Drawing On Life; The Art of Karen Baker Thumm: Waiting For Spring

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Waiting For Spring

Equine Oil Painting, 11x14 inches

Spring is supposed to be here in northwest lower Michigan, but the weather isn’t cooperating at all. Apparently, Mother Nature has decided to stay in Florida for another month. This past week we had rain, sleet, freezing rain and snow; some of it all on the same day. There was enough snow to cover the ground again and although that has melted now, there is still plenty of snow around in shaded areas and in piles and drifts.

Since last report, I finished up the income tax materials and took them to the accountant and then put in a few more hours on the new painting. It still doesn’t have a good name, but I’m working on that, too.

I quIckly found out that I’m really rusty on doing these underpaintings so it’s looking pretty rough at the moment. I hope to remedy that with the next layer of the underpainting. The goal in this first layer was just to establish some of the values while at the same time keeping them all on the light side in case I need to make some corrections later on.

Back at the barn, Scottie had his second visit from the vet dentist in March and passed inspection with flying colors. Here he is being worked on by the very capable Dr. Colleen Porter. He was so drugged that he was having a hard time staying on his feet.

A visit with the Dentist

Unfortunately, a few weeks later his nasal discharge returned, and this time we had to dose him with a powerful antibiotic that is possibly hazardous to humans. Here I am all suited up in my home made hazmat gear after dosing him with the syringe. You can see how thrilled he is with this process.

Dosing the Horse

Now that he’s finished his two weeks on that antibiotic, we’re holding our breaths hoping the discharge doesn’t come back again. If it does, I don’t know where we’ll go from there.

Here’s another photo from back in February. This is J Willie going after poor Elmer. JW is a real school yard bully who picks on the weakest in the herd, namely Elmer and Scottie. He has now been banished to a separate paddock with his sister, Elle, so he doesn’t cause any more injuries.