Meltdown!

17.5x12.5in

   Had an artist's meltdown today ... NOTHING looked good. So, much against my basically "lone wolf" nature, I contacted two friends. One is another artist; she assured me that all artists have these "fits" every once in a while, and all would be right again. The other is a very dynamic horse- and business-woman. There she was this afternoon, hobbling around [ she managed to tear some ligaments in her knee] but still getting everything done.
   So I came home inspired, but left painting for another day. Instead, I spent my time photographing and organizing a lot of my unframed work.
   All of the paintings are on Arches 140 lb. cold-press paper.  The paints are transparent artist quality - Winsor-Newton, Daniel Smith and  da Vinci.
   Here they come, bit by bit ...

22x10in

11x4in

11x8.5in

... and so it goes ...

 RAINING
   I spent all morning trying to improve two paintings I'm working on. One, I think, is salvageable; the other, not so much. So, I dug out my chicken photos. Thankfully, I got to my friend's place[the one with the chicks] yesterday, and took shots till the camera battery died. The weather is forecast to be rather soggy for the next week, so it was good I got over when I did.
   I have several sketches that I'll do as smaller [8x8 in.] pieces. And one that I'd like to save for the demo I'm doing in two weeks. I'll see ...

What Is It About Labs??

   Earlier this summer, I had the pleasure of exhibiting at "An Evening of Arts at Darts". Darts Hill is a nature/garden conservancy maintained by the district of Surrey, B.C. I selected about fifteen framed paintings, [primarily floral]  and with the irreplaceable help of my aunt, trundled off to set up. The venue was exquisite and very well-organized, and well attended as it was the first lovely summer evening we had
experienced that year.
   One of the paintings I took was a portrait I had done for my dear landlady, Pat. It was of her black Labrador, Birdie. As with all dogs, [and horses] she had her unique personality, which I think I captured in "The Laughing Labrador". The strange thing was that, although all the paintings received attention and comments, Birdie was the hands-down favorite; I could have sold her at least half a dozen times during the three hour exhibition. So many people had a story about their Lab, and "It looks just like ... " was a frequent comment.
   So, I want to know, what IS it about black Labs???

Chickens today ... feathers tomorrow

   Right now, I'm in "feathers" mode , with two pieces that are doing nothing for me. One is a galloping horse, that I think would look better headless. The other is a larger floral - pelargoniums - that I'm starting to feel would look better with an almost black background, which means a LOT of masking.

   So that brings me to chickens. I am fascinated with them. A friend down the street has about fifty of them, and I could honestly spend hours observing them. They really do look quite like little dinosaurs; the small game birds especially remind me of velociraptors. [OK, I have a thing for dinosaurs, too!] I've spent hours at Juanita's sketching and photographing her birds, and these are some of the results.  

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A Venice Tale

   I think, with realistic art, there is almost always a story behind the painting. So I thought it a good idea to show some of my work with the story attached.

   Many years ago, my sister, Denise, and I travelled through Greece and Italy. Italy captured my soul; when we arrived in Venice, I felt like I had come home. We would spend our mornings visiting an artistic or architectural site, and the afternoon would be spent wandering around the island, stopping for the occasional espresso or gelato. The painting above was inspired by one of the photos I took [I wish I had taken many more] while we ambled around Venice.

A quick note

I just wanted to take a moment to thank Ron Morrison. He is my 1st "follower". Ron is a fellow watercolorist, whose forte is old cars and trucks "posing" intriguingly in front of a backdrop of old houses, barns, shed, etc. His work is fascinating; take a look.
As for me, I'm slowly making progress on the floral.
                                    

Live and learn ...

I had an interesting session with the lad just now. He's been much more skittish than usual the past week - as evidenced by my flying off twice in the past two weeks. He has this "thing" about the gate to his ring, and he also [being a standardbred who has raced] has a very BIG "thing" about whips. I do not use them to hit in any way, but they are useful in training to supplement your leg, if the horse is ignoring it, or to help with longeing.
A word on longeing. It is a training technique, in which the trainer stands in the middle of a large [10 - 20 meter] circle, with the horse on the perimeter, attached to a line. The trainer then asks the horse -verbally or through body language- to perform certain actions. It's useful if you or the horse cannot ride, to warm up the horse, or the horse is higher than a kite and you don't want to be hurt. You get the idea.
Today, I worked him through some major kinks - his gate and whip fears. He had moments of apprehension and, being a horse, belligerence. However he DID reach the stage where he would calmly go around me, in a relaxed manner in an even gait. He did this going in both directions [ riders call them "reins"] And I could have ridden him.  But he showed his trust of me, and his willingness to cooperate,and that was enough. I took him to his stall, took off his gear [tack] and gave him goodies, telling him how wonderful and brilliant he was.
To make a long story even longer, training a horse is like painting. You have to know when you are finished ... when you have accomplished what you have set out to do. Do I do this all the time? - No. But it felt wonderful to realize I did so today! End of morality story