Tag Archives: equine

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.

Photo of horses on the desert.

I like the desert scenery behind this pair.

If you’d like to see more photos of our trip, stay tuned….

We certainly chose the right time to make this trip. Gas was down to $1.39 in some places and no higher than $1.89. We decided to make the entire trip camping out to save money. We rigged the cargo trailer with a bed, a kitchen counter, and camp stove. We made a little bathroom with the porta potty. Our clothes hung on rails from the ceiling, making a handy closet.

Sometimes we laugh at ourselves, when we were getting ready to go, we decided we needed a bathtub. The more we looked through the possibilities, we decided on big plastic tub, the kind the cattle and horses lick molasses from. You have to be inventive, right?

The cameras and computers stayed charged on our power inverters and extra car batteries. The inverters also ran our lights.

We camped out on the desert where we could, and stayed in truck stop/travel centers when we were in town. We have a friend in Quartside, who invited us to stay with him there. All in all, the money we saved from buying motel rooms and food in restaurants, allowed us to do a lot of things we wanted to do, and see everything we wanted to see.

There was a little bit of a downside to all this, it was near zero weather on the way home. From the town of Wickenburg, AZ on, the temps plummeted. From Williams, AZ on, we drove through snow and blizzards. Nights were chilly! By the time we got into Idaho and Montana, the weather had gone down to zero.

We put the canned goods into a cooler chest to keep them from freezing. The last day out, it was so cold, we couldn’t get the coffee to boil on our little stove.

Because we have some great sleeping bags, we were more than warm at night. From a lifetime of camping out, hunting and trail riding in the mountains, I can make a bed that keeps us warm. If you sleep warm, and have warm clothes, you can enjoy a winter trip more than a summer trip.

We saw the sights without crowds, mosquitoes, snakes, heat, or traffic!
Donna Ridgway

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

Warmest Holiday Greetings!

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

Cold inspiration





Two themes to this post, reflecting some of my preoccupations of the past week. One is “inspiration”, which I have been exploring in the form of motivational posters for a rider friend, the other is “cold”, which has been an unavoidable subject here for the past couple of days. The “high” temperatures for the last day or so have been -25, with the overnight lows going down to -35. Throw in a briskish wind and the wind chill (which gives the equivalent temperature if you combine the effects of the cold and the wind) is in the mid minus 40s.

Despite (or perhaps because of) these extreme temperatures, I’ve been out getting shots with the camera. I had occasion to go past the weir on the river on Saturday, and was struck by the visuals of the atmospheric steam rising off the open water on the river. The city’s power plant is upstream, and it returns enough warm water to the river that most of the time the west channel of the river remains free of ice. I wanted to get some shots of these clouds of steam over the river, so on Sunday morning grandson Mark and I headed off to the weir in the minus 35 degree temperatures. I didn’t stay for an extended length of time as I usually do at this location in the summer when I am gathering pelican shots, but I got a satisfactory number of shots.  Mark opted (wisely under the circumstances) to stay in the car which by that point was reasonably warm and cozy. I wondered what the three odd lumps were at the edge of a bit of open water until I trained the telephoto lens on them and discovered, somewhat to my horror, three Canada geese hunkered down in the snow, right at the edge of the open water.

Never content with just one go at any given subject matter, I decided to pass by the site again today while I was doing my shopping on that side of the city. In addition, I was a bit worried that the geese might have been frozen into the ice, in which case I would alert my wildlife rescue friends, although I really don’t know what they could do in such extreme and dangerous conditions. To my surprise, when I got back to the weir this afternoon, there were no clouds of water vapor in the air above the open water. In point of fact, there was suddenly very little open water at all. The channel that was unfrozen yesterday was almost totally solid today, with only the occasional little area of open water. Not nearly the interesting visuals of yesterday, but I got some shots anyway, and noted that the goose hangout area had about twenty or so geese today, doubtless including the three from yesterday, and all facing a different direction, so quite definitely not frozen into the ice. That was a relief.

Top shot in this grouping is one I took this afternoon of the larger group of geese, probably rethinking their decision not to have headed south several weeks ago. In fact, most years there is usually a small group of hardy waterfowl who stay through the winter, so it can be done.

Shot two is of the water going over the weir, with the lacey ice and snow around it. Shot three shows one of the bridge supports with the mists obscuring the far shore of the river. That shot was taken yesterday. By today all the open water in this shot was solid with chunks of ice. Brrr.
There have been some motivational speakers for riders at the barn this fall, and my friend Shawna (daughter of my instructor at the barn and a trainer in her own right) wondered if I would be willing to make up a personal motivational poster for her, based on some shots I got of her this summer. She provided the quote, which is meaningful to her, and I put it together with the shots. I like doing this kind of work every now and then, and indeed am fond of using text with my visuals.

