Drawing On Life; The Art of Karen Baker Thumm

Easy Rider Rides Again!

2009-11-30T09:19:00.000-08:00

During all the Thanksgiving festivities, I managed a little bit of time on this drawing. It’s been quite a while since I worked on it, and I finally figured out how to correct the reference photo which shows a horse doing passage incorrectly. I was bummed when this was pointed out to me, but knew all along that it had to be changed.

Over time I looked for photos in magazines of horses at the same angle but never found exactly what I needed. Then I found the Breyer model dressage horse Keltec Salinero doing passage and knew I’d found my solution. I set him up next to my drawing table and angled him to match my reference photo and redrew the legs on a piece of tracing paper. After tracing the changes back onto the drawing, I began shading again.

It may not look like much progress since the last time I posted, but it is a huge step forward to finishing this drawing called “Easy Rider”.

Rainy Day Splendor

2009-11-13T07:32:00.001-08:00

Fall is always a very busy time, and this year has been no exception. However, I did work on this little oil painting study again, and it’s pretty much finished. I’m calling it “Rainy Day Splendor”. By the time I got back to it, more leaves had fallen and the colors had changed, so I had to go partly by memory. But, it was still overcast and rainy, so the light was pretty much the same. And now, all the leaves are down and there’s nothing to be seen except bare branches.

We’ve had beautiful sunny and unusually warm weather for the past week, so I’ve been busy washing windows and other such things and dealing with a health issue which really threw me for a loop for a couple of weeks. But, the situation has turned around, and I’m back to being much more productive and much more relaxed.

Last night I finished revising the line drawing for “Easy Rider” and traced the new set of legs on the drawing. I plan to get back to work on it in the next few days and will post my progress as I go.

That’s all for now.

New Oil Painting Autumn Brilliance

2009-10-24T13:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, it’s true. I worked on a painting this week; a “studio aire” painting to be exact.

It’s been raining and/or cloudy all week long, and fall colors are pretty much at their peak around here. Even on a cloudy, rainy day, the leaves are still brilliant enough to inspire one to paint them. I wanted to convey that in this little 8x10 inch oil on canvas board which depicts the scene outside my studio window. Hence, it was painted en studio aire.

Any season of the year, I never tire of this scene overlooking the lake and the far shore. It constantly changes, and on this day the rain varied from gently falling to coming down in sheets of gray. At times the lake was still with the brilliant trees reflected in the dark water, and then the wind would come up and kiss the water which partially hid the yellows, oranges and reds of the trees.

The image above represents about two and a half hours of work; a small accomplishment in itself for someone who is not used to painting alla prima or painting quickly. After mixing and laying on a first layer of gray, I next drew the composition and laid on an initial layer of local colors, intending that they would blend somewhat with the gray which would tone them down a little. After that, I painted the water and began detailing the trees and shore starting on the left, toning down the colors even more. I only got as far as the middle before time ran out, and haven’t had a chance to get back to finish it yet.

Admittedly, it looks pretty crude and amateurish right now. The shoreline goes uphill, and the rippled area doesn’t look natural. Maybe another painting session will improve it, but if not, that’s okay too. The important thing is that I painted. And, it’s been a while since I did that.

Celebrations

2009-09-20T15:01:00.000-07:00

Remembering Willie - oil on canvas board

Twenty years ago tomorrow, September 21, 1989, I bought my horse, Scottie. This date represents not only my return to horse ownership, but also to the world of horses in general and to horse art in particular.

I bought my first horse when I was 12 but had a bad riding accident a few months later which completely destroyed what little confidence I’d managed to build up. The following summer I sold Willie when it became clear that she was just too much horse for me, and I didn’t ride much after that. That decision haunted me for decades to come until the summer of 1989 when I decided that it was time to face my fear of riding and find out once and for all if I could overcome it.

I found a sympathetic riding instructor and began riding lessons on a wonderful sorrel horse named Scottie. The first day at that barn I had an overwhelming feeling of coming home to something that I had lost many years ago, and I vowed never to give it up again. Six weeks later I bought Scottie, and we began our journey together. He was only four years old at the time and was still very green, but he was very laid back and safe for anyone to ride. Even so, the first two years were difficult ones as Scottie tested me constantly to see how much he could get away with. I learned that if I persisted with him, he quickly gave up and did as I asked. That alone helped to build my confidence, even after a few inevitable spills. Eventually, he quit testing me and Scottie turned out to be the perfect horse for me.

Through my new horse ownership status, I met other horse people, and it wasn’t long before I began to do horse portraits and attend horse shows and events. My childhood dream of becoming an equine artist was realized, and I haven’t looked back since, no matter how bumpy the road.

I confess, however, that the past two years were a bit of a bumpy road, and I found it difficult to get myself to the barn. This summer my enthusiasm for riding has returned, and I’m once again going on trail rides and having a ball.

Yesterday was our first annual group birthday celebration at the barn. It began with a beautiful fall trail ride through the woods and fields and ended with a delicious potluck lunch back at the barn. I think it’s safe to say that all of us “mature” ladies enjoy each other’s company and look forward to our next outing together when the fall colors will be at their peak. There is no better trail riding than at this time of year when the woods are ablaze with color, the temperatures are comfortable and the bugs are few.

On this ride I took along a small digital camera and share a few of those shots with you below. This camera has definite limits, but you can get an idea of what our rides are like here, minus the uphill and downhill parts. It’s really hard to get shots going downhill when your horse is pitching back and forth or going uphill at a full gallop.

Here we are leaving the barn on a beautiful Fall day.

Here we stopped to let the horses pick apples right off the tree.

The driveway looks mighty long and steep at the end of a ride.

Our group photo. Scottie and I are on the far right.

The First Annual Michigan Schooner Festival

2009-09-14T09:35:00.001-07:00

I’ve always had an interest in sailing ships going back to when I was a little girl. One of my father’s colleagues once gave me an American Heritage magazine that had an article on clipper ships with lots of beautiful paintings in it. I treasured it for years and even copied one of the paintings, but it turned out pretty crudely.

So many of us humans are fascinated by the sea and great bodies of water. After all, what is more romantic and adventurous than setting sail into the unkown on a beautiful sailing ship? Since Michigan is surrounded on six sides by waters of the Great Lakes, sailing ships are very much a part of our heritage, whether they were helmed by explorers, armed navies or merchantmen. Even today there are replicas which sail from port to port to educate the public about sailing these beautiful ships in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and even into the early days of the twentieth century.

Many years ago I did a series of drawings for an older gentleman who loved Great Lakes ships. Not all of them were sailing ships, but doing that series rekindled my interest in the subject. I did a small watercolor and ink version of one of the ships for my own benefit; the well known Christmas Tree ship, the Rouse Simmons, which used to deliver Christmas trees to the citizens of Chicago from the northern Michigan woods. I sold prints of it for a while along with the story of the ship and how it was lost in a storm in 1912. But, my version paled in comparison with the two paintings that Charles Vickery has done of the Rouse Simmons so eventually I stopped showing it.

