Tag Archives: equine

Grumpy Draft Horse, watercolor in progress


I started working on a Grumpy Draft horse yesterday. I have a slug of images from this past summer, where I took photos of these draft horses (Belgians) at a farm in their pasture. I was actually at a horse show and these big guys live next door, across the road. I know the owner, and I saw him start to go over to his pasture from the show. Over there was a group of children with parents, looking at the peacful giants out there grazing. Some of the horses noticed the people at the fence and started to wander over to see what they might have for treats, I suspect. I knew this would be a great photo op…the large horses, the small horse crazy little girls! So over I went! The owner ducked under the fence and grabbed the halterless head and over they sauntered. The other horses all soon followed.

I bet at this point you are wondering, why was this horse so grumpy?! Well, he was more jealous than anything. You see, these big guys love attention! And if one thinks someone else in the herd is getting more lovin’ and pats than him…well, he shoots a warning look at the attention hog! I loved the drama that was playing out with this guy. In the reference photo the other horse is right under his neck and head, but I decided to leave all that out and let the viewer come to his/her own conclusion as to why this guy is looking so grumpy. Looks like a bad hair day with all those tangles in his mane!

This painting is 18 x 15, created with Watercolors. These photos are the work in progress. The top image shows the full painting. The middle photo shows it on the easel and helps you see the size of the piece in reference to the easle and other things. The last photo is a close up of the head, so you can see the details that have been added already.
Today I worked on the tangled mane. I’ll get a photo of that, hopefully tomorrow.

~DebbieDebbie Flood, Artist. Equine, Wildlife, and the natural world.
http://www.debfloodart.com

©Copyright 2009 by Debbie Flood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

She’s Pink!

A few days ago, I felt honored when Linda Shantz asked me to create a guest blog post for her blog. She asked me a few days ahead of the needed post, so I had plenty of time to create a horse painting for her blog.

You can find Linda’s blog by clicking her name above. You’ll enjoy her work, she paints a lot of thoroughbreds, and she also paints dogs… Oh yes, she’s also writing a very good book!

So take a minute, and check out her blog, you’ll see my work in progress, along with her wonderful paintings and stories of the horses she’s caring for.

Donna Ridgway
PS, I’ll be posting this pink lady in my Etsy store. You can purchase her there. I can just see her in a little girls room!

Tweet Me a Ridgway Studio Update!

©Copyright 2009 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

“Over Hill and Dale” – art exhibition

Over Hill and Dale exhibit of Equine, Landscape and Nature fine art, at Maplebrook School in Amenia, NY opens May 2nd with a reception and Derby Party at 5pm. Hope to see some familiar faces ther

©Copyright 2009 by Juliet Harrison. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

Interview with Equinest

Take a look at the interview done with me about my work on the Equinest website.

http://www.theequinest.com/juliet-r-harrison/

©Copyright 2009 by Juliet Harrison. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

Zebra in Oils, the start


This is the start of a Zebra in oils on a 14 x 11 canvas. Again, like the other recent oils I have been doing, I have started this one with an under painting of Ivory black, Alizarin Crimson, Ultra Blue and Titanium white. I can already see where the light and shadows will be in this painting and applying color should be a snap when this is dry. Ha…I hope!

I love doing the stripes. Something about mapping them out is so fun to me. I get the same feeling when I am painting a horse under harness. Mapping out the harness is great fun!

I started this Zebra while I wait for that Free style-foal painting to dry. This seems to be a habit. While waiting for one to dry, I start another!

In the wings waiting for paint is a White striped Tiger! It’s all drawn onto the canvas today. I guess that one will get worked on while I wait for the Zebra to dry. Can you say…assembly line?

I will also tell you the canvas I am using. Because the support can be so important too. I used to use Fredrix, as that was usually what was available to me in my area. But I have in the last few years been purchasing Winsor & Newton pre-stretched canvas. I really like this canvas brand so much better than Fredrix. Sorry Fredrix…but the W & N lets the paint glide on so much easier! I would stretch my own to get the odd sizes I’d like to have, but my hand & arm strength just isn’t there to do that. I used to watch my grandmother and grandfather (when he was alive) struggle with that task! No thanks.

