Tag Archives: Donna Ridgway

Zippy Zebra, work in progress.

June 30th, 2008 | By Donna Ridgway

Colorful painting of a zebra. Copyright Donna Ridgway.
Rough start to this, but it’s coming along. I haven’t spent a whole lot of time on it.

Zippy is a baby zebra who was brought into a vet clinic, because she was ill. A friend of mine works at the clinic. When Zippy was doing better, she took photos of Zippy for me to use to create some paintings.

We’ve been working on the studio some more. We decided we’d never feel it’s clean until we’ve scrubbed each room with soap and water, so we unhooked it from the electricity and took the garden hose inside. We scrubbed with soapy water, from the ceiling on down, then rinsed it with the garden hose until the water ran clean.

Trouble is, we have so much of my stuff in there, we have to do one room at a time. This is turning into quite a project. Once the framing room is dry from all our washing, we’ll lay a new floor down, put linoleum down, and build shelves for the frames. It’s going to be so handy to have a room specifically for framing. All the frames and supplies in one place!
Donna Ridgway

©Copyright 2008 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Donna Ridgway’s website.

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Practice painting of a Macaw

June 29th, 2008 | By Donna Ridgway

Painting of a macaw. Copyright Donna Ridgway.

I’ve been playing at painting Cheeko again. I suppose he isn’t anatomically correct but it was fun to do his bright colors and he had such a bright eyed look it was fun to try this pose of him.

The colors don’t show up in the scan. I created his black feathers by using reds, greens, and oranges, along with some payne’s grey. I built up many layers of colors, so in the real painting, his head is green and fades into blues. I don’t know why my scanner doesn’t like thalo green, but it sure doesn’t care to pick it up.

Of course, as soon as I post the painting, I see 6 things I need to correct. I scanned it and corrected it about that many times before posting it, also!

Oh well, it’s fun to paint, and everything you paint is practice…so if this one isn’t perfect, who cares? I’m off and running to the next one!
Donna

©Copyright 2008 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Donna Ridgway’s website.

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A day about food!

June 26th, 2008 | By Donna Ridgway

We decided today, we’d do some campfire cooking and pretend we’re camping, even when we’re home. So we got out the dutch oven, thawed a big venison roast, and prepared some vegetables. I realized I’d left an onion out in the pickup camper so I went to get it.

Daisy, our donkey, spied me the minute I headed out the door, and came to see what I was doing. While I was in the camper, she pushed her head inside as far as she could possibly get. I think she was about to cut off her windpipe, but there was no thought of backing up in her mind.

The last time she came to the camper like that, I had a loaf of bread in my hands, and gave her some bread, which she adores! She was looking for more.

Since I’d brought the bread into the house yesterday, all I had in the camper to give her was the onion. She kept begging, and she pretty much refused to back up, to let me out, so I took a knife out of the drawer, and cut the onion in half. I offered it to her…and she gleefully ate it. She didn’t make a face, she didn’t pucker up, she didn’t shake her head, she just begged for the other half.

She’s so funny. She makes me laugh. I never would have imagined she’d eat an onion. Pedro won’t touch most of the things Daisy loves. He’s very sophisticated and doesn’t lower himself to the level of eating anything, just to be eating. She also ate broccoli and celery before this day was done.

Back to my roast. I marinated it in ginger sesame sauce for several hours. Popped it into the dutch oven. I had a sweet potato, so I put that in with the roast and the marinade sauce. I smothered that with the onions Daisy didn’t eat, layered in some carrots and some regular potatoes. After I had that in the pot, I sliced some bratwurst sausages and layered the pieces over the vegies. Next I stuffed garlic cloves into the mixture. Put lots of pepper on top….and put the lid on it.

Robert had a fire going…we put the dutch oven over the fire. An hour or so later, we had a meal fit for a king! Luckily, Daisy doesn’t eat much cooked food so we got to have all we wanted.
Donna Ridgway

©Copyright 2008 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Donna Ridgway’s website.

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Yellow warbler and other photos.

June 24th, 2008 | By Donna Ridgway

Foals playing. Photo copyroght Donna Ridgway.

