If You Haven't Heard From Me, I'm Probably Buried Somewhere Under Several Bales of Hay....

 Amazing how quickly a month goes by, is it not?  I am happy to say I survived the annual hay 'season,' at least the first part of it.  It's one of those things only horse people and farmers will understand - that borderline anxiety as we wait for the first cut of hay.  I was fortunate this year in that my stash lasted me through to this year's crop.  Running around looking for hay to tide you over until the new stuff arrives is not fun.  So now, I've stored as much as I can store.  Needless to say the last two loads came on the hottest day of the year so far I think, but that's just how it goes at hay time. 


My time in the studio has been sporadic, but with hay and breeding season finally behind me, I'm starting to get back into some sort of rhythm.  I have a number of new paintings on the go - no less than five in various stages of underpainting.  For this post, however, I'm sharing an older one. I don't feed round bales, personally, but I do love the sight of them waiting in the fields.  This one is an 8 x 10 oil on canvas board - available for $80.  I have hay to pay for, you know! 

Stay tuned - new paintings will be showing up shortly!

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!

Landscape Catchup

I'm determined to meet the landscape challenge, even if it means producing and posting less-than-admirable work. These three little pieces are each experiments in different ways, and what I classify as quick studies. Sometimes these things come off better than others. In the midst of everything else that's been going on around here in the past few weeks, well, let's just say, beggars can't be choosers! I have been working on my more serious pieces, and hopefully in the near future will reveal the results of some of that work.

Just a quick description of these three pieces. The little landscape is just on Fredrix canvas pad, and is using Kevin MacPherson's plein air palette (inside after dark in my studio, however!) of simply Titanium White, Ultramarine Blue, Thalo Green, Alizarin Crimson and Cadmium Yellow Light. I love the colours, though the painting was very simple and quick. The middle piece is a cloud study, done on gessoed birch panel, 8 x 10. The one thing about all this rain, we've had some pretty cool clouds! Again, just a quick study. The third is 5 x 7 oil on shellaced Masonite - the first time I have worked on such a surface. This one isn't done yet, but is done from some of the photos I took on my recent Saratoga trip. This horse and rider are on Clare Court, a sand ring type gallop on the backstretch.

On the farm front, our record rainfall this summer is causing a bit of havoc. Forgive me if I don't really want to talk about it! There's gotta be an ark around here somewhere....

Pleasant Surprises

Best Behaviour 8 x 10 oil on Raphael Linen

The current Canine Art Guild show is titled, "Canine Pot Luck" and the work is fabulous, really great stuff. I can't remember if I posted a link to it here, so I have to apologize for that! Be sure to take a look. Viewers were able to place votes for their favourite work, though my lateness in mentioning this that means that voting has now closed! Okay, so marketing has never been my strong point!

Yesterday I received an email from our inspiring CAG helmsperson, Kim Santini, that my entry, Best Behaviour (remember him?), received an Honourable Mention for People's Choice! With the quality of work in the show, I really was surprised. It's certainly an honour in such esteemed company. Deserved congratulations go to winner Diane Solomon for her piece "Big Brother Watches over Me" and to the other Honourable Mention, Julie Bender. Julie does pyrography - definitely worth a checking out!


Meanwhile, back on the easel...my little 5 x 7 oil on Raphel linen is now complete, varnished and ready to go to the framer. Kat Moore, who owns this gorgeous Shire (named Shine) had generously shared more photos of the big guy and his son, Duelly, so you might be seeing more of these boys. I know I posted an image of this, but as I've scanned it now, I thought it deserved a more accurate picture.

And lest you think I copped out on my weekly landscape committment, I will post this week's effort, even though it's not finished. This is 5 x 7 oil on canvas, tentatively called, "Keenland Quiet." I expect I'll have to pop a horse in there somewhere, though as someone who has worked on the backstretch, it does say something that there are no horses visible. I'll have to think about that one. Any comments?

Meanwhile, Back on the Curragh...

This painting has progressed considerably since I showed the initial work - it wasn't even a complete sketch at that point. This one, again, is a 5 x 7 oil on double-primed Raymar linen panel. I'm enjoying the surface, and now that I've started Curlin on the single-primed panel, I'll be able to compare and see if I prefer one over the other.

The sky was painted a couple of days ago, and the landscape this afternoon. Tonight I've been working on the horse. All will still need work, and there are details I still need to paint in.

It was nine years ago this week I was in Ireland taking these photos! Here's another, older painting I did from a couple other photos I took that particular morning. Kind of a funny story goes along with it. My friend and I decided we'd walk to the Irish National Stud from the B&B where we were staying, having no idea how far that was. The Curragh was pretty early on in the walk. We were both tired and crabby by the end of the day. Believe it or not, we're still friends!