Frankly, I know next to nothing about the subject of sailing ships, which is one reason I’ve hesitated to do a ship painting since. I know that people who collect marine art are sticklers for accurate details in rigging and so forth; just as many horse art collectors are fussy about accurate portrayals of horses and their tack. I did, however, buy some books on rigging and Great Lakes ships and shipwrecks to educate myself but haven’t had much opportunity to observe these beautiful ships in person on the water.

So, when I read in the paper on Saturday that the first annual Michigan Schooner Festival was being held in Traverse City this weekend, I jumped at the opportunity. We headed for TC good and early Sunday morning, and took in the activities on the waterfront. Several ships were moored along the breakwall, and crew members were giving tours, some of them complete in period pirate costumes which thrilled the little kids. There was even a marine artist who had some very nice paintings of sailing ships.

After some time, one of the ships, the Appledore, a two masted schooner, headed out into Grand Traverse Bay. To my disappointment, she was pretty far out before she unfurled her sails and continued sailing away from us into the hazy dawn. Before long she was out of site.

Meanwhile, we watched two crew members climb the masts of another schooner, the Denis Sullivan of Milwaukee Wisconsin. I presume they were unfastening things so that the sails could be unfurled. It wasn’t long before the Denis Sullivan also set sail. Instead of heading straight up the bay as the Appledore had done, she went out a ways, turned and sailed past the breakwater as she unfurled her sails. Everyone got excellent photo opportunities and thrilled to the sight of this beautiful ship.

The Inland Seas was also scheduled to sail, but my very patient husband was getting bored and didn’t want to wait. Here she is moored to the breakwater.

Two other ships present were the nineteenth century replica schooner the Madeline and the sloop Welcome, a replica of an eighteenth century ship that sailed the Straits area.

There were many dogs which also visited the festival, and I was particularly taken by this beautiful pair of standard poodles and the wonderful backlight in this shot.

It was truly thrilling to look out onto Grand Traverse Bay to see tall ships sailing its waters; something that was a common sight a century and more ago. I will definitely be back for the second annual Michigan Schooner Festival next September. I am now inspired to paint these beautiful ships, even if it’s just for my own pleasure.

"GOOD Happens"

2009-09-12T19:15:00.000-07:00

On the way home from Traverse City yesterday, I saw this bumper sticker on a car ahead of me. It read, “GOOD Happens”. Now, we’re all familiar with the other version, and I thought, “What a refreshing turn around on this well known saying!” It got me to thinking about how our point of view can color our lives and that we can find good that “happens” if we just look for it.

In the past couple of days, some small good things have happened for me. On Thursday I finally made it out on another trail ride with my riding partners from the barn, and I had a fabulous time! The weather was perfect, there were no bugs, and no monsters jumped out at us. You could hear the tree frogs as we rode along, going in and out of the woods on trails so familiar. We walked, trotted and cantered for over an hour and arrived back at the barn just as dark was falling. It is such a cool feeling to ride up the driveway to the welcoming lights in the barn and then to look out at the twilight sky from atop the farm hill. That night it was a spectacular red.

This afternoon I ran up to Central Lake to take in an art fair (a rather sad little affair with very few vendors and only one painter), but I did have the opportunity to chat with one of the arts council members who invited me to display one of my paintings in a local bank. I also voiced my regret that there weren’t more opportunities for art shows for the artist members and a desire to have a meet and greet event for artists to get to know one another. She agreed and said she would bring both matters up at a future board meeting.

Both coming and going from the art fair, I took some side roads I’ve never been on and did a photo shoot. I was particularly looking for cows; dairy cows; and did find one herd although they turned out to be steers. Oh, well; with some artistic license, they can easily be morphed into cows.

Here are just a few of the photos I took today.

There was a long row of these sunflowers on both sides of the road at one spot where there is a very neat and prosperous looking farm.

Here are my Holstein "cows". I had the iso speed way too high so the photo is washed out, but I corrected that later.

At the very top of a hill on this road, I spotted this spectacular view. The nearest blue patch is Torch Lake, and beyond it is East Grand Traverse Bay and beyond it is Old Mission Peninsula (for those of you who are familiar with this area).

This horse lives on a farm on my way to Bellaire. I've long wanted to stop and shoot some photos of him. He looks to be an aged Thoroughbred, but I'm not sure.

Around the corner from this horse, on a new road, I found this wonderful stone house. I'm sure it's being lived in because it is so well kept.

These two horses live around the corner and up the road from me. They are two older Arabs.

When I stopped to take a photo of the bull below, I noticed how much color is in this maple tree. It won't be long before there's a lot more showing in all the trees.

This bull lives on my road. As I went by him, he reminded me of Ferdinand, the bull who preferred to smell the flowers in the field rather than fight in the bull ring. He looks so peaceful and content with a wave of his tail every now and then. Take it from me, this bull is HUGE though! One of these days I'll capture him when he's standing up.

Well, not literally of course!

Kentucky Dreamer Comes Home

2009-09-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

It had been quite a while since I took anything new up to the gallery shop which sells my art in Central Lake. Adams Madams is a fabulous shop with an outstanding mix of home decorating merchandise, crafts and artwork. It is light and airy, and everything is temptingly displayed. Unfortunately, the past two years my sales have been very low, and I’ve been wondering whether it is my art that just isn’t appealing to people now or if it’s been the economy. I got my answers.

After speaking with the owner and her assistant who handles the art selection and the merchandise displays, the answer seems to be the economy. They both raved about the quality of my work and the reasonable prices, but people are now coming into the shop with a set budget to spend there; between $25-$50. That’s not much in a shop with so many temptations. The interest in horsey products has also dropped off I was told which impacts my sales even more. But they both made some suggestions, and I came home with some hope that sales will turn around. Clearly, diversifying my offerings is in order.

I also brought home the original drawing, “Kentucky Dreamer” because it’s been there for quite some time now, and I’m thinking of entering it in some local shows. Either the mats have changed color slightly or my eye is better now because it needs to be rematted with better color mats. That should improve its appearance considerably.

"Kentucky Dreamer" is 11x14 inches and is a delicate pencil drawing of a young Thoroughbred foal. It's available for sale if you're interested. I named it before I even heard about the horse movie, "Dreamer", in case anyone wonders about that coincidence.

My drive to and from the shop and later to the barn has me thinking about doing some plein air painting in the beautiful Fall light. Our weather just couldn’t be more gorgeous on this last holiday weekend of summer. I didn’t even mind too much the hordes of bicyclists who descend on us every Labor Day weekend for their tours on our scenic winding back roads. You really have to slow down and watch out for them because a lot of these roads don’t have paved shoulders, and you can be on top of them before you see them.

Already some of the trees are beginning to turn, and the light has that soft diffused look that is so characteristic of Fall in northern Michigan. Yup, it’s time to paint outside.

"Easy Rider" Rides Again!

2009-09-02T17:54:00.001-07:00

Yes, I did manage to fit in some artwork yesterday, and here’s the proof!

Because I goofed off on the computer on Monday, I had to spend some time clearing away papers in the studio before I could begin, but still managed a respectable 45 minutes of drawing time before heading for the barn. It was a tough choice whether to work on the pony and dog painting which is still in the drawing stage or “Easy Rider” which needed some revision. I chose Easy Rider because it’s a pencil drawing, and once I get those legs fixed, I can quickly continue with the shading.

