Hi, everyone. Ocala was a great mini vacation except that my friend, Vance, was thrown off the back of the carriage during the marathon phase and broke many ribs. I've been helping take care of him and he's doing much better now. The chicks are now mini chickens and have been weaned from their mom who hardly gives them a passing glance.
I have been asked to do the cover art for the Virginia edition of The Barn Book and here is the start. They wanted a horse with his head over a stall door interacting with a dog...right up my alley. Of course, I'm using the very convenient home talent (Lance, the Connemara, and Ruffles, the Corgi) for models. I glazed the illustration board with a mix of medium and yellow green acrylic and sealed the edges well. I then glazed that with another green to contrast with the future brick reds and caramel Corgi colors. This is going to be fun! Thanks for watching!
This painting is about finished and the final title is "The Lady Would Like A Glass Of Sherry". Those of you who sent in title suggestions for this painting are going to get a reward of note cards whether your title was chosen or not. Please make sure that I have a mailing address for you, and many, many thanks! I just returned from a week in Ocala at the Live Oak Combined Driving Event. I needed the break and it gave me a chance to observe vendors and their booth layouts to help me when I get ready to sell my paintings at a show. On to the next piece!
Here's the next step. I see some mistakes that need to be taken care of. It's close to being finished. Do you have any major objections or, better yet, suggestions?
Hello, everyone. For some reason, this painting is about to get the best of me. I have found that I need more courage to approach this one in the studio than many of the others I've done. I guess it's the detail that I can't get with this brand (Senellier) of oil pastel, which is very soft and won't make a point easily, especially with the warm weather we've been having. I may have to refrigerate some of the colors before I use them and then rub them on sandpaper for a point. I've removed and repainted the girl's face four times. Anyway, I'm at it again and I love the suggestions for a title. From John, "I know we had another passenger when we left -- did he fall out when we ran over that rut?" From Linda, " I think I might be tempted to call it "Hazard" or.."Haphazard"! And from Wendy, "Wait, didn't somebody bring the sherry?" I love them all! Many thanks for your encouragement, and, the chicks are doing well. One of the babies ran over to the rooster this morning, meeting him for the first time, snuggled between his very tall legs, and then the chick ran to his back end and grabbed his long, flowing tail feathers with a hard yank! The rooster stood like a statue and let the baby do this without a single batting of a combative eye. What a good dad! The hawk was around today, so the chicks will have to grow more before I let them out of the stall into the flock. The other day, the hen heard the hawk alarm call being sounded, made a low growling noise to her chicks, and the babies ran to a hay pile, flattened themselves down and burrowed into the hay. They stayed immobile until she told them they could come out. Nature is grand! I gave them a banana today, and the hen ran over to take a big bite. She had banana squishing out both sides of her mouth and rubbed her beak back and forth on the hay to clean off the excess. The babies were scared of the banana but saw her wiping her beak, so all nine chicks imitated her and rubbed their beaks on the hay even though they had not helped themselves to the banana! What fun!
I'm making a little progress..still hard sorting out all the legs and putting in suggestions of every buckle, curb chain and shackle so that driving people will know that I know my subject. Thanks so much for watching, and tune in again!
A little more of the painting is revealing itself. I can't believe I committed to painting four horses and five people
...
all those legs! The color is a little off in this photo; the painting is more vivid in person.
This coach has stopped on the steeplechase field after a carriage parade. What in the world is happening here? They are parked in front of a jump, soon to be seen...and everyone is preoccupied with something other than the fact that a race may start soon and nobody is paying attention! Is a conversation happening amongst the horses? Is the girl passenger thinking..."Oh, brother...will you puleeease get on with it?" Did someone drop a contact lens? Give this your best shot titling this piece and I will send you a pack of notecards of my work as a reward to the winner!
