Good News Abounds!

If anything, today’s weather is worse than yesterday’s. It’s cloudy, a stiff wind is blowing, a drizzly rain is falling, and the temperature is a chilly 56 degrees F as opposed to yesterday’s high of 66! Even so, I prefer this weather to last week’s heat and high humidity. It’s a good chance to catch up on indoor chores without the misery of constant sweating and clammy floors and furniture.

At the height of last week’s heat, I was visited by a newly found saddle fitter who evaluated my saddle and my horse and declared that he could take my saddle apart, narrow the tree and restuff it to fit my horse better. Since it’s a quality saddle in good condition and needs only these minor adjustments, I won’t have to go saddle shopping again! The long and short of it is that this culminated a long-time goal of mine to “do something” about a saddle that I knew was a little too wide for my horse but that is comfortable for me and that I love. Thanks to a Chronicle of The Horse online forum, I was able to find a saddle fitter in Michigan who was highly recommended by other dressage riders. If the fit turns out well, I’ll share his name.

The other thing I accomplished over the past week was to finish weeding the flower beds, plant the wax begonias and install edging blocks along the front of the old garage flower bed. That made a huge improvement in its looks and helps to hold the water in, since one end of the bed is higher than lawn level. All of my new perennials that survived the winter are doing spectacularly, and the foxgloves are now blooming in lovely hues of magenta and cream. I’m going to wait until next year to move plants around after evaluating their different growing characteristics and bloom times. This year I’ll install more edging blocks along the long fence bed and dig out more sections between shrubs which will make mowing the lawn easier for my husband.

In about ten days, Horse Shows By The Bay will begin its expanded three week series of shows in Acme, and I’m hoping to get over there to shoot at least a couple of times. There will be an all-afternoon series of polo matches that are must-sees as well.

In honor of HSBB, I’m thinking of starting a new painting or drawing using one of my images from past shows. There are so many good ones to choose from that it will be difficult to make a choice! Should it be hunters, jumpers, dressage, ponies or a general horse show scene? Or, perhaps I’ll start my planned series of horse show dogs.

There is more good news that Mural Mosaic’s The Horse Gift will be displayed at this year’s Calgary Stampede. That’s the mural I did a panel for last year, so if you’re up that way and going to take in the Stampede, be sure to search out the mural. You can’t miss it; it’s 22 feet high! So far, the mural has been shown at Spruce Meadows, Quarter Horse Congress and the National Finals Rodeo; all top horse venues with lots of visitors. Reports are that visitors are just blown away by it! You can buy your own poster of it, too, or buy a book and put together your own life sized horse poster of the mural. I have books, if anyone is interested.

At the top are my foxgloves blooming. And below is my panel for The Horse Gift.

More About Le Cadeau du Cheval

A few more words about the mural project, "Le Cadeau du Cheval" from Mural Mosaic.

A couple of the Equine Art Guild members who were able to attend the unveiling ceremony were kind enough to share their photos with the rest of us, and after seeing them, all I can say is "Awesome!". You really MUST spend some time looking at each of the panels. To do so, just click on the individual panel and you will be taken to a page where you can view that panel larger, see who painted it and read any story that the artist wrote about it. For instance mine is here.

I've posted an image above of the whole mural which may give you a better idea of its scope and what it's about. Thanks to artist, Twyla Wehnes for sharing this photo, and remember that it's protected by copyright and cannot be copied or used without permission.

Finally, I'd like to thank Phil and Lewis and Paul for inviting me to be a part of this incredible project. And also a thanks for the thrilling feature of my panel on Youtube.

The Horse Gift Unveiled!

Well, this is it; the day that we've all been waiting for! Today the Mural Mosaic latest mural, The Horse Gift, is unveiled at the Spruce Meadows Masters.

You may recall that a few months ago, I was immersed in creating a panel for this grand project; one of many artists to be invited to create a panel. When put together, the panels form a large image of a galloping horse, while each panel is also a unique work of art celebrating the horse. There are some incredible works of art in this mural, so be sure to take the time to click on each one to see a larger version. Mine is located on the right opposite the horse's muzzle.

We've been told that prints and books will be available of the complete mural.

Although I've had grave misgivings about perhaps not having understood how to create the panel to fit into the mural whole, seeing it all together goes a long way to erase that fear. I am very proud to have been invited to participate as one "of the world's finest equine artists" and look forward to what grand events may ensue as a result. The touring schedule has still not been published, but it's very possible that this huge mural may come to a horse event near you. If it does, I urge you to see it in person for an unforgettable experience. I only hope that I can do the same.

Bard Goes Green

When I pulled out the time sheet for Bard's portrait, I was shocked to see that it's been three months since I last gave him any attention. It had been my intent to work on him at the same time as the Mural Mosaic panel, but the panel paints dried so fast that I was able to work on it every day. With a short deadline, I just kept going until the panel was done.

So, here is Bard with a fresh new background. Using bristle brushes, I tried to keep the brush strokes loose and mixed some of the pigments on the canvas for a varied, leaf-like look. Bard just LOVES to go trail riding, and I'd like to give the background the look of the deep woods that we ride in where he loves to go.