It’s had a bit of an unfortunate history. I took the photo at a dressage show several years ago and just really liked the relaxed look of both the horse and rider; hence the name. After experimenting with different background thumb nails, I settled on one and began the drawing. I showed it in the Equine Art Guild forum as a work in progress, and one of our members, who is an upper level dressage rider, immediately commented that the horse wasn’t going well and his legs weren’t in a balanced position. I admit that these comments really took the wind out of my sails, and my enthusiasm for the drawing plummeted. She was right, of course, but it took a while (like a year!) for me to regain interest in the drawing and to start work on it again. Then it had a mishap with the vacuum cleaner, and the paper was bent a little. I got busy and put it away again. Meanwhile, I kept looking for just the right reference photo that would help me put those legs in the proper position for a nice passage.

When I saw a picture of the Breyer model of Keltec Salinero, I knew I’d found my reference. It was perfect and I quickly ordered it, along with a few other Breyers for “models” you know. wink wink. And above you see him, all set up on a shelf by the studio window in just the angle I needed. The drawing board was set up by the window as well, a piece of tracing paper was put over the the drawing, and I proceeded to revise the legs.

Here’s the revised drawing with the original reference photo beside it so that you can see the difference in the legs. Once I get those legs revised and refined, I’ll just trace them onto the drawing and proceed to work on the shading. My next scheduled art day is Saturday. But, I wonder if I can hold off that long...

On another note, our local art supply store is closing for good, done in by catalogs and the new Michaels. It’s unfortunate that these local businesses just aren’t able to compete in today’s world, and I will miss this one even though they have downsized twice in the past and no longer carried much of what I use. Last week I made one last trip to the store, hoping to get a few of my favorite fake mongoose brushes, but it was already pretty well picked clean. I came home with two brushes and several large scraps of suede matboard which were a real steal at $3.50 each! They are all nice colors for horse paintings, too. That’s inspired me to think about doing some pastels again which can be quite stunning on suede matboard.

And, finally, here’s a bonus for you. Every year about this time, the deer visit our yard almost daily to check on the apple crop. This fawn wandered into our yard over the weekend one rainy day and was trying to figure out a way out. Across the street were two does, another fawn and a small fawn that was jumping and playing just like we see foals doing. Unfortunately, by the time I grabbed the camera, the deer were already moving on so I wasn’t able to get any photos of the playing fawn. He was pretty cute. I just wish they didn’t eat my plants when they get older.

Conquering the Hummingbird Syndrome

2009-08-31T07:15:00.001-07:00

I’ve given up being frustrated about not doing any artwork and have given in to the notion of just concentrating on catching up with five, ten or more years of a backlog of record keeping and unfinished projects. Along with reorganizing my art files, I’ve sorted through over ten years of time cards and thrown away a good portion of them. After spending days looking for lost art sales records and reconstructing sales records that were lost when my hard drive died three years ago, I’ve sorted through piles of insurance policies and yearly updates to keep only the most current.

And, the list goes on.

We’re also getting our finances in order for my husband’s impending retirement, and the main burden of that falls on my shoulders. In this economy and financial market, worry about whether or not we will have to live like paupers in retirement has been upper most on my mind for the past several years. Thankfully, we’ve found a new financial advisor who is steering us in the right direction now and helping us to make the difficult decisions. Things are beginning to look up.

I can’t help but comment on the emotional toll my mother’s lingering decline had on me over the past three to four years. Being so far away was frustrating and guilt inducing since I didn’t visit her as often as I THOUGHT I should and wasn’t able to be there on a daily or weekly basis to make sure she had adequate care. Fortunately, she was in a very good facility, but like all of them, they were understaffed. Now that she’s gone, I feel great sadness at her loss but also great relief that I can now get on with my life without holding my breath for the next crisis phone call.

This morning as I was doing my usual Monday morning ritual of filling in the planner schedule for the day and my task list for the week, I decided to try something different. There are so many things to be done around here that I tend to flit from one to another from day to day as each calls out to me. An acquaintance of mine calls this the Hummingbird Syndrome, a common malady for women.

So, this morning I made out a rough schedule for each day of the week and pencilled in to do some art on Tuesday and Saturday. My hope is that by scheduling certain tasks on certain days, I’ll avoid flitting from one thing to another like a hummingbird, never making much progress with anything. And, I’ll finally get back to some artwork!

Last week I hung this painting on the wall in my daughter’s room. I painted it for my mother a few years ago. It was done from a sixty year old black and white photograph of me when I was five and a flower girl in my uncle’s wedding. The medium is oil and the size is 18x14 inches. I’m quite proud of this painting since it was a departure from my usual equine subjects and because I managed to design the background from very little reference materials. It is not for sale.

Well, by tomorrow night or Wednesday I promise to show you what I’ve accomplished in the studio even if it’s just a drawing update. It’s very exciting to feel that I’ve finally made enough progress with everything else that I can set aside some time for art, however small.

Talk to you soon!

PS. I would love to have more followers to my blog. It really helps to know that people actually read this blog and enjoy seeing my art. You can sign up in the column to the right.

Off With Their Heads!

2009-08-21T18:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I looked at my Polo By The Bay photos again and found far too many that looked like this one above. They reminded me of the Queen from Alice In Wonderland who sentenced everyone to the same fate. “Off with their heads!” she declared imperiously. Only for me these decapitations weren’t deliberate. I have no idea why the camera was aimed more at the dirt than the riders, but there you have it.

This photo shows another of my problems when shooting; I tend to tilt my head so that the arenas look as if they’re built on hillsides. Oops! Never the less, it’s fun to go through the photos again and this time take note of my shortcomings as a photographer as well as to relive the joy of being there. I must remember next year the things I did wrong this year and try to correct them before they occur again.

This was only the second polo match that I’ve ever seen live. My very first exposure to polo happened when I was eleven years old. At that time, my father supplemented his meager University salary by working for newspapers in Detroit in the summer. But that year he took a job at The Milwaukee Journal which meant that we had to move to Milwaukee for three months, and I had to give up my friends and riding lessons for the summer. We lived in an apartment in a big city which was a culture shock in itself for me. I was not a happy camper and let everyone know it.

Probably to relieve my moody, unsocial behavior, my parents took me to see a polo match one Saturday. I was totally enthralled! I remember spending a lot of time around the ponies who were waiting for their turn in the next chukker and studying their unusual tack. The following summer, I made this polo drawing when I was twelve. My horses were a lot better than my people back then as you can see.

My summer in Milwaukee wasn’t all bad. We went to the zoo several times where there was a new baby giraffe and some zebras. And one of my father’s colleagues at the Journal had a daughter my age who was also horse crazy. Our two families got together frequently, and we even went horseback riding a couple of times. I wonder what ever became of my summer friend, Carolyn Sonneborn? We lost touch long ago.

Even though I’ve been busy doing everything but art this summer and making substantial progress in clearing away a lot of clutter and updating records, I picked out this photo to turn into my first polo painting. The rider was warming up his pony before the next chukker, and this photo shows a quiet moment before the non stop action began on the field again.