Ya know, painting sure can make one “Dog tired!”

Talk with you later,
DebbieDebbie Flood, Artist. Equine, Wildlife, and the natural world.
http://www.debfloodart.com

©Copyright 2009 by Debbie Flood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

Free style-foal oil on canvas



I started this painting with the same palette as the Moody mule. This oil painting is 18 x 14.
Ivory Black, Alizarin crimson, Ultra Blue and Titanium white.
The top image is where I have left off today.
I;m not sure what is going on with the wavy lines through the photo. I don’t know if it will show that way when I post it. If it does, sorry about that.
Some days, things like that happen.
While I have had this in progress, I have also put another image on another canvas. It will be a Zebra! It’s actually the Zebra I had done the graphite of, laying down. That’ll be fun!
But my easels are a bit full at the moment!

Happy Saint Patty’s day!!!

DebbieDebbie Flood, Artist. Equine, Wildlife, and the natural world.
http://www.debfloodart.com

©Copyright 2009 by Debbie Flood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

Moody Mule progress Saturday

Here is Saturdays work. I worked on the color of the grass. Mixed my green using Ivory black, Alizarin crimson and Naples yellow. A little dab of Titanium white to punch up a few highlights. I also added more color to mule’s body and his cute white legs!

I’m off to go work on him some more today! Much more still needs to be done.
Have a great Sunday!
DebbieDebbie Flood, Artist. Equine, Wildlife, and the natural world.
http://www.debfloodart.com

©Copyright 2009 by Debbie Flood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

Moody Mule continues Oil on canvas

I started adding color to my Mule today! Yeah….the fun part!
For the Mule I used Ivory Black, Ultra Blue, Quince Red, Naples Yellow and hints of Titanium white. the yellow and white have been very sparingly used.
The sky is the same black and blue with hints of white to tint. Staying on this same color palette keeps the whole painting as one. I’m so glad that I haven’t had to use the umbers as they tend to be chalky and dry dull. With these few colors I am using, I have been able to get a great range of colors, especially rich browns.
Poor Mule…he’s so moody. Hmm…I wonder if this is a self portrait! Ha.

Hope you all are having a great Friday the 13th!!

DebbieDebbie Flood, Artist. Equine, Wildlife, and the natural world.
http://www.debfloodart.com

©Copyright 2009 by Debbie Flood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

Phase two of Almost Dun

In this next step, I have blocked in the darkest tones, and mid-tones beside one another on the muzzle, under the jaw and cheek. I used a darker mixture of the payne’s gray and burnt sienna, and for the mid-tone lightened it with some of the perm. rose, blue and some white. I may have used a tad of the raw sienna…unfortunately I don’t remember exactly what I did…I just mess around with the colours on my palette until I get what I want. I’m not afraid to try mixing various combinations of colour and then putting on the canvas. If its totally gross, I wipe it off.
With the two tones painted next to one another, I then clean the brush I’m using and scribble the two together, at right angles to the original brush strokes. Then if I want a smoother transistion still, I’ll go at it again, blending at a right angle to those strokes. I like to work my paint from light to dark, or dark to light. I don’t paint back and forth into the different tones, as it can result in mud.
Working into the face more, I started to use the lighter colours like the Naples yellow, raw sienna, and light blue, blending as I go. Buckskins can have some greenish weird colours happening and I constantly had to cross reference my photos to be sure I was on track. This particular horse, has some masking on his face, which created a funny looking dark streak across his cheek, but I couldn’t *fix* it at this point. I try to be patient, and not overwork the paint. I let it dry most times, and clean thing up later with glazing or dry brushing or just painting out the offending area.
Its really a treat to see the little flashes of the warm colour peek out, that I toned in at the underpainting stage.

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

The Dapple Grey

Here’s another of my neighbor’s horses. I tell you, doing these chores is killing me. LOL I haven’t been around such pretty horses for quite a while. They smell so good, and I love the way they nuzzle my face. Their whiskers are tickly. One of them pulled my scarf from my neck and flapped it around. I love horses with personality!

