sunday July 6th.

A Little Victor

Caution:  wet paint!  ;-) Work in progress.

Little paintings really shouldn't take as long as I'm taking with this one.  This is the little study I started the other night, and then wiped off.  I was happier with my second drawing attempt, though  I'm still making adjustments as I go.  So much for trying to be quick and loose! Clearly I have some kinks to work out.

A better start.

This one is 6 x 4 oil on Raymar cotton canvas panel. So far I've limited my colours to Venetian Red, Ultramarine Blue, Titanium White and a bit of Cad Yellow Lemon and Gold Ochre. 

Ridiculously tentative work.  :-D

Paint. Every. Day.

"Ask," oil on linen study in progress.

June.  Finally we are getting some seasonally appropriate weather.  It’s amazing what that does for the psyche.  After a difficult winter and a tentative spring, it’s looking like just maybe we might have a reasonable summer. I even wore shorts yesterday!

I was tempted to do another Thirty Horses, Thirty Days to jumpstart myself this month. It’s been a while, and I have enjoyed the ones I’ve done in the past.  What holds me back is, well, reality, basically.  For one, getting a painting done every single day with everything that’s going on at the moment would be extremely difficult.  Then there is the fact that I have many small paintings, and I really don’t want to accumulate another 30.  So, what I decided was to commit to painting something each day.  It might be working on one of the larger WIPs, it might be a new study/sketch.  As long as the brushes and paint make contact with some ground or another at least once, that’s the deal.  The other motivation for not doing a Thirty Horses is that I don't want to limit myself to just horses, so we'll see what else I come up with along the way.

Sunday, (June 1^st) I started a small oil on linen study (above).  Yesterday (June 2^nd) time was tight and I was literally picking up a brush at ten to midnight.  I wiped out what I did, because I wasn’t happy, but I’m going to accept that's the way things are going to be some days and just go with it.  Today might be another one of those days, but we'll see.  Hopefully by the end of the month I'll have a few new small paintings, have finished some of the larger WIPs, and maybe even have started some new ones.  Bottom line is, I need to get back into some kind of routine to get past a particularly dry spell. I should be painting almost every day anyway, so this needs to carry into July and beyond!

"Victor," a start that I ended up wipng off.  Perhaps I'll try again today!

 Just.  Paint.

Well You Didn't Forget *Her* Birthday, Did You?

"Fire Filly," 8 x 10 oil on canvas

You're right Leo.  You're right.  Perhaps that has something to do with Gracie's birthday falling on the same day as a holiday a lot of people seem to celebrate, but yes, I don't tend to forget Miss Gracie's birthday.  Gracie's birth was kind of a big deal, because her mom, Twine, had aborted he first foal, so the safe arrival of a particular little chestnut was extra-special.  I guess Gracie was just extra-special from day one!  I finished the above painting yesterday, of the big mare on High Goblin Alert. ;-)

Minutes old.

Tiny filly has grown into tall mare, but lost none of her playful, gregarious personality along the way.  Happy Birthday to my favourite chestnut mare.  :-)

All photos are copyright protected. The foal pictures are copyright 2008 EJKimaging.

A day and a half old.

Birthdays Are Overrated, Right?

"Reciprocal," 8 x 16 oil on panel

Today is Peaker's birthday - Peaker being the first foal that was born on my little farm that wasn't mine (cough*Monster*cough). She was born one very cold February morning, eight years ago, first foal of her mom, Too Clever.  I remember it was cold enough I went and bought a foal blanket for her...and when I put it on her, Clever decided she was an alien, so I had to take it off.  Poor little Peaker!  She grew up tough!  Last I heard Peaker was in Minnesota.  I hope she is doing well, and that she shows up on my radar again.

After remembering Peaker's birthday, it occurred to me that I had completely let Leo's birthday slip by!  Yesterday marked five years since my goofy boy arrived, and he's been causing trouble ever since.  He even broke his halter yesterday.  In hindsight, it was almost as if he was trying to get my attention. Haha! 

Both Peaker and Leo have been models for my paintings.  Above is the most recent one featuring Leo (and his buddy growing up, Spider), an 8 x 16 oil on Raymar panel called "Reciprocal."  Below is on of my favourites of Peaker, galloping through the snow with her friend Maria, both of them yearlings.  This one is 11 x 14 oil on Raphael panel.  Both paintings are still available; if you're interested, let me know!

The next birthday is one I never forget.  Anyone want to hazard a guess whose that might be?  ;-)

"Fresh Snow," 11 x 14 oil on linen

Last Painting of 2014, and First Sale of 2014!

As I said in my last post, days tend to run together in my world.  That title is for those of you who differentiate! Above is the final commission I completed in 2103, a 12 x 24 oil on Raphael linen panel. Below is the first sale of 2014, made through a new gallery in Red Hook, New York, Equis Art Gallery.  You can follow the development of this exciting new venue on Facebook! A great way to start off the New Year, I think!

"Toss" is a 24 x 24 oil on canvas.  Reproductions are available through Fine Art America.