The question is, what medium shall I use? Oil or pastel? Stay tuned for updates.

Polo By The Bay

2009-08-03T17:35:00.001-07:00

It couldn’t have been a more perfect day, which almost made up for missing the dressage musical freestyles the day before. You see, Mother Nature had thrown me a curve ball by remaining overcast and rainy until shortly before the freestyles were going to begin. By that time, it was too late to clean up and drive the half hour to the show grounds.

But the day of the polo match was beautiful, and I headed to the horse park in the morning with plans to catch the last few dressage halter classes and then wait for the polo match. As luck would have it, the last class was ending as I headed down the wooded horse path to the lower rings. Three fiesty Friesians came up the path at me, so I respectfully stepped off the trail and grabbed a few shots as they approached and went by.

That meant that I now had over two hours time to kill before the polo match was scheduled to start. I looked around for the polo ponies and spotted the trailers arriving and unloading on the other side of the upper rings in an area that was accessible. So, off I went to take photos of the ponies lined up beside the trailers.

Then off I went to the Grand Prix ring where I found some shade beside a VIP tent and sat down to wait. While there, I surveyed the best spot from which to photograph the action, and when the crowd began to arrive and fill up the bleachers, I moved down to “my” spot for the rest of the wait. I had the good fortune to sit next to a very friendly young couple from the Detroit area, and we struck up a conversation. That helped to pass the time until events in the arena began.

First up was a dressage demonstration by local rider Betsy Van Dyke riding Cantana. She explained what dressage is and demonstrated the various movements and then did a bit of musical freestyle - which almost made up for yesterday. Above you see Cantana doing two tempe changes, and below he is doing an extended trot.

Once the dressage was over, the polo match began. While the ponies were warming up, the basics of polo were explained to us, and we learned that we would be watching arena polo which is played on a much smaller dirt field and consists of four chukkers (or periods of play) versus the seven chukkers that are played on a much larger grass field. After each chukker, the riders switch to fresh ponies because the action is non stop, and ponies get worn out fast.

In this contest, Team Elmers (a local asphalt and excavation company) was pitted against Turtle Creek Casino and Resort. The ponies and riders were provided by Meadowview Polo Club of Grand Rapids, but most of the riders were either members of the Michigan State University or University of Michigan polo teams. It may not have been high goal polo, but it was definitely fun to watch and challenging to photograph.

Below are some of the many shots I took during the match.

The action was over much too fast with Turtle Creek Casino winning by two goals, and we spectators reluctantly packed up our stuff and began the long trek through the ring area to our vehicles. The horse park seemed desolate compared to the hustle and bustle of earlier weeks. The viewing tents had been taken down, the potted flowers removed, the rings groomed and even the fencing around the rings was gone. Staff was in the process of taking down all the tents in the barn area as well. It was a little sad to realize that eleven months will go by before Horse Shows By The Bay returns. I wonder what improvements will be made in the intervening months? What new shows or horse events will be added to the yearly schedule at this horse park?

I can’t wait to find out!

Paths of Destruction

2009-07-26T11:21:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was quite an exciting one at our house! Shortly before 3:00am Sunday morning the phone rang. It was an Antrim County Sheriff’s deputy in our driveway asking us to come outside because there was a car in our yard and “a lot of destruction to the property”. Hastily throwing on clothes and turning on lights, we headed outside to see what was going on. To our shock, we found a strange car wedged between our dog pen and the side fence; a space just wide enough for a car! Just as puzzling was the fact that the driver was nowhere to be found! Further examination with flash lights revealed that the driver had gone through our fence in not one but three places!

In due time a wrecker arrived and hauled off the car, but we were naturally too wired up to go back to bed. When daylight arrived, we headed outside with our cameras to record the path of destruction and figure out just what happened. Here’s the scenario as near as we can figure out. A neighbor’s daughter (or some other driver of her car) came around the corner too fast, hit our neighbor’s mailbox on the right and then oversteered, crossed the road and went through our chain link fence.

From there she proceeded across our lawn, plowed into the large lilac bush and the fence along the side of the yard and ended up against two pine trees in the other neighbor’s yard.

She then, apparently, threw the car into reverse and turned it to the left, intending to head back onto the road. Instead, she went through our fence on the other side of the lilac and somehow managed to end up between the dog pen and the fence, hitting the corner post of the pen and getting hung up on my compost pile. (evil grin) She was stuck. Since there wasn’t room to open the doors, she climbed out the driver’s window and disappeared. We figure she called a friend to come get her and didn’t want to face her father or the police. It’s highly probable that she’d been drinking.

Apparently, she wasn’t hurt too badly, fortunately, and the deputy told me a few days ago that she has so far not returned calls from the Sheriff’s department. Without knowing for sure who was driving, the police can’t do much more. I will refrain from any comments on people taking responsibility for their actions although I have plenty in this case.

As soon as our homeowners insurance adjuster had documented the destruction first hand, I was able to clean up the lawn mess and assess the flower beds better. The casualty list includes a honeysuckle bush, a small lilac bush that I’d been nursing along, the large old-fashioned lilac bush, the sweet peas which were torn out of the ground, and my cone flowers whose tops were shredded. I trimmed back the cone flowers as I mourned the fact that they were about to bloom. It remains to be seen if they will recover. With brute force, I was able to wrangle the top rail of the fence back up onto the remaining posts along the road which looks much better and allows the lawn to be mowed while we wait for the fence to be fixed.

All in all, it could have been much worse, for the plants and the girl/driver. Did you notice that large maple tree next to the dog pen? If the car had hit that, the driver would have been in a world of hurt. I’m thankful that the accident wasn’t worse. As a parent, I wouldn’t want to be the one to get that 3:00 am phone call from the police letting me know that my child had been in an accident. I’m thankful that this girl and her parents were lucky - THIS time! I hope she learned a lesson that will stay with her for a very long time.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to call my children and let them know how much we love them.

HSBB Part 2; Thrills and Chills in the Grand Prix Ring!

2009-07-18T17:40:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile, down in the Grand Prix ring at Horse Shows By The Bay, I sat down on one of the new bleachers that have been added this year for spectators. Just in time to catch the leadline class of little tykes on their ponies, I soon realized that I was on the wrong side of the ring. Not only was the sun behind the ponies, but the little ones were all looking away toward the “judge” and show mascot. I still managed to get a few good shots which will be useful for backlit subjects in paintings. Below is one of the contestants. By the way, it was a tie for first place between all the entrants who got ribbons and a goody bag; just like at the Oscars!

After the leadline class, there was a demonstration by a local company which trains personal protection dogs and scent dogs for law enforcement and search and rescue. They brought a handsome black German Shepherd who showed the crowd how he could find drugs and defend his owner against an agressive stranger. It was pretty impressive!

The grand finale of the afternoon was the Spy Coast Farm Grand Prix of show jumping. After a few jumpers had gone, I switched to the sunny side of the ring and got some better photos. This is the event in which all the top riders at the show compete for big prize money.

