Trying Out Some Botanical Painting while I Creep Up toward the Front of the Horse ...

Slowly working my way forward, doing detail work - tail done, hoof shadows, some  work on the tack ...

I started two botanical style paintings. These are hawthorn berries. The berries were started with quin. sienna. The leaves were done with a wash of aureolin, followed by quin. gold and phthalo green.

... glazed with alizarin crimson

... realized the reds and oranges were not going to give the depth of shadow I wanted, so did a dry brush glaze with a brown mixture.

Now I am back to glazing with sienna here, and will move to alizarin and see what I get.
Painting is 33 x 14 cm.

Blackberries - some berries were started with cobalt blue, the others with brown madder and a aureolin/brown madder/cobalt blue mixture.

Then I quickly got them dark - the berry on the left I tried to paint without masking, got impatient and masked the rest of the dark ones.

Now I have to go back and soften and play with the edges left by the masking.
This painting is 33 x 16 cm.

It's a gorgeous, sunny day here, but the wind is HOWLING! I'll have to wait till it calms a bit before going out to play with the lad. He's been feeling very feisty lately with the cooler weather.

Thank you for dropping by! 

It's a Beautiful Morning ...

I just had to get these photos just now, looking past the barn to the field and park beyond.

These two images are about the same stage, just different lighting/times of day when the photos were taken. I have most of the local color down. Now it's a matter of finishing the details, and taking a good, long look to see how dark I would like to take the background, and integrating the foreground with the background.
I have been doing double duty with animals, helping a neighbor, while she is away, with her two horses, two dogs and cat. So I haven't had as much time to paint, but it's coming along in the right direction.

Thank you for dropping by!!

Some Time Away from Horses and Watercolor ... and It Was GOOD

Heading down to the beach ...

... more stairs

some gorgeous views on the climb down

... and still more stairs

locals at the beach - got some good reference photos of the gulls

... and a steep climb back up

I spent Monday afternoon away from horses and painting, and visited a friend in White Rock. It is a lovely, still small and quaint town. I think it started out as a beach community, and moved up the hills over time. The beachfront is busy all year round, especially in summer. It's a lovely stretch of homes and shops and restaurants. Pearl and I hiked down through forest to the beach, and ambled along for a while.  Then we stopped for a lovely leisurely lunch. A bit more ambling on the sea-walk, then back up the dreaded hill. WOW ... it's steep! My calves are still stiff four days later, and I thought I was in reasonable shape :)

Thank you for dropping by!

"FANCY" is AVAILABLE for PURCHASE ...

 "FANCY"
13 x 8.5 in./33 x 22 cm.
transparent watercolor on Winsor/Newton rag paper
$214.00 plus $20.00  shipping
I know I had mentioned that I painted this for a friend with whom I work. But when talking with her about a week ago, she said she would much rather I sell it, as she realizes I need the money. So here we are ... offering this beauty for sale.
If you have any questions, or a burning desire to have this painting, please leave me a note.

A Horsey Commission ... or ... a Work in Progress

I was recently asked by a woman in Washington if I could do a horse/rider painting as a gift.  This is my drawing ...

I have also done a color work-up, so I won't run into trouble later in the painting. 

The painting is larger than I have been doing lately - 16 x 21 inches.
Here, I've masked out a thick outline of the horse and rider, and done several background washes of quin. burnt orange, quin. violet and indanthrone. 

The background is largely completed, so I've removed the masking, and started applying thin glazes of quin. violet and indanthrone to indicate the shadows. From the photos, the horse appears to have a violet tint overall to his grey coat.

I think the shadows are done, and will now start working with the local colors.

I managed to get a lot done today. No riding - I feel so sorry for Bruno ... this past week he's had one injection in the neck to tranquilize him for dental work, a huge wasp sting in the neck the next day, an anti-viral injection two days after that [in the neck], and this morning he had bites all over that same area of his neck! All I can do is ice his neck and apply witch hazel. He seems to like both those treatments.