Black bear cub. Copyright Donna Ridgway.
This bear hung out above our camp, digging in the hillside. He dug dirt until he had a dust cloud around him, then, he’d get tired and plop down in a hollow spot to rest. After a while of watching the camp, he’d begin to dig again. He was so much fun to watch.
Yellow Warbler bird. Copyright Donna Ridgway.
Nothing’s sweeter than the song of these little yellow warblers. The swamp was full of them and we all enjoyed their company.
donna

©Copyright 2008 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Donna Ridgway’s website.

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Donna Ridgway, plen aire painting.

June 24th, 2008 | By Donna Ridgway

Donna Ridgway painting plein air. Photo copyright Donna Ridgway
We just returned from a camping trip at Spite Hill. It’s a campground alongside the “Mighty Mo” as some people call the Missouri River. The river is high right now, and covers half the campground but we managed to stay high and dry.

There isn’t much to this campground, one table, and one fire pit and one outdoor toilet with a broken door. Which the guys fixed….. But it was still a fun place to camp and fish and paint and observe wildlife.

The swamp was full of song birds and I got some nice photos of them singing to me. :)

A big pelican flew over the river each morning at the same time, he was kind of neat and I took photos of him. There were several deer on the hillside each day. A bear came to entertain us on the hillside to the south of us. He dug so hard he had the dirt flying. He just left the trail when a white tail doe came along. She was walking with the wind at her tail and we wondered what she would do when she got down wind of the bear and realized how close he was! It was fun to see her catch his scent and take off running. Wildlife is so interesting to see and they keep me entertained.

I did paint while we were there, and here I am (above) on my four wheeler, all set up, doing a painting of Spite Hill, which is below.
Plein air painting by Donna Ridgway. Painting copyright Donna Ridgway

The Missouri River runs at the base of Spite Hill. I chose to leave the railroad tracks and the long line of yellow railroad cars out of my painting.

This hill has a very interesting shape. It was fun to paint it. I was using watercolor and painting on a 16X20″ canvas. I loved the bright colors as we’ve had so many years without moisture, it was fun to see the country looking green and bright.
Plein air painting copyright Donna Ridgway

This hill is to the east of Spite Hill, it’s mostly a ridge of rock, but it was fun to paint it.
Painting copyright Donna Ridgway

After I painted some realistic things, I decided to paint all the fun we had at Spite Hill. I began this painting with no thought in mind except to capture the emotions of the trip.

You can see the River God, who we thanked for the fish we caught, I could show him to you in photos, he shows up very plainly. He’s the mask looking thing on the side of the hill. I threw in the fish we caught, the campers and tents, the colors of the sunsets, sunrises, trees and rocks. I probably had more fun creating this painting, than I did the others. I even threw in the broken door on the toilet. And the people we met! You have to know, the people are straight marks, the campers and tents are the symbols in the orange, the rectangle in orange is the toilet door. The fish are pretty self explanatory.

There’s a heart on the hill, it stands for the respect this group of people we went camping with, has for each other.

As I get some of my photos of the bear and the birds ready, I’ll post them also.
Donna Ridgway

©Copyright 2008 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Donna Ridgway’s website.

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Work in progress painting of dog, Border Collie.

June 13th, 2008 | By Donna Ridgway

Border Collie dog painting in progress (WIP) by Donna Ridgway

I started another dog painting today. This is drawn onto the gessoed mat board with my watercolor brush and Ultramarine Blue paint.

We had 7 inches of snow the other day, and the power company still hasn’t got our lines fixed. We’re running the generator and glad to have it so we don’t lose the meat in the freezer or the groceries we just stocked into the refrigerator.

Our electricity worked until today, the town of Great Falls was without for a day or two, in many places. So many trees came down on the lines. It was a hey day for the tree removal companies. But so sad for the trees.

Anyway, I don’t suppose I’ll get much more painting done on this as it’s getting dark and we won’t have many lights going tonight. I’m glad the weather man here is accurate! Because of him, and his prediction of freezing weather and heavy snow, I covered my flowers and they lived through the storm. Such is Montana weather, if you don’t like it, stick around it will change in about five minutes. It’s never boring and I like that. So long as it doesn’t take my house down, or cause any great damage, we can live with it. So much better than living somewhere else!
Donna Ridgway

Email Meif you have questions, or want to inquire about purchasing a painting.