I didn’t stay to watch all the riders since it was getting late and I was tired. On the way back to the car, I encountered these Jack Russell terriers and couldn’t resist getting some final shots for my horse show dog series.

If you want to see more of my photos, I put quite a few in an album on my Facebook page and made it so that anyone can view them. Just follow the link to my Facebook album.

Going to the show was an extra pleasure this year because of the cool weather we’ve been having. Not only was the day sunny, but it was pleasantly cool with a nice breeze blowing. I just hope this weather hangs around for another couple of weeks until I get back to take in the dressage and maybe the polo.

In the meantime, I’m going to pick out one of my photos and get started on a new painting or drawing. Hmmm, which one will it be? Such a tough decision since there are so many good ones!

I Just LOVE This Show!

2009-07-18T14:12:00.001-07:00

The highlight of my summers has become visiting Horse Shows By The Bay near Traverse City, Michigan every July and August. This year the show has expanded to four weeks of hunters, jumpers, ponies, dressage and a polo match on the final weekend. Top riders from around the country now come here to compete including Peter Pletcher, Tammy Provost, Patricia Griffith and Scott Lenkart, along with junior riders Caitlin Ziegler and Victoria Birdsall. HSBB is now considered one of the best shows in the midwest under the exceptional management of Dean and Alexandra Rheinheimer.

Last weekend I spent the afternoon at the show and enjoyed every minute of it! Every year more improvements are made to the grounds, and this year was no exception. A new pathway for visitors from the parking lot all the way to the Grand Prix ring at the far end has shortened walks and given better access to all four of the rings for those of us who like to wander around and catch whatever action is going on in the various rings.

For a change, I was not disappointed in my photos. I don’t know if my expectations have been lowered or if I’m shooting better; whichever it is, I see many good paintings amongst them.

This year I remembered to put the long lens on the camera which greatly increased my chances of getting good jump shots. That was a good thing when I got to the Grand Prix ring which is the largest of all and has limited access for spectators.

Last year I posted the photos on my website, but I found that very few people bothered to follow the link to them, so this year I’m posting them right in the blog. Here are just a few of the photos for your enjoyment.

The first photo shows a lovely iron gray hunter horse in a warmup ring. I couldn’t resist him.

This photo shows a groom holding a pony and is very typical of this level of showing. Unlike most of us who do our own grooming, saddling, bathing, etc., the show barns have grooms to do this work. When the horse is ready, the rider hops on and is off to the rings. When the class is done, the rider hops off and hands the reins to the groom. I even saw one groom picking out the feet of a hunter while the mounted rider was waiting for her class! These unsung heroes of the horse show circuit make it possible for riders to compete in several classes in a day without wearing themselves out caring for their horses. Some riders ride more than one horse which makes the grooms doubly indispensible.

I took this shot while the show photographer was shooting this winner and his rider. The proud mom and groom are standing by, but no amount of coaxing could get this pony to look at the camera and perk his ears. He was totally bored by the whole thing.

This next shot I caught in a warmup ring. The two older riders seemed to be mentoring this little girl on her cute white pony, and giving her encouragement. It’s a great idea for a painting and just goes to show that the best action is not always in the rings during a class. You can catch many good candid photos in the warmup rings if you’re alert for them.

Since not much was going on in the pony ring, I wandered off from there to the Grand Prix ring. More in the next post.

Good News Abounds!

2009-06-30T09:50:00.001-07:00

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.

One Chapter Closes, Another Opens

2009-06-20T17:33:00.000-07:00

Last week we took a trip to Alexandria, VA to attend a memorial service and burial for my mother at Arlington National Cemetery. Our daughter, Tina, accompanied us, along with a chair that my sister wanted but couldn't take home with her on the plane back in March. We fit everything in my Subaru wagon with a few inches to spare and saved a lot on gas versus driving the SUV such a long distance. Tina had a lot more room on the way home, needless to say.

It's been quite a few years since we took a vacation of any sort, much less travelled east to the DC area where my sister lives, so it was a real treat to get away even if only for a few days. DC/Alexandria is one of my favorite places in the world, and I would love to live there if it weren't for the heat, humidity, congestion and traffic! It's a far cry from northern Michigan in all respects, but is so loaded with the history of our great country that there is tons to see at every turn.

I was quite disappointed that I didn't take my camera because the flash cards were acting up, so I had to depend on my husband to take photos and thus didn't get a lot of shots I would have taken if I'd had my camera. So, there were no photos of the mountains in Pennsylvania or Maryland or all the interesting barns we saw along the way. And, not many photos of family once we reached my sister's house in Alexandria.

My sister has an ideal location just off the George Washington Parkway north of Alexandria proper. She's also a few miles south of Mt Vernon which we visit almost every time we go. There is a wonderful biking/hiking/running path that goes along the parkway which my biking/running daughter took advantage of a couple of times while lamenting that Ann Arbor, where she lives, doesn't have anything nearly as nice. There is just a small strip of woods that separates the parkway from the Potomac at this point also, which makes the area very beautiful. To top it off, Alexandria is a city that oozes with the charm of colonial style architecture and buildings dating to the early days of our Republic.

The weekend's events included a mini family get together as well as the ceremony at Arlington where my father had already been laid to rest. My oldest sister and her daughter joined us from S. Carolina and Georgia, and my niece and her husband came from England. My nephew and his wife also live in Alexandria, so we had some good times visiting at my sister's house and having great food and fun conversation.

The weather cooperated, and the ceremony at Arlington couldn't have been nicer! My sister did a wonderful job of planning it, and all who wanted to spoke a few words about my remarkable mother. Afterwards, we had a delicious luncheon at the Army/Navy officer's club (thanks to my retired Army brother-in-law's connections) and then went home and took a nap. We were all pretty exhausted by that time.

The next day the three of us took in the wonderful new museum at Mt. Vernon and learned much about the Father of our Country. If you have a chance, be sure to take it in the next time you visit Mt. Vernon. That night Tina was invited by her cousins to join them at a concert of The Gipsy Kings at Wolf Trap. She had a wonderful time.

On Sunday we said our goodbyes and headed for home with me feeling a sense of peace, both for myself and for my mother. With this chapter of my life closed at long last, perhaps now I'll have the time and emotional energy once again to devote to my art; my life's work.

Lilac Season

2009-06-03T09:14:00.000-07:00

The lilacs above are an old fashioned variety that were here when we bought the property over thirty years ago. They had probably been here for many decades before that since this property was once a farmstead along the banks of the lake, going back to the nineteenth century when the area was cleared and homesteaded. Hard as it is to believe today, northwest Michigan was still very much a wilderness until late in the 1800's. Some southern Michiganders still think it is!

Our lilacs are now in bloom, and their sweet fragrance fills the air when I do my daily tour of the flower beds. Unfortunately, we can’t see them from the house, but there are small lilacs planted along the road fence which will be visible from the house once they’re big enough to put on a real display. I was told they need lots of manure to bloom well, so I must remember to bring some home from the barn each time I go. Last year they got a dose of Moo Doo, but it didn’t spur any blooms this Spring, much to my disappointment.