The bottom shot is the first one I did, with “her” quote and selected images. But then she made a comment about another of the horses she rides (she is the one who puts the miles on all the young horses from their breeding program, so she usually has a number of horses in her show string) saying something to the effect that Brook would probably never be a “poster child”. That made me feel badly for Brook who is a valiant little (relatively speaking for a Warmblood) mare with a lot of heart and try in her. She’s been doing well in her training and showing, and I thought she really *should* be a poster girl, so I had to make up the “moon” poster featuring Brook, so she would have equal billing. She’s definitely a “poster worthy” mare in my opinion.

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

Polos

German Brush and Santa’s Little Helper have been sold. The next painting up are from the Riding Essentials series is titled Polos. One of my most used pieces of equipment. A rolled up set of polo wraps are a familiar item in most rider’s tack trunk. This is an original acrylic, measures 6 x 8 and is available for $12 + $4.95 for Priority Mail shipping. Contact me for international rates. I can combine shipping so contact me before ordering and I can send an invoice to reflect reduced shipping. Bubbles is still available. Scroll down for info. Enjoy!

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

The Silly Filly, horse pictures.

The Silly Filly is kind of flirty and coy. She’s exceptionally cute. Thought I’d share some of my photos of her today.

As it turns out, we took Daisy donkey back to the rescue where we got her from. She hasn’t quite worked out for us. She’s mean to Pedro and today she walked right through the fence to escape onto the road. Thank goodness she didn’t head for the highway. After the accident a while back, we didn’t want to be the cause of another one, so Daisy went back home.

Pedro leaves the fences alone and he minds his manners so well, it was hard to put up with Daisy’s antics for much longer. He doesn’t seem to miss Daisy, I think he was relieved to have the place to himself again.

Good thing is, Daisy returns to a place she’s well loved and we’ll probably visit her now and then.

The Silly Filly is one of Daisy’s old friends, so they’re united again.
Donna

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

Favorite Artist - Leslie Harrison

Today’s artist is Leslie Harrison.

I have been a admirer of Leslie’s exquisite pastels for many years. So long, in fact, that I can’t remember the first time I saw one.

I do remember my response to it, though. Wow!

Being a lover of detail myself, I was immediately attracted by the high realism in Leslie’s paintings of horses.

It was quite a surprise to realize that she works in pastel, a medium that I have never had any success with at all.

Leslie often combines the power and majesty of the horse with the power and majesty of nature, putting horses together with rolling seas (Wave Racers, above; Beauty and the Sea, below), falling snow and even towering cloud formations.

She also seems to enjoy painting flowing manes and tails. I confess, I find special delight in that aspect of her work because those very things draw my eye and imagination, as well.

A wide selection of equine and wildlife artwork is available in a variety of formats, including art prints, giclees and posters, through Leslie’s web site. Her 2009 calendars are also now available and include a calendar featuring wolf art and two focusing on equine images, one with scripture and one without. All three are beautiful.

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

Christmas Come Early … And Often

One of the best things about being a gallery director is managing incoming exhibits. Every new exhibit is like Christmas for me. New works to see and enjoy. New visual gifts to open.

From November 4 through November 15, every day will be like Christmas as I unwrap the 2008 World of Small & Miniature Art show, scheduled to open Saturday, November 29, 2008 at the Carriage Factory Gallery.

And this year, Christmas has a truly international flavor. Roughly half of the entries received so far are from overseas and represent three continents.

Entries have also been received from Ohio, Texas and, yes, right here in Kansas.

Every delivery from FedEx, UPS, DHL and the USPS brings a welcome surprise these days. Even at this very early stage, it’s looking like an excellent show. I will be announcing when it goes live on line, so be watching for that. You won’t want to miss it.

And of course if you happen to be passing through Newton between November 29 and December 24, you’re more than welcome to stop in and see the exhibit in person.

I will be entering this year’s exhibit, as well, but have yet to make the final determination on which pieces will make that journey. The ACEO Morgan Portrait shown here is currently at the top of the list and is going to the gallery today. But it’s companion piece?

Ah, that’s the question!

One not-quite-finished piece is my favorite, but whether or not it gets to the show will depend on whether or not it is dry enough to frame for display when the time comes.

The ACEO portrait of Lockkeeper in colored pencil is complete, but still needs to be framed.

Any of a number of ACEO landscape paintings are also available. Decisions, decisions!

For those artists out there who might not have heard, the show is open and is non-juried. You can learn more about the show from the gallery’s web site. The page includes a link to a downloadable entry form in a PDF format.

Visit my ACEO Horse Paintings page to see the current collection.

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

What you plan….

…and what you end up doing sometimes just wave at each other as they whiz by in opposite directions. This was totally the case for me today. The morning was set aside for getting a flu shot and doing several errands on this side of the city. Got stuck into my endless playing with Photoshopping  new images for my upcoming shows, and the time just vanished. I did manage to get a flu shot but that was it for extras.

