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May
1
WWAO Seascapes Showcase is online!
Filed Under Donna Ridgway | Leave a Comment
Barbara Furlong , a member of World Wide Women Artists online, is hosting the WWAO exhibit for the month of May. She chose a theme, Seascapes, for a title. I was having a brain lapse, and thought I had nothing to exhibit. At the last minute, I remembered our trip to Florida when we were driving semi.
We were in Virginia, when we got an urgent message from our dispatcher to deadhead immediately to St Louis. We had doubts and questioned the orders but our dispatcher told us to go ahead and get to St Louis as fast as we possibly could.
When we backed up to the dock, there was something like 14 trucks backed up beside us from the trucking company we were driving for. Rumor was, that another 12 or 13 trucks had just left the docks loaded with orange juice for Miami.
Sure enough, we were loaded with orange juice from California or some other country. This orange juice had to spend a week in Florida, so it could then be labeled Florida orange juice. When we got to Miami with the juice, we had orders to wait a week, then pick up the “new” orange juice, and haul it back to St Louis.
It was February, and we’d never been to Florida before. So it didn’t torture us any to spend the week in Miami! We lived in the truck, parked at a Farmer’s Market parking lot. Met some nice people there. Toured the beaches, the waterways, the Gumbo Limbo park, saw the rich people’s houses….watched alligators…all the Florida things.
Because of that trip, I had a photo I could enter in the WWAO online exhibit this May! It’s nice to have a variety of experiences to draw from…. Hope you enjoy the exhibit.
Donna Ridgway
©Copyright 2008 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.
May
1
Resurfacing
Filed Under Linda Shantz | Leave a Comment
I haven’t managed to do much painting these last few weeks. It’s a combination of being busy with the horses and other art stuff, not to mention the income tax deadline and quarterly GST filing! Things have dried up more or less, so it’s time to think about fixing some fencing and putting up some new paddocks.
When I’m not painting I’m always doing other art-related things. This is the time of year there are a number of juried shows coming up, and I’m deciding which ones I might enter, as well as what will go where. I was recently accepted into a show in Ohio at Dancing Horse Farm, and shipped the work a couple of weeks ago. Be sure to take a look at an online display of the exhibit. The three paintings that were accepted have been posted here on the blog in the past, but in light of the show, I’ll post one of them again. The snow may be gone, but there are babies everywhere this time of year. This one I called “Snowbaby,” a small oil pastel on panel.
There’s a new project coming up that I’ll be letting you in on shortly. In the meantime, I have some work in progress that is no doubt dry, so it’s time to get back to it!
©Copyright 2008 by Linda Shantz. See original post here.
May
1
The Last Couple of Days
Filed Under Bethany Caskey | Leave a Comment
I took Dulci out of the round corral while Jim and “Hope” had an in depth discussion about whether or not she was going to be caught that night. “Hope” kept up her end of the conversation quite well and brought several new and unusual topics to the table.
While they discussed, Dulci and I went for a short walk and little stops for grazing in the green grass along the lane. I got out my mixture of gentle iodine and baby oil and treated the skinned places and dandruffy areas again. The first treatment last week did wonders and the hair is quickly returning and the scales from her tail have disappeared. She seems to appreciate the attention and leans into the rubbing.
The tarp that had been covering the hay had blown nearly off, so I rearranged it and laid it out flat on the ground and let Dulci graze around it. She worked her way up to investigate the tarp on the ground and after she lost interest, I walked forward and over the tarp and asked her to follow. She never hesitated but stepped right onto the tarp. Her knees went up to her breast bone with each step as she tested the crackly ground, but she never faltered and never got scared. We hung out together then and she grazed and watched Hope and Jim.
The good ending was that Jim won the debate and Hope got caught and rewarded and turned loose again.
I have been busy with the last of the redraws for the Storey Publications book on Draft Horses and Mules coming out this fall. I will need those all done and sent back in a couple of weeks. Once I could see the final form of the book, there were a couple of drawings I pulled and decided to redo that I felt could be better.
My “boys”, the Arabian half brothers have become real horses this year. They will need lots of riding and driving. No more little babies, this winter they shot up (and out) and look magnificent. When they shed the last of the winter belly fur, I will take some photos. Their black hides look like mirrors. I will have to start getting up before daylight soon and start playing with them. It’s the only way to make sure my day starts out right.
©Copyright 2008 by Bethany Caskey. See original post here.
May
1
Hi Donna,
I just spent the morning hours looking at your sight. Thank you for the inspiration to paint. I am new to watercolor painting. I am trying to learn from a book. I have messed around for a year. I keep thinking I need to take a class but I really don’t want to. Time and travel is difficult to manage. So, I web searched horse watercolor and came across your site. OH THANK YOU. I read as I looked at how you took photos and then painted. I have tons of photos of my cows, horses, dogs, chickens and kittens. I kept telling myself to paint what I like. I have to learn to be more “free” with the color and brush strokes. NOT to be so exact on line. I had become frustrated and no longer had the desire to even try. Reading your messages really got me excited today and I am going to go out and paint something…I don’t know what yet…but it’s out there. Thanks again!!!