Donna Ridgway
PS Look for some of these photos to appear in my etsy shop!

My equine art website.
Travel the gravel! Our dirt road photo shoots…

artist reference photos for sale.

My Nature of Montana website. Wildlife and scenery of Montana.Posted by Picasa

©Copyright 2009 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

Doing Chores for a neighbor, it’s hardly a “chore”.

I’m doing a few chores for a neighbor. It’s not a chore, I can tell you, because this is what one of her horses looks like. I can’t wait to go do her chores each day! Her horses are like her babies, so they’re very sociable. Part of my job is to “visit” with the animals so they don’t get lonesome. While I “visit”, I take pictures of them…Don’t you wish you had my job?
Donna Ridgway
PS Photos of this horse will probably appear in my etsy shop.

My equine art website.
Travel the gravel! Our dirt road photo shoots…

artist reference photos for sale.

My Nature of Montana website. Wildlife and scenery of Montana.Posted by Picasa

©Copyright 2009 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

To be continued

Apparently winter is to be continued here, doubtless for the next several months at least. Totally unreasonable and irrational to expect anything else, given that I’ve lived here all my life (getting on for quite a while now) and it’s always been the same. I did give some thought to a little intermission from the whole thing in this week’s blog, but have decided to continue to share the grey bleakness, snow, and cold at least for now. That’s not to say I mightn’t flee to some of the summer garden and flower shots from my archives for a future post. We’ll see how I hold up!

We did actually get a two day respite over the weekend (back to minus 20s and more snow today). Miracle that it happened at all, and more so that it hit on a weekend. Mind you, in my life one day is much like another, weekend or no, as I set my own agenda most of the time. I’m always torn between describing my lifestyle as “never working” or “working all the time”. It can be interpreted either way. But back to the weekend. We got into single digits!! Sill single digits below zero but when you’ve been suffering through minus 20s and 30s with a wind, getting up to minus 8 is a big thrill. This being the case, I was happy it was on the weekend so all those poor 9 to 5 weekday workers could enjoy it as well.

Since it snowed much of the weekend as well, I had to hie myself out to add to my ongoing “horse herd in snowfall” series. First shoot I’ve had out there (of many so far this season) where my hands actually stayed in the comfort zone the whole time. I even had to remove my head covering as I was overheating! The only negative was that the snow was so heavy at some points that the camera was getting pretty wet and the large densely falling flakes confused the focus sensor so it couldn’t focus on the horses beyond the flakes much of the time. I did get some shots I am fairly happy with, though, which I will post at some future date. I wish it could snow in that pretty fashion and still have slightly more ambient light for better exposures. I’ve figured out a few ways to get around that problem, but I think I need to spend more time working on it. Or learn to accept that when it’s snowing around here it’s generally coming out of low very dark clouds and that’s just the way it is, but it’s not my way to accept that sort of reality. I always feel I can do better if I could just figure out the right settings, and oddly enough, I often can.

First shot today is Eclipse, a little Welsh pony who is continuing his training and learning of life-skills at Ebon. He is wonderfully furry and hairy in general, and I love his little ears. I had hoped to get some full body shots of him, but he’s wearing a cozy new warm winter blanket these days (he lives outdoors in the pony pen), so not a whole lot of him was showing. He is a project pony for one of the young women who has been at Ebon a number of years. She amazed us a year or so back by selling her big jumper to purchase this pony, who came with pretty well no instruction manual. He couldn’t even be caught for the first months, never mind haltered or led, but with time and patient work much can be accomplished, and he’s now working under saddle and continuing with his learning program of how to be a well-behaved riding pony. It’s always entertaining and endlessly interesting to observe the progress of both the young untrained horses and their handlers.

Shot two shows the halters near the school horse turnout, ready for use when required. The bright colors caught my attention, countered as they are by the dim lighting of the mid-afternoon’s snowfall, and the snow itself. You can see a couple of the school horses lurking in the background. When the weather is as extreme as it has been for the past few weeks, the school horses don’t get much work as it is too hard on their systems to be brought in from the cold, worked in the relatively warm indoor ring, then turned out again, even after very careful and long cooling out. They have shelters and good heavy coats (especially this year) so are well equipped to handle the cold if left to their own devices. A good school horse is a valuable and well appreciated commodity at any training stable, and they are treated accordingly.