Thank you so much for dropping by!

Works-in-Progress - Sunflowers, and Bruno's Dental Appointment ... a Very Mixed Bag!

First gradated washes on this painting - aureolin and quin. burnt orange ...

... followed by many more gradated washes of quin. burnt orange mixed with phthalo green [blue shade]. For some reason [a different paper, an unusual paint mixture?] I had some trouble getting the really smooth washes I like. I finally resorted to spraying the paper with water, not applying water with brush, and then applying the pigment very gently.

This is an earlier stage of the painting. You can see some of the streakiness here, as well as the faint imprint of  a leatherjacket bug. NO BUGS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS PAINTING!!! I gently coaxed it off, and took it outside. My work area is a small alcove in my bedroom, and as I almost always have the window open at this time of year, the bugs are everywhere in the painting area. 

This is the other sunflower painting. I am at this point right now - working on the flower, and soon, the leaves.
The background is primarily a mixture of quin. burnt orange, quin. violet and indanthrone. The flower is aureolin, with shadows of quin. sienna and cobalt blue.

Here we are waiting for the vet. Looks like he just arrived, judging from Bruno's ears cocked back to listen.

My vet used much less tranquillizer this time. I was really impressed with Bruno's behaviour. You can see in this and the photo below, his eyes are completely calm. If anything, he is concerned only that I get his good side in the photo!!!

It looks a bit like bondage or something, but the halters and braces holding his head steady are comfortable, almost loose. And of course, the metal bracket in Bruno's mouth keeps his jaws apart, and the soft tissues of the oral cavity out of harm's way, so the vet can readily access the molars at the back. Just some odd info - horses have six molars in each quadrant of the mouth; we humans have two in each quadrant [or three, if you have wisdom teeth]. 

I took these next few shots today, after I rode the lad.
He is quietly enjoying some hay, while the "garden gnomes" and I are out in the field area watering the vegetable garden, and doing a few other chores.

Here's Scruffy, with her partially-done home hair-cut. I work on her bit by bit, as she is not a patient girl.

And here's Maggie, looking for excitement. She is turning out to be such a bright and loving dog.

So that's life for now, on our little rented piece of Heaven.
Thank you for dropping by!

A Lot of This and a Fair Amount of That, Too

Two of my "quickie" posters taped to the back of the food truck ...

... and more on the side ...

Part of the area set aside for the horse trials - the dressage phase and the stadium jumping are held down here, while the cross-country phase is held in the higher, slightly hilly area beyond.

I fell in love with a handsome young dude by the name of Viking. I believe he is a Hanoverian/Westphalen cross. Lovely temperament, though I learned he can buck like nobody's business, when I had a chat with the proud owner.

This is one of the trails for horses and walkers. Campbell Valley Park is a huge equestrian park, miles and miles of well-maintained trails -  beautiful, and enjoyable all year round. It's to the park I almost always go when I take the girls out for a walk.

And we have a 2nd batch of baby nesters. I think they look almost ready to fly ... probably this weekend. I see them quite often now, perching at the edge of the nest.

Here comes a parent to the rescue with food!

After riding Bruno this morning [and he was a righteous dude - YAY],  I drove over to the other side of the park at the end of my street. They were holding horse trials - a 3-day event. Today was dressage, tomorrow is the cross-country phase, and Sunday is the stadium jumping. One of my sister's friends [she of all the rescued animals] was helping her friend with her food truck. Cindy owns Suburban Spoon. In the winter she has a catering business, and in the summer she has the food truck which she takes to various events around the lower mainland - in and around Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. Cindy gave me permission to put up several posters, advertising my animal portraits. So I visited a while, then wandered around the fields, caught up with a few old friends that I hadn't seen for a while. I don't show any more, so I am completely out of the horsey loop. All in all, it was a pleasant time this afternoon, and I'll be going back tomorrow to watch some of the cross-country.

Thank you for dropping by! Your comments are always welcome.