Remember, you can find horse art, Western art, Mule and Donkey art
wildlife art, cow art, and animal paintings, reference Photosfor sale on my website.

©Copyright 2008 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Donna Ridgway’s website.

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Watercolor painting of a dog. WIP

June 12th, 2008 | By Donna Ridgway

Dog painting WIP in progress by Donna Ridgway

I’ve started this painting of a dog. He’s probably a “mutt”. Those are my favorite dogs. No special breeding, no big pedigrees, just a wonderful, happy dog, who belongs to someone who loves him!

We found this dog in Cascade, Montana…stopped to visit his owner, and while the guys were talking, I asked if I could take pictures of the guys dog. Don’t know his name, he was a stranger, but I liked his happy dog.

I’ll update this as I go along.
Donna Ridgway

Email Me if you have questions, or want to inquire about purchasing a painting.

Remember, you can find horse art, Western art, Mule and Donkey art
wildlife art, cow art, and animal paintings, my Montana Photosfor sale on my website.

©Copyright 2008 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Donna Ridgway’s website.

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Le Cadeau du Cheval, The Horse Gift, update

June 5th, 2008 | By Donna Ridgway

Le Cadeau du Cheval mural panel in progress by Donna Ridgway

I’m having a hard time photographing this so it looks like what I’ve painted, but here’s another update. Unless I change something after looking at this for a while, it’s finished. I could go crazy and repaint the whole thing at this point. I just don’t know….
Donna

©Copyright 2008 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Donna Ridgway’s website.

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Le Cadeau du Cheval, The Horse Gift, update

June 4th, 2008 | By Donna Ridgway

Le Cadeau du Cheval mural mosaic panel

Not much to say about this but it is coming along. It feels like I still have a lot of decisions to make about it, but that’s ok. It will happen …I will get this finished!
Donna

©Copyright 2008 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Donna Ridgway’s website.

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Montana Photos, My new website, wildlife, horses, scenery.

April 7th, 2008 | By Donna Ridgway

I love taking photos of dogs in pickups. They exhibit all kinds of doggie behaviour. This one has such wistful longing for his master to return. He hates sitting there, guarding the truck, feeling self conscious. This is a very “doggie” moment, captured forever with the camera.

The line these mule deer created on a hillside interested my creative mind. I liked their path in the snow, and the way their dark shapes followed it.

This little group of mule deer, trotting through the snow was cute. I liked their single minded determination and sense of purpose.

Echoes of the past…an abandoned grain drill.

Here we go again, another version of the dog in the pickup.

These crows almost got us killed. Robert spotted them and they were about to take off in flight. He slammed on the brakes so hard, while yelling, “Look, Look, Look!” We get so excited when we see some critters, we loose all sense of logic or thought of where we are. The guy behind us will agree with that…. Thank God he was an alert and defensive driver. We’ll do much better next time.

I have been working away for days, creating a photo site from the thousands of photos we take. I realize in all sensibility, I can not paint them all. And for goodness sake, why should I? Some of these images stand alone, they don’t need to be turned into paintings!

On the other hand, I also realize there are many artists out there who can not spend the time or don’t have the camera it takes to get images for their paintings. So I’ve also created a photo reference site for artists’ use. If you’re an artist, check it out and see if there are photos there you can use.

Sales have been brisk and hopeful at this point and the site has only been live a little while. I also have a page, where I’m placing links to artist’s sites-if the artist has used my reference photos, and if he/she wishes to be placed there. I do charge $5 one time fee to place the link as I need a little something for the time it takes me to do the work. But this will give you a good SEO link to your site.

I’ll include an image of one of the paintings you created from a ref photo on the site if you wish.

The ordering system is basic. Email me with the jpg numbers you’d like to use for reference photos. I’ll send you a paypal invoice for the amount. When I receive payment, I’ll email you the images. The jpgs you receive will be aprox 3000X2000 pixels and 180 dpi so make certain your email can receive the images before I send them.