Last weekend I drove all over in search of the annuals that I wanted for the flower beds; wax begonias with green leaves and pink and white flowers. By experimentation, these are the colors that work the best in the beds along the driveway and house and the round bed that hides the well pipe. These are partially shaded areas, and the begonias do better than any other plants I’ve tried, plus they bloom profusely well into autumn. I just love them!

I also bought a flat of pansies, another favorite, and will plant them in the road fence beds as border plants where ever there is a need. Several years ago these happy little plants bloomed so well that they could be seen from the house and even managed to over winter and bloom again. I lost the remaining ones when they dried up one summer before I could get them mulched. I don’t know what it is about that bed along the fence; whether it’s a thick layer of insulating snow that the plows deposit or what. My snap dragons come back every year, too, and are now about five years old.

On Sunday I weeded the driveway flower bed and planted some of the begonias; by far the earliest I’ve ever planted before! Usually, June is ending before I get around to this chore, and wouldn’t you know it; there was a freeze warning for Sunday night! We missed the freeze, and the plants looked healthy the next morning and happy to be out of their confining little boxes.

For the time being, I’m contenting myself with this form of creativity while winding up other urgent projects around the house and figuring out how I can fit in significant blocks of time for artwork. I suspect that means curtailing computer time to an hour a day instead of the several that is the current routine. Goodbye Facebook and other mindless wanderings around the internet.

Just as I had hoped, my last blog post about the licensing agent has exorcised this unpleasant experience once and for all and has allowed me to move on. As negative as it was, it had a very positive and beneficial effect. Such people are just not worth stewing over!

The Licensing Agent; A Cautionary Tale

2009-05-24T13:54:00.000-07:00

"Sweetie" 11"x14" pastel painting

I’m giving you fair warning now that this is going to be a long post. I’m writing it because this incident has been haunting me for almost two years, and I’d like to let it go and move on.

A couple of years ago, I was contacted by a licensing agent who was looking for an equine artist to represent in a new venture into licensing horse images for her corporate clients. She was very enthusiastic about my art and very flattering in her comments. She told me that my art had the WOW! factor and that she wanted to “brand” me with a big marketing campaign and thought that I could become another Chris Cummings in the licensing world. Pretty heady stuff, right?

The problem was that I already had a licensing agent/dealer, but, I hadn’t had much luck with her for several years. I told the new agent (I’ll call her Cindy) that I would consider her offer. We chatted on the phone, and she built herself up by saying that she had a background in marketing and worked with many big companies which licensed images for their products and that she had a very good reputation in the industry. Then I contacted two of her artists, a husband and wife team, who gave her an enthusiastic endorsement. Next, I checked the contract I had with the current licensing agent and found that I could cancel it by giving her 60 days’ notice.

After doing this due diligence, I felt safe in accepting the new offer from Cindy who was willing to wait the 60 days. I told her right up front that the only images I had available for licensing were on my website, and she didn’t express any concern about that. I notified my current agent, and Cindy sent me a contract to sign that would be effective at the end of the 60 days. She also requested that I send her images so that she could put together a marketing sheet to show to her clients. I asked her which of my current images she wanted for this purpose.

That’s when the trouble began. I never got a direct answer. Instead she emailed me a list of ideas for paintings based on requests that she’d gotten from her contacts. I asked her several times more which images to send. Her response was always to tell me that certain ones would be better in color or with a different background or with the horse facing the other way or this or that. I asked her what sorts of images to work on first. Her response was to just send me the same list of ideas that she’d gotten from her clients which was a long one.

Without any guidance from Cindy, I had no choice but to do my own research. I reviewed all of my sales records and came up with a list of best sellers and worst sellers in prints and note cards. I presented that to her and got no response. I looked through all of my horsey gift catalogs and horse catalogs to see what sorts of images are on the market to give me ideas for what works best. Based on those findings, I finally gathered ten of my best sellling images on a CD and mailed it to her. Her response was that they were “a good starting point”.

Two weeks later, the contract went into effect, and I emailed her to find out what was going on. I didn’t hear from her for two days. Then she emailed to say that I didn’t have an “extensive” enough portfolio of current work and that she was talking to another equine artist who had a “large” portfolio. She explained that she needed a “minimum of 20 strong images” in order to launch a marketing campaign which was something she had never mentioned before. She was still willing to represent me with my limited portfolio, though, if I was willing to continue.

Naturally, this came as a shock since she hadn’t given me a clue before that there was any problem from her point of view. So, I went through my images again and sent her 16 more possibilities by email that I’d originally eliminated for one reason or another and asked her to let me know if any of them were suitable. By this time, I was getting very uneasy about the whole situation and Cindy’s lack of communication and candor.

Over a week went by, and I heard nothing from Cindy. So, I sent her another email asking if she had gotten the images. I heard nothing for another two weeks and emailed her again, asking for advice as to what to paint first. There was still no response, so I phoned her. She told me that she couldn’t talk now because she had a business client coming for the weekend but would phone me on Monday. That was on Friday. On Sunday night I got an email from her saying that she had found another “incredible established artist” with “a large portfolio” to represent and would not be able to represent me after all. She went on to twist the knife deeper by saying that it would take many years before I would reach “profitability”for her in licensing due to my limited portfolio and lack of dedication to regular painting.

I wrote her back and agreed that I wasn’t the right artist for her and hadn’t been happy about the way things had been going. I also expressed puzzlement over why she had contacted me in the first place and why I hadn’t been told in the beginning that I would need X number of images and why she hadn’t given me more guidance in what to paint for her.

The funny thing is that no new artist appeared on her website, and a year later she contacted one of my best artist friends and other artists as well. So, what became of that “incredible” artist I wonder?

I’ve since come to the conclusion that Cindy knew nothing about the equine art licensing market and that she expected “her” artists to produce paintings quickly. I also suspect that her view is that the artists work for her rather than the other way around.

This whole incident was a huge blow to my ego; one that I’m still struggling to overcome. I’m hoping that this post will help to put the unpleasantness behind me once and for all. My biggest regret is that I let go my former licensing agent. She helped to establish my career early on, was always supportive and helpful and was familiar with the world of equine art. I’ve found her advice far more helpful than the little bits that I received from Cindy. I regret that by hastily cancelling that contract, I also lost a friend.

Perhaps that’s what’s bothering me the most.

My First Blog Award!

2009-05-09T09:57:00.001-07:00

This is truly exciting! I am very honored and humbled to accept my first blog award from fellow equine artist, Linda Shantz, whose blog I guested on last month. Thank you very much, Linda!

The past two weeks have been busy ones, filled with appointments, tweaking my new website design, raking leaves and other assorted duties. Happily, I finished up my latest short stint in Physical Therapy on Friday and am looking forward to more days at home when I don't have to run to town for any reason. That will allow me to get back into the studio again and do some early season gardening to get the beds ready for summer. I don't want to be out there in the heat working this year like I have the past two years.

While I'm writing this, I'm also backing up my computer. Once all those images are safely saved onto disks, I can erase my two camera disks and be ready to shoot more photos.