Shot three is a shelter of a different sort. This is the “brush pile” that we have established against our back yard fence, which serves as shelter and habitat for whatever little creatures need to make use of it. In truth, it’s mostly for the birds as the main other creatures here in the city would be mice, and nature friendly as we are, we tend to draw the line at mice and rats. We’ve been chucking branches and odd bits of debris on this for a couple of years and it is well used by the local sparrows, who are usually scattered throughout the depths of the interior. The pile faces west so it catches the sun much of the afternoon which makes it even nicer for them. We cut the branches off our Christmas tree and added them to the top to make a little roof to keep the snow out a bit better. There are no sparrows in the photo as they had all just been scattered to the winds by Mickey who roared out ahead of me when I went to get this shot. Mickey has always had a bit of an obsession with chasing birds, so he never misses an opportunity to do a bird run when he gets the chance. Once he actually did catch a slow-moving sparrow in one of these hunts, and that just reinforced his optimism about the whole process.

Shot four shows Mickey himself, having finished his brief foray and giving me the “well what are you waiting for? Good heavens, it’s cold, let me in” look. Can’t really blame him for that as it was about minus 25 and Boxers are definitely not built to handle cold. Oscar (his brother) wouldn’t even come to the door when we went out to the yard, never mind actually join us. Oscar is a dog who looks out for his own comfort and welfare above all else.

Shot five shows the “greeting” gargoyle in our front yard, as decked out for winter as he’s going to get. Once it got cold and snowy I felt he needed *something* so I gave him a scarf to get him through the season. I know, I’m odd. Seeing this shot reminds me I was going to antique him to make him a little more interesting and less gray. Maybe next summer I’ll remember to do that.

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

Portrait of three horses

Here is the finished item! The horses are all very different and the owner was delighted. As you can see, in this final painting all the finer detailling is added. Constantly checking back and forward from the different reference photographs that every fine detail of light, shadow, vein and hair is correct. Well thankfully that is another one done and I can look forward to the next.

I will be demonstrating a horse portrait and palette knife work at Fair Oak art group on 7th January . 7pm – 9pm. So come along if you can make it!

Then for January and February I have a healthy mix of dogs horses and foals to keep me busy.

All for me to say is come back soon and catch up on the progress on the easel and a Happy New Year to you all!

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

EXHIBITION NEWS!

EXHIBITION NEWS!

http://www.carriehaddadgallery.com/index.cfm?method=Photography.Upcoming

I have been invited, along with 5 other photographers, to participate in an exhibit of Fine Art Photography dedicated to the Equine at the newly opened Carrie Haddad Photographs gallery in Hudson. New York. Long known for her support of photographers, Carrie Haddad, owner of the Carrie Haddad Gallery has opened a space specifically for Fine Art Photography at 318 Warren Street in Hudson, New York. Opening January 22nd, the gallery will be host to equine work from local and international photographers; Tim Flach, David Seiler, Ida Weygandt, Christopher Makos, Paul Solberg and myself. Join me if you can, for the Reception on January 24th from 6 to 8pm. I hope to see some of you there, so I can show you some of my newest work.

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

A pretty big horse.

We thought we’d head for the mountains yesterday, and maybe find some elk to take photos of, ended up, staying home until late afternoon…you never know how our days will go. Instead of elk, I found this cream colored paint, maybe Belgian cross. Isn’t he gorgeous? I’d love to take a ride on his big, round back. :)
Donna

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

Horse laugh

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

Solstice composite – River Road Percherons

Here is a composite of the solstice shots I took yesterday. Enjoy. My fingers froze during the shoot, as I had forgotten my gloves. Ah well…all for art!

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

Solstice Project

Every year the Equine Photographer’s Network (EPN) has an open entry Solstice competition. Images have to be shot either the day before, day of or day after the solstice. Here is the image that I posted. I call it Solstice in Barrytown.

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

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