In our photo shoot yesterday, we got very close up to the meadowlarks, an owl, an eagle who flew over, swooped low, and took a good look at us (we have that on film!) cattle drinking from a river, some nice horse photos, many photos of mule deer, the dogs in the pickup, some cute spring calves and other things. We had a good snowstorm here, so the photos are all of the snow, so that was fun for us, as we’ve not had snow for quite a while.

I’ll be uploading the photo shoot later on today, hope you enjoy our Montana photo site.
Donna and Robert Ridgway

©Copyright 2008 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.

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Bull Elk, painting, plasma cut steel.

March 9th, 2008 | By Donna Ridgway

Never know what you might paint on next! My nephew had someone use a plasma cutter to cut this elk out of steel. Steven didn’t want the elk to remain metal color, he wanted it painted to go on the front of his new Dodge one ton. So if you see this elk going down the road around Helena, Mt, you’ll know who painted it!
Donna Ridgway

Email Meif you have questions, or want to inquire about purchasing a painting.

Remember, you can find horse art, Western art, Mule and Donkey art
wildlife art, cow art, and animal paintings, for sale on my website.

©Copyright 2008 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.

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Carousel horse watercolor painting on canvas.

March 8th, 2008 | By Donna Ridgway

The Carousel Horse

On the outside, of a beautiful carousel horse, you see shiny paint, a wooden shell, glossy colors….but look deeply into their eyes and you will see the soul of a trapped horse, who longs to be free. He doesn’t want to go round and round any longer. He wants to leap from the slick, circling platform onto green meadows and feel clean air sucking through his lungs.

You don’t know it, but at night, when the carousel shuts down, the hooves are freed from their pedestals, wood becomes living flesh, and the horse’s wish is granted.

When I was a child, and I visited the carousel with my grandparents, the horses knew I was “one of those who understood”. They’d came to my house in the dead of night and I’d hear their impatient hooves outside my window. I could open the window and make the leap onto one of their backs and spend the rest of the magical night flying across the ground on the wildest of wild horses….the carousel!

Donna Ridgway

This painting is 8X10″ on gallery wrapped canvas.
See more carousel horses here.
Email Me if you have questions, or want to inquire about purchasing a painting.

©Copyright 2008 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.

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All Round Athlete, paint rope horse in action.

March 4th, 2008 | By Donna Ridgway

This is my entry for the American Paint Horse Association World Poster Contest. The entry form stated, they wanted an equine that looked as if he was coming right off the page.

I hope mine looks like that!

I worked from a photo, sent to me by a friend, Equine Sculptor, Yvonne Kitchen. Her work is wonderful, check it out on the link to her name. She had some exciting ranch rodeo photos she graciously shared with me.

We won’t hear until March 17, who the winner is.

Even when I don’t win, I love the anticipation of entering a contest. You have so many “what ifs” running through your mind, until you hear the final word. And when you don’t make the cut, so what? You have this feeling, “I had the guts to enter that-I can’t believe it?!!!!”

So if it’s a win, you have the elation, and if you don’t, you have the laugh….you’re a winner either way.
Donna Ridgway

Email Meif you have questions, or want to inquire about purchasing a painting.

Remember, you can find horse art, Western art, Mule and Donkey art
wildlife art, cow art, and animal paintings, for sale on my website.

©Copyright 2008 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.

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Three New Release Horse pictures, photos. 8X10", matted, $40.

February 13th, 2008 | By Donna Ridgway

Today’s photo shoot.

We drove for miles today, looking for nice photos. Out of several hundred, I have three I liked for certain, maybe there’ll be a few more when I get looking at them closely. It takes time to go through the files on the computer, once we get home. It’s like a treasure hunt and I can’t wait to share them!

The colors were beautiful today, the light was perfect. Here’s what we found…


“Three Horses”

8X10″ Photo

Archival Paper and inks, double mat.

$40 includes shipping.


“Buckskin”

8X10″ Photo

Archival Paper and inks, double mat.

$40 includes shipping.


“Dun”

8X10″ Photo

Archival Paper and inks, double mat.

$40 includes shipping.

Ordering is easily done using the pay pal buttons provided, or you can Email Me Thanks! Donna Ridgway

©Copyright 2008 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.

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