Finally, I'd like to thank my friends, Linda Shantz and Judy Johnson for visiting my newly revised website and giving me thoughts on how well it's working. As I mentioned before, Linda does a lot of Thoroughbred race horse paintings, and Judy is doing a series of shelter dogs paintings which she sells to benefit her local shelter. They are really cute paintings which she also sells as prints. Please visit her blog and pick out a shelter dog of your own to take home.

That's it for today. I would still love to hear from anyone else with your thoughts on my new website design. I think it's already paid off, as I got a call this week from someone who is interested in buying one of my paintings that I hadn't put up for sale yet. He'll call back next week. I hope, I hope, I hope!!

Thank you for visiting, and a Happy Mother's Day weekend to you all.

Alpha Mare Gets a Makeover

2009-05-04T09:33:00.000-07:00

Whew!! That’s one more big job accomplished! Or, as my grandmother used to say, “I’m glad that elephant is behind me!”.

I’ve spent the better part of the last two weeks revising my website which had, frankly, become a bit of a shambles. I had started to revise it a couple of times but never completed the job, so there were pages with three different designs, and the site had lost its uniform look. More importantly, I had rearranged some galleries but neglected to change old links and the result was duplicate content. Google doesn’t like duplicate content.

My visitor numbers have dropped dramatically over the past two years to a point where they are now less than half of what they once were. Knowing that there had to be a reason for this, I did some exploring, both on the website pages and in my stats and came up with some answers. I hope. I found a lot of broken links, among other things. Google doesn’t like broken links.

One of the things I did was to go through my Sitemeter visitor logs and write down every single page that visitors visited during a 10 day period, excluding those who only visited one or two pages. I wanted to see which are the more popular pages and how visitors were navigating around the site. Then I compiled the figures into a spreadsheet and sorted them by number of visits. This was invaluable information as I decided which images to keep and which to leave on the site; which galleries to keep and which to combine with others.

My mantra with this revision was to simplify the whole site, so the first thing I did was to decrease the number of different galleries by combining some together. For instance, the old jumping and dressage galleries were combined into an all english riding gallery. From there I proceeded to make a list of paintings and drawings I wanted to take off the site. Mostly these were paintings which were either old portraits or just not up to current standards. Some had been sold and didn’t really fit in anywhere or serve any purpose. I figured there was no point in showcasing a bunch of old portraits if I’m not accepting commissions any longer.

I made a bunch of other changes that I won’t bore you with and have ended up with a “new” website which I think is both warmer and softer in feel and cleaner in look with the artwork better arranged for greater impact. I’m hoping that the Google gods will now smile on my website again, raise its ranking in the searches and once again bring the hoards to my doorstep, metaphorically speaking.

Perhaps you could help the cause by visiting my new website and letting me know what you think. You can visit Alpha Mare Equine Art by clicking on the link.

Meanwhile, back in the studio, I’ve decided to resurrect the pony drawing at the top and work on it again. It’s the preliminary drawing for a painting, but I got stuck with what to do about a background. I’m thinking now of going simple with mainly a toned canvas. The title is The Little Inspector, and I’ll get to work on it very soon.

But first the house needs cleaning.

Thanks for visiting, and please come again.

The Forsythia Are Lovely This Year

2009-04-28T09:44:00.000-07:00

Can I distract you with that statement from the fact that I haven’t posted in two weeks? Or, perhaps you hadn’t noticed.

Yesterday was an exciting day mostly because I was a guest artist on a fellow Equine Art Guild member’s blog. Linda Shantz paints mostly Thoroughbreds and has plenty of her subjects to choose from right in her own backyard. This month she’s doing a painting a day which is something I haven’t had the courage to tackle yet. Her blog posts are always entertaining because Linda is a good writer as well as a gifted artist with a great sense of humor. Please check out her blog for today’s painting and my guest spot from yesterday.

My only regret is that I was so sick with an intestinal bug when I wrote my guest blog post that it came out less entertaining and engaging than I would have liked. It discusses all the changes I made from the reference photograph while creating The Green Team painting.

The other exciting part of yesterday was that I made some really good progress on revising my website. To make a long story short, I had revised some pages and “galleries” over the past year or so but not others. The result was that there was no uniform “look” to the pages, lots of broken links or links to pages which contained duplicate content. These are all things which Google frowns upon and could explain why my website visitors have been dwindling for the past year.

The time had come to tackle the whole website and give it a new, fresher brighter look, and yesterday the last of the major web pages was revised. I have only the image pages to do yet, and they should be easy compared to the rest. In the process, I’ve deleted a lot of pages and quite a few of the images to help streamline the site and show only my best work. I would love it if you could take a look and let me know how you like the new design, navigation and arrangement.

Now, as for the forsythia, it IS lovely this year! After several days of gray, rainy weather, the sun came out this morning, so I took a tour of the flower beds and took the photo above of my oldest forsythia. It’s the one the deer keep pruning into a mishapen mess despite my best efforts to protect it.

As luck would have it, just after I snapped this photo, my camera announced that the CF card was full. I was standing under the Burning Bush, and a chickadee alighted just inches from my face. I mean INCHES! He was not the least afraid, and I had no way to take his picture! Of course, by the time I went back out with another card in the camera, he was gone.

It’s clearly time to burn those photos to backup and empty those cards because I don’t want a repeat of that experience the next time I have camera at hand.

As soon as I get this website revision finished, I’ll be back in the studio and out in the yard. Next up will be a dressage drawing and a pony painting that’s been lingering around for years.

See you next time, and thanks for visiting!

And, That's A Wrap!

2009-04-14T18:34:00.000-07:00

What a whirlwind of a day I had today!

Not to bore you with a long list of what I accomplished, let me simply say that I wrapped up and mailed off an assortment of business and personal tax forms, got money transferred to pay the taxes, created and mailed my entry for the AAEA Mackinac Island show, made arrangements for an ad in Horses In Art magazine and last but far from least, I finished the Belgian draft horse painting. Whew! I never expected to accomplish so many important and stressful tasks in one day.

As they say in the movie industry, "That's a wrap". Now, on to new art and long neglected projects.

I think I’ll just leave it at that for tonight. Thanks for visiting, and please come visit again. Bring a friend if you care to!

Don't Count Yer Chickens!!

2009-04-12T08:19:00.000-07:00

You know that old saying about not counting your chickens before they hatch? Well, I pretty much ignored that sage advice when I more or less committed myself to entering this painting in a juried show and to using it in an ad in Horses In Art magazine. As you know, the painting is far from finished, and both deadlines are coming up this week! Now my chickens have come home to roost!

Friday was more or less a bad studio day. After painting the lower part of the trailer, I painted the neck and shoulder of the left hand horse. When I finished painting that evening, I realized that:

1. The paint was not going on smoothly despite having oiled the canvas ahead of time.

2. The highlights and shadows were not in the right places, consequently the bones and muscles were not in the right places.

3. The highlights had gone dull and the whole horse image had gone flat, showing little volume.

Making 3-d images believable on a 2-d surface is all about creating volume in your subject. Well, this poor horse had none and would have to be repainted. That night I figured that there was no way I could possibly get the painting done enough to send off the entry by Tuesday at the latest. Actually, it was kind of a relief because that left the beautiful weekend free for doing some much-needed yard work.

