Jan

31

Barnyard Dentistry, Update

Filed Under Donna Ridgway | 1 Comment


This is almost finished. I have a little more fine tuning to do on the horse’s eye. Work under the ladies arm and a few places here and there to finish. Seems when you think you’re done, you scan it again and see more things to fix. It’s a process….

In my continuing quest to create more believable people, this one is ok to me. So much better than I would have done a year ago. And this painting tells a story, it isn’t just an animal sitting there. So I like that too.

This is close enough to done, I won’t post any more updates, but you can know, there’s going to be a few more fixes. :)
donna
Remember, you can find horse art, wildlife art, cow art, and animal paintings, for sale on my website.
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Jan

31

Buddies

Filed Under Judy Johnson | 1 Comment


A new one started. This is of a young friend of mine, one of whom I live vicariously through. He spent some time in Montana working on a ranch and was kind enough to let me use one of his photos. I will be sending some pieces to the Grand National Art Show held in conjunction with the Grand National Rodeo, Horse and Stock Show in April at the Cow Palace in San Francisco and thought this might be a good one to work on for that. It will be a little challenge for me in that there will be a person(!) in it but hopefully it will not be a troublesome as that darn ewe head in some earlier posts. I am ready to take it on and so far so good. I always like this stage because I can imagine what it will look like and not be troubled by what it actually looks like. I see only possibility at this point.
Tom’s Woods is almost finished, some twigs need to strategically placed and then I will post it.

Jan

30

A Stormy Day in the Studio

Filed Under Karen Baker Thumm | Comments Off



Today was a perfect day to stay home and get something accomplished. We’ve been under a winter storm warning since last night when temperatures dropped from around 44 degrees to a low of 7 this morning. The wind howled all night and continues to do so today although we aren’t getting much snow. I love stormy days in winter and the cosy warmth of the house, knowing that my horse is safe and also warm in the barn where I board him.

So, today after washing some really grimy saddle pads in the laundry tub, I got back to work on the portrait of Bard. I thought it was going to be an easy portrait, but it hasn’t turned out that way. After tracing the line drawing onto some drawing paper, I began the shading process and immediately things went south. Bard didn’t look like Bard anymore! How could that be? So I studied and studied all the reference photos, made a change here and another there and gradually Bard reappeared in the image. When you’re doing a portrait and trying to get an exact likeness, a very small change can make a big difference. My challenge in doing this value study is to keep the light source consistent at the same time I remain faithful to Bard’s facial features. He has a typical Quarter Horse head but it’s also on the lean and bony side. Getting the shadows and highlights in exactly the right places is very important to getting a good likeness. Since I don’t have a reference photo in sunlight from exactly the same angle as the pose my client wanted me to use, this has been a real mental exercise.

Above you can see how far as I’ve gotten up to today. The photo isn’t very good because I neglected to check the camera settings and shot it at a slight angle, but it will have to do until the next update. Click on the thumbnail to see the larger image on my website (if I can figure out how to do that).

Jan

30

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Jan

29

The Vet Check or Barnyard Dentistry

Filed Under Donna Ridgway | Comments Off


At 22X28 ” this is the biggest painting I’ve worked on for a while. It’s going to be a sienna painting, kind of like the old photos. This is my initial drawing. Just using turp and a paint brush and some burnt sienna paint.

Here it is, almost finished. A little bit of a funny color because I photographed this in the house, late tonight. It’s a wonder it turned out as good as it did. Also, it wasn’t perpendicular to the camera….You can see black edges around it, and some glare from the dining room lights.

I’ve worked on it some since this photo was taken…I’ll update it tomorrow. There are still a few areas to work on. The shirt of the lady and the horse’s ears. Possibly more.

Thanks for stopping by my blog, hope you enjoy the paintings!
Donna

Remember, you can find horse art, wildlife art, cow art, and animal paintings, for sale on my website.
My Ebay
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Jan

28

Florida Bird

Filed Under Donna Ridgway | 1 Comment

This one is making Robert laugh. We saw these birds in Florida when we were driving semi cross country. I felt like painting something really different tonight, so I went into my Florida photo file.

Birds aren’t my forte! But it was fun to try.
Donna

Jan

28

Remembering heat

Filed Under Judy Wood | Comments Off


I’m not a big fan of being too hot, but after the day we just had, and the week that is apparently about to descend on us, I thought getting away from snow just for a bit would be nice. Today’s shots were taken last summer, I think in August, when it had been darn hot and dry for a while. These two shots are part of a couple of series that I think of as “dust shots” and “fly season”. Not particularly pretty or romantic names, but accurate.

I got started with the “silhouette in doorway” theme one day in June when I was looking out the east door of the barn at the green green grass in the near ground, and the brilliant yellow of the canola field across the road in the background. It was stunning. Then I decided the visuals would be considerably improved by having a horse in the crossties, so poor Alpac got dragged out of his stall and set up for some shots. That worked well, so I did a bunch of them, then got into the “farrier and horse” silhouette shots one day when I had the camera at the barn and our farrier Norm was working. Those were good too. The one I am showing today, however, was closer to fall, when we were getting a bit more colour. I do get tired of all that relentless green in summer. I went out one hot late summer evening and set Alpac up in the west door to catch the evening light. Worked that time too.