The hues are a little more intense than I'd planned, and since I managed to scrape some paint off with a finger nail this morning, I'll do another layer after I work on Bard again. If I'd been back more in Painting Brain, I would have added a touch of cadmium orange to the greens to dull them down a little for a more realistic look, but I can do that in the next go round. I was also a little concerned that the values might be too close, but when I walked into the darkened studio last night, Bard stood out from the background just fine.

I must say that after all the pondering I've done about what to do with his background, I like this a lot. And after all the gardening, it's good to be painting again.

Poseidon's Gift; Finished!

It took some marathon painting sessions over the past few days, but I was able to finish the painting today and even signed it, the very last thing I do when I finish a painting.

To the strains of Mozart and then some Gershwin (An American In Paris), I repainted the bay horse and the gray, put manes and tails on the horses, finished the galleon and painted two wee horse heads out in the waves swimming for their lives to shore. I even painted water draining off the horses' bellies, and that may be the coolest part of the whole painting.

I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out after some grave misgivings earlier. In the end it came together and serves the purpose for which it was created; to be a part of the Mural Mosaic project.

This painting is probably the biggest challenge I've given myself to date. It required a lot of research to pull it off, required that I paint something I've never painted before; the ocean and waves on a beach; and required working from less than optimum reference photos. The composition is entirely my own creation. I had no photo to copy to tell me where to put the elements and how big to make them.

There were many times when I thought that I'd bitten off more than I could chew and wished that I'd chosen a simpler subject that wouldn't have taken so much time and effort. But now that it's done, I'm glad I had the courage to go so far out of my comfort zone and do something that would help me to grow as an artist. It isn't perfect, but it's the best I can do at this time in my development as an artist.

And that's all I need ask of myself; to do the best that I can do today.

Click on the thumbnail to see a larger view and a detail view of some of the horses.

Poseidon's Gift; Water World

It took me two days just to paint the waves and the ocean. There were many false starts as I laid on paint, wasn't happy with the results and wiped it off again to try something different. Working without a good, solid reference of large waves coming onshore proved to be challenging, but I did the best I could and can only hope that these waves are a reasonable facsimile of moving water and the power that they represent.

You'll notice that the bay horse no longer has ears. He will get new ones today when I repaint him. With luck, I should be able to finish the panel today and then do some touchups if needed tomorrow.

Click on the thumbnail above to see the larger image. I just couldn't get a sharp image of the panel, but when it's finished, I'll use the tripod and that should yield better results.

Poseidon's Gift; Purple Clouds?!

Here are the results of another two days of painting, and this thing is finally coming together. Click on the image above to see a larger view.

Why purple clouds? Well, one of the challenges of creating these panels is that we have to follow the patterns and colors that are on them while adding our own artistic interpretations of the horse to them. We are only allowed to deviate by 20% in colors and lights and darks. So, purple clouds were a better idea than northern lights in a tropical setting in the daylight.

They ARE rather purple, though, aren't they? When all is dry, I will glaze some blue over them to bring them into a more realistic realm.

Tomorrow I start to paint the ocean and am really looking forward to that!

Poseidon's Gift; The Blood Bay Stallion

Yesterday was frustrating because I wasn't able to paint until late afternoon, but I kept at it until this horse was finished about 11:00pm. It was a challenge to paint a whole horse at such a small size, and I tried to keep my brush strokes more loose than usual and not fuss too much over every little bit.

This Andalusian horse is the main focus of the painting. I chose to make him a rich red bay because his warmth would be a good contrast to all the greens and blues of the ocean waves and therefore attract the eye. As usual, there are lots of corrections to make on him if the paint is dry enough. But, my goal for today is to finish the other two horses and the ship. Then I can go on to the sky and ocean.

I found the last time I painted that some of my alkyds had begun to dry in the tubes and become stiff, so I replaced those colors on my palette yesterday with oils of the same hue. That worked much better.

Poseidon's Gift; Let The Painting Begin!

During the past week, I came to the conclusion that the original pattern on the panel as provided by Mural Mosaic was intimidating me and holding me back. So, I decided the best way to proceed was to cover it over with a thin layer of paint using the local colors for my design.

After designing the waves and combining them with the horses, I traced all onto the panel and began laying on paint. Since time is getting short, I used my alkyds but found that they had become thickened over time and were difficult to work with. They were drying fast on the panel but also drying fast on the palette! I did manage to get a layer of paint over the whole surface and didn't worry too much about staying within the lines or putting in details at this early stage. So, the panel is very much in the Ugly phase right now.

After some advice from my artist friends who are also doing panels for this project, I've decided to switch to oils from now on since they seem to be drying faster than normal on these panels. I'm getting very worried about the time factor because the deadline is fast approaching, so I'll be painting many hours per day from now on and hoping for the best.

I'm not very happy with the waves so they will need to be revised, but first I'll work on the horses and get them to a more finished state before doing the background again.

Click on the somewhat neon colored thumbnail above to see a larger version and how I arrived at the design. At this point you don't see much of the diagonal lines that are an important element to incorporate in my design. Those will come later as I put in the clouds and details in the waves.