But, by yesterday morning I was feeling very disappointed at the prospect of missing a second invitation to an AAEA member show and felt as if I was letting the Academy down and setting a bad precedent in their minds. So, after lunch I sat down in front of the painting to study it and determine what needed to be done and if it would be possible to work on it that day.

The first consideration was whether or not the paint was dry enough to paint over, and it was. It occured to me then that the reason I’d had trouble laying down paint the day before might have been because I was trying to use up leftover mixes of paint from the previous day which had probably begun to dry and had become somewhat sticky. Fresh paint would solve that problem.

Secondly, I studied the painting and my reference photos and saw some places where I’d gone wrong in laying in the muscle masses and the scapula.

Thirdly, when I flipped on the easel light, a light bulb went off in my head as well. The highlights on the horse were much brighter under the light than they were when the light was turned off. Since paintings are rarely hung with lights directly on them, I would need to compensate.

After getting out a fresh palette and mixing up fresh paint, I began to make corrections to the horse. The paint went on smoothly and didn’t lift the layer underneath, so I kept going until the neck and shoulder were done to my satisfaction. After dinner, I began painting the head and got as far as the nose band of the halter before quitting for the day.

While I was painting, I thought I was getting this ole work horse show ring shiny, but this morning he is looking dull again. Clearly, more adjustments need to be made, but those can be done when he is dry in another day or two. I’ll just add some bright highlights in a few places and he should come alive again.

The first image above shows the BC view (before corrections), the second is after corrections were made.

I don’t think I’ve said this before, so let me mind my manners and thank each one of you for visiting my blog. I hope that you’ve found it informative and entertaining and will come back again for another visit. Please feel free to leave comments, especially to let me know whether or not you enjoy this blog. I’m always open to constructive feedback.

Quite A Scare!

2009-04-08T08:09:00.001-07:00

The night before my mother died, I got a cell phone call from my horse’s caretaker letting me know that he was colicking. Talk about stress! There I was 250 miles away, and suddenly faced with the very real prospect of losing both my mother and my horse within 24 hours. I was already worried that the doctors wouldn’t be able to keep my mother alive long enough for my sisters to arrive the next morning and worried that neither would be able to come at all due to snow storms in their respective home areas. That was on top of the certain fact that I was about to lose my mother.

For the next 4-5 hours I was kept in suspense until the call came that Scottie’s gas colic had resolved and he was recovering after a visit from the vet. Still, I worried until the next morning when a second call came to report that he was just fine but would be watched closely for a day or two. Shortly thereafter, my two sisters arrived at the hospital, and we gathered around my mother’s bed to say our goodbyes.

So, when I arrived at the barn yesterday to deliver the board check and found that Scottie was not with the other horses in the arena and was nowhere it sight, a feeling of dread and deja vue swept over me. There I was in street clothes; no boots and no knee brace. Fortunately, it was cold enough that the ground was only semi-soft and not mud, so off I went into the turn out, calling Scottie’s name. No response. I checked both of the run in sheds, but no Scottie. Now I was REALLY worried and anticipated finding his prostrate body lying somewhere in one of the pastures. Since the gate to the pastures was open, I went a little further and looked into the distance. There was Scottie happily munching on the leftovers of breakfast in the second pasture. This time when I called his name, he looked up and then went back to eating. I felt a wave of tremendous relief, and since he seemed to be just fine, I didn’t bother to risk wrenching my bad knee to go visit with him.

After heading home, I worked on the Belgian team painting a little more and repainted the railings on the trailer to make some corrections. I’ve also repainted the vertical supports. Today’s image is a close up of this area, and you can see that the horses are still in a rough stage, with pencil marks still visible.

In today’s painting session, I’m trying to decide whether to finish painting the rest of the trailer first or whether to start painting the left hand horse. I don’t want to waste the big gob of blue paint left over from yesterday, but if I paint the trailer first, I risk smearing that wet paint as I work on the horse. It probably makes the most sense to keep the momentum going and paint the trailer side and take my chances with wet paint. Since I’m on a tight deadline now, I don’t have time to wait for paint to dry before tackling the horse.

Today’s first photo is a close up of the painting showing yesterday’s progress where I evened out the widths of the corrugations. I’m quite happy with the way it turned out although the bottom rail still needs to be straightened.

The second photo shows our beach full of ice bergs as the lake ice broke up on Monday. Yesterday the ice was all gone, and we had snow flurries all day. But today is sunny, and three swans glided by this morning, enjoying the new open water and expanded feeding grounds. It won’t be long before some brave water skier in a wet suit skims the waves to be the first of another summer season of lake activities.

The Phantom Blog Award

2009-04-05T12:25:00.000-07:00

About six weeks ago there was a flurry of blog awards being passed out amongst a group of bloggers that I read regularly. Some lucky bloggers received two or three awards while I received none. I have to admit that I was pretty bummed about this and grumbled to myself about how such things were nothing more than popularity contests between friends and SO middle schoolish. I was definitely indulging in some sour grapes.

So, when I received a comment on my blog last weekend that I’d been given a blog award, I couldn’t help but feel a bit elated and redeemed. The award was given by someone I don’t know, but she failed to attach the actual award image. Having never received one before, I didn’t know what the protocol is and whether or not I had to name the seven things about myself first or what. I managed to track her down on the internet and politely sent her an email to enquire whether it was an oversight on her part that I hadn’t received the award image or if there was something I was supposed to do first.

It’s been a week now, and I never heard back from her. Now I have to assume that this was some kind of cruel hoax or perhaps she had notified the wrong artist and was too embarrassed to admit it. I’ve removed her comment from my blog to protect the innocent (or is that the guilty?) and am putting the whole incident behind me.

Something positive did come out of this whole blog award thing, though. It made me stop to think about why my blog is not more popular, and I realized that I’ve posted a lot of negative, woe-is-me thoughts over the past two years. Instead of posting new artwork, I’ve posted a lot of why-I-haven’t-done-any-artwork posts. I resolved immediately to make my posts more upbeat and try to inject some humor into them. That’s a tall order for someone whose sense of humor tends to be quite dry, but I’ll do my best from now on.

Today’s photo is a view from my studio window. It shows the ice in the lake receding as the wind-blown waves chip away at its edges and as the sun has melted its thickness. This can be an anxious time for us lake dwellers for a day or two when we worry whether or not the ice is going to demolish docks and boat houses as the wind drives it relentlessly eastward. So far we’ve been lucky, but I did watch helplessly one year as the ice wiped out our neighbors dock and boat house supports. It was a good lesson in the powers of Nature.

Normally, as soon as the ice goes out of the lake, the ducks and swans appear in our beach and the fishermen return in their boats. I’m already seeing large flocks of flight ducks making their way back toward Canada. Perhaps a crane will stop by one of these days, too. They are so shy that I haven’t managed to get a good photo of one yet, and they only visit for a day or two each season. But, I keep hoping that THIS season will bring better luck.

There is no sun today because we’re expecting yet another winter storm tonight and tomorrow. Will THIS be the last gasps of the winter of 2008-2009, or does Mother Nature have more surprises in store for us? Don’t put away those snow shovels just yet!