The dust shots are always a bit of a crap shoot but if you can get the right angle, they can be really good. I’m quite protective of my camera and hate like heck for it to get wet or dirty, but I’ll push a bit if I think I can get a good shot. The one here was another hot late summer evening after I had ridden. I was wandering around the turnouts “up top” at the stable, and the poor geldings were being tormented by the flies. They were milling endlessly, trying to evade the biting insects. Not a good situation for them, but a good photo op for me. Reminds me of my nephew from Vancouver when he was in his early teens. He used to come here to visit most summers, but this year he and his sister had come for Christmas. It was incredibly cold (about like it is now) and we had gone out to the boarding stable to visit the horse I had then. Gordon made the comment that the horses must really like this weather. I looked at him incredulously and asked “why would they like this?” to which he responded “no mosquitoes”. I have to admit he had a point.

As to where we’re at today–lots of new snow, being whipped around by high winds, with falling temperatures all day. Started cold, got colder. Highway traffic not recommended. Tonight we’re looking at minus 35, and tomorrow not much better, with the wind to give a wind chill equivalent of minus 50. This is supposed to last for much of the week. Oh joy. At least there will be enough good snow for snowshoeing if it ever warms up!!

Jan

28

Polebridge, Mt Sled Dog

Filed Under Donna Ridgway | Comments Off


It’s been just a year ago, since we went to the sled dog races at Polebridge, Mt. I photographed the dogs, and some of them were so beautiful. This is one I especially liked. It’s possible he ran the Ididarod!

Prints of this image are $30 and that includes shipping. Contact me on the email link below if you wish to purchase a print.
Donna
Thanks for stopping by, if you enjoyed the blog, leave a comment and let me know!

Remember, you can find horse art, wildlife art, cow art, and animal paintings, for sale on my website.
My Ebay
Email Me

Jan

28

Hocks n Knees

Filed Under Donna Ridgway | Comments Off


I sat down in the dirt, behind my horse, Class and took photos of her while she was eating. That was two years ago! I’ve been wanting to paint this picture ever since that day, but I was scared to tackle it.

There’s more concentration in this painting than you can believe but I think it worked.

Maybe that’s because we cut up a huge trailer full of wood today and I’m tired and my judgement is off. :)

I’m hoping when you first look at this, you can’t even figure out what it is, then you look closer and you figure it out.

This is acrylic and watercolor, on a gessoed mat board. 8X10″ in size.

Thanks for stopping by my blog to see what I’ve been up to lately. Hope it was worth your time.
Donna

Jan

27

Daisys hat, update.

Filed Under Donna Ridgway | Comments Off


Now it’s finished. It didn’t scan very well, the colors are much brighter and livelier than they show here. This is 5X7″ on gessoed matboard, an acrylic. It will sell for $30.

Donna

Jan

27

Daisy’s hat.

Filed Under Donna Ridgway | Comments Off


I’ll be working on this a little bit more, but it’s basically finished. I put this hat on Daisy one day and she didn’t care one bit. She wore it like it was part of her. She’s such a funny girl! I’m going to find a sombrero for her this summer…
Thank you so much for stopping by and looking at my work. You can purchase anything here by emailing me on the link below.
Donna
Remember, you can find horse art, wildlife art, cow art, and animal paintings, for sale on my website.
My Ebay
Email Me

Jan

26

Ghost Groom and the Bucket of Avoidance

Filed Under Linda Shantz | Comments Off


Okay, so maybe I’m getting a little silly with a title like that. Sounds like a Harry Potter novel, don’t you think? :) Can you see where I’m coming from with this first pic, though?

I began to behave myself and keep to a more typical underpainting with my grey tones, which has left me with a very interesting-looking piece at this stage. As you may notice, I left the bucket and sponge till last…hence the avoidance! I like minimalistic backgrounds, but I think here the bucket and hose serve to create some depth, so I think they’ll be staying.

I pushed past the bucket avoidance to cover the whole support tonight before going out to the barn for night check. The underpainting will undergo more refining before I move on to colour — I need the shapes and tone to be better established. Taking photos and looking at them on the computer not only gives me a good reason to update this blog, it lets me see things I might not notice when I’m at the easel. The only trouble with that is I have to live with the lack of perfection until the next painting session!

Jan

26

The Dude

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Here’s a wrangler, loading up a dude. The horse is braced…he knows what’s coming!

This was done as a two hour challenge on the guild I belong to. It’s 8X10 inches and done in acrylic.
Donna

Remember, you can find horse art, wildlife art, cow art, and animal paintings, for sale on my website.
My Ebay
Email Me

Jan

26

A deer appears

Filed Under Judy Johnson | Comments Off



More progress on the woods and the deer stepped in as I was working. I was hoping she would show up.

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