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.

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.

Rush, Rush, Rush

Time was pretty tight again today. I had to get a load of hay, then go back for a load of straw. Then there was the Shop Vac distraction...anyway, I finally started painting around 2pm, and only had till 4pm (feed time) to get something done. As usual, I can see a few issues with this, but I'm not going to tell you what they are if you haven't figured it out!

This is Mute, a four-year old Thoroughbred gelding. He and Gladys were actually both purchased at the 2005 CTHS yearling sale. While Gladys didn't make it to the races, Mute was stakes-placed as a two-year old and made over $100,000. Today's painting is 10 x 8 oil on panel. The limited palette experience is pretty interesting, I'm finding. When I started out I was pretty sure I was going to end up with a bright orange horse; then I seemed to actually remember what I was doing and it turned out okay in the end. Maybe by November 30 I'll have it figured out, but I'm not making any promises!

I'm having a really hard time getting decent photos of these little paintings. Because they're typically wet, and because the thickness of the paint varies over the surface, some funky things happen! Even taking them outdoors doesn't help. Just another chance to remind everyone, there's no comparison to seeing original artwork in person. And now a word from our sponsor.... :-D