(Name withheld for privacy reasons)
I received this wonderful letter in my email this morning. It couldn’t have come at a better time for I was feeling totally invisible upon this earth.
Many years ago, when I was a kid, working on the farm with my dad, I asked him why we were put on this earth? He responded to me, “We’re here to make this world a better place for other people who are here now and to make it better for people who live after us.”
I guess because he’s my dad, I believed him and I’ve used his words to create what you might call a “foundation” to my life. Lately, it seems I haven’t done anything to help anyone, and I was getting pretty frustrated at my lack of results.
Right when you’re down in the dumps the lowest, God gives you what you need to perk you up again! For John noticed I had placed an incorrect link to watercolor-online.com. So now I know people do read this blog, and there are things on here of worth to someone, and that makes me happy.
Of course to get to the good stuff, you have to put up with everything else I write….I thank you for doing that, now that I know someone is out there!
Donna
©Copyright 2008 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.
May
1
Artist Resources
Filed Under Donna Ridgway | Leave a Comment
I’ve discovered the most heavenly site for artists…. actually two of them. One is the empty easel and the other is watercolor online.
So don’t expect anything much out of me in the next couple of days, I’ll be busy exploring. 
And learning. There are some sites I can go to, where the knowledge is so nicely presented, I can soak it in like a sponge. It doesn’t seem like study, where you work hard to learn something, it’s actually enjoyable! Both these sites were like that to me.
On another note, yesterday, I was in a completely destructive mood, so I went out to the studio, which is now blocked and leveled, and tore a closet out of what was once the back bedroom. The hot water heater is in that room also, so I tore out the closet around it also. I used a big hammer and did lots of pounding and banging and ripping….it felt good as I’ve had some especially frustrating experiences in the art world lately.
I take things to seriously, get frustrated and worked up about them, so it was good to freely destroy something! Ever the creator, I carefully saved what I could save. Little bits of quarter round, clean pieces of paneling…..screws, nails, boards….so I can reuse them when I rebuild the wall in what is going to be the display area of the studio.
The back room is going to be shelved for storage all the way around and possibly, if there’s space, will have a table for framing in the center. The room is about 12′X14′ so this should all be within the realm of possibility. Now the dreaded closet has been removed, it looks like it’s going to be perfect for what we need.
There are some holes in the flooring I need to fix, there’s a hole in the back wall on the tin on the outside, we’ll fix that. Then we’ll lay down the linoleum, put in the shelves and table, and that room will be functional.
Next to that room, is a small bathroom. I’m going to tear it apart also. The shower will come out, the toilet will come out. The sink will come out. I’ll have wide shelves where the shower and toilet are, for my watercolor and drawing papers, mat boards etc….The storage is going to be wonderful for my art supplies have a way of taking over our lives.
I’m getting anxious to see the studio finished up but we’re totally out of it with this cold we caught…it’s a miracle when I feel like doing anything and now Robert has caught it also.
But we will prevail, the cold will go away, and we can get back to work.
In the meantime, I’ve got these two wonderful websites to explore….
Donna
©Copyright 2008 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.
May
1
Le Cadeau du Cheval - The Panel
Filed Under Jennifer Pratt | Leave a Comment
My panel arrived for the project ‘Le Cadeau du Cheval’, a mural that will be unveiled at this year’s Masters at Spruce Meadows, Calgary Alberta.
Here is what it looks like:
The final work must keep at least 80% of the tonal range provided. With the colouring of my panel ranging from violets to blues, I have [...]
©Copyright 2008 by Jennifer Pratt. See original post here.
May
1
Middle of the week and wondering where all the good art printers are!
Filed Under Sheona Hamilton-Grant | Leave a Comment
OK so I ended last week on a fun note….visions of my work in a Museum.
Middle of the week, and I can’t even seem to get them correctly printed.
OK, I tell a lie the three Zig Zag escapades: “Ciao”, “Footloose” and “Fancy Free” they are printed, protectively packaged and ready for export. They are looking GOOD and officially for sale.
Popular demand has meant “Head to Toe” should also be available as a (perfect, available in 2 different sizes, printed on acid free top quality paper, signed by the artist with accompanying COA) print।
To this effect, I have run back and forward to the printers 6 times, sent endless pdf files and made a number of very polite phone calls, only to come to the sad conclusion that some people just don’t have an inkling of finesse।
“Head to Toe” will be printed when and only when it is a 100% perfect.
Why I changed printers I hear you ask? No idea. I’m slightly mad.
I will eat a bit of humble pie and ask my initial (good) printer if he would mind saving the day.
So, end of the week: printer trips still on the agenda .
I tell you: I sense another “Response” in the making…!
After that wee rant…kettles boiled…time for a nice soothing cup of tea।
©Copyright 2008 by Sheona Hamilton Grant. See original post here.
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