The afternoon was to involve a trip with a couple of friends to the Devic centre to check out the labyrinth and do some shopping. They’d never been before and we were all looking forward to the outing. Got home to a message that one of them was sick, so that outing was going to be postponed. No problem, I have a friend on a farm west of the city who has a new puppy I want to photograph. I could run out there with the “extra” time I now had, get the photos and do the errands I needed to do on that side of the city. I try to optimize my driving outings to encompass as many errands as possible, in the interests of time and fuel efficiency.
Phoned her to make arrangements, to discover that she had just made a commitment to visit with relatives in town and wouldn’t be home. OK, no problem, still needed to buy some art supplies and do a library run, plus the leftover stuff from the morning, so that would be my afternoon. Mondays are my only “non barn” days so I schedule running-around type chores for Mondays. But, before I could get out the door for the afternoon (having yet again been temporarily sucked into the depths of Photoshop), the phone rang, and it was my horse vet friend Sue, summoning me to the barn where Alpac could get his semi-annual health update (shots, worming, teeth checked, whatever needs attention) today rather than Wednesday as scheduled, since they were at the barn and had done all their other business early.
OK, I’m flexible, so off to the barn I go. Guess I can do all that other stuff later in the week sometime. I get to the barn where Sue says she has given him a pre-exam mild sedative (needed as he is very large and doesn’t much like most vet processes) and I can bring him into the designated examination stall in a few minutes. I brought him in and got him into the right stall to await developments. Things started to go sideways at this point. One of the vets noted a trickle of blood coming out of his right nostril. Sue didn’t recall seeing that when she gave him his shot a few minutes earlier, and quizzed me on any history of this happening before. Since she is head of field services at the vet college, and there are always students on the calls with her as part of their practical  learning, she asked the students what this might  indicate. Turns out one of the things it *could* suggest is a fungal infection of the gutteral pouch which in turn could eat its way through the carotid artery and cause sudden death by a massive bleedout. Often the first indication that this is the case is the owner finding the horse dead in a huge pool of blood. Not exactly what I wanted to hear.
Having had this suggested as one of several scenarios, I was pretty adamant that we had to do whatever it took *right now* to rule this out as a possibility. They would need to put a scope up his nostril on the affected side and do a visual check to see where the bleeding was coming from, and of course all the scopes were at the clinic back in town. As luck would have it, one of the experts at doing this procedure and evaluating the results happened to be at the clinic and not too busy to come out (a rare occurence) so he hustled out to the stable to do further investigation. We still don’t know what caused it, but thank goodness it *isn’t* the fungal infection, so now I will be able to sleep tonight, although I’m still pretty strung out a number of hours later by the thought of the bullet dodged. They plan to do a head x-ray to check one more possibility, but Sue assures me that the life-threatening options have been ruled out, and whatever it is will be something we can handle. Or maybe we’ll never know, which is always one of the options as well. So none of this was on the agenda when I got out of bed this morning to contemplate my carefully planned day, and I’ll be happy never to have a repeat performance of the anxiety-inducing parts that I had to endure.
I’ve been doing a few “fall light” shots of various sorts in the past week, which I am featuring today. No horse vet shots. I had the wrong lens on for that at the barn and was too distraught to do that type of shot, although I did take the camera out to the outside horses to distract myself with some “photo therapy” while we were waiting for the scope to arrive. Better than chewing my nails, but somehow my heart wasn’t in it.
Shot number one is one I took of my friend’s horse who is in a west end stall where the light creates interesting shadows in the mid to late afternoon if the big door is open, as it was today. I love shadows and reflections and will play with them whenever the opportunity arises.
Second shot is one I took on the way home from the barn yesterday, of the lowering sun backlighting the fall reeds and grasses of the prairies.
Shot three is one of a series I am working on of two stumps in a ditch. I found them by accident earlier in the summer on a side road between the barn and the city, and I pass by every now and then to add to my collection of photos of them in different light and at different seasons. Somehow they make me think of the bones of prehistoric creatures.
We had a “three day blow” here on the weekend, with huge winds night and day, and wind warnings issued for much of the province. Shot four shows the leaves piled up against the fence of the public swimming pool down the street from us. The fence is about ten feet (3 M) tall.
Shot five is of my hops vine on the trellis near the driveway, with the colourful leaves of the bush whose name I can’t remember in back. I liked the combination of colours and textures in this one.

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

Horse Hugs

Ricco’s first day in the big pasture, June 08

I got the nicest compliment from my soon to be weanling today.

I brought my small herd of horses off the pasture the other day because the grass is getting richer with the fall flush and also because I want to gradually work toward weaning my baby colt.

Ricco and my mare, Royal were waiting for their breakfast. I went out to our paddocks to feed the horses and haltered and seperated out the baby so he could eat his grain by himself. Our jack russel terrier, Jack, loves to ‘play’ with the horses and saw Ricco being fed as an opportunity to harass him awhile from his momma. I had Ricco on a lead and did some ‘growling’ in the direction of Jack, hoping he’d get the hint to leave the colt alone. He didn’t because he’s Jack but we had moments in which the dog would back away and I reassured Ricco all was safe while he was with me.

Ricco finished his grain so I turned him loose back with the mare. Jack’s interest in stirring up trouble was renewed as he found he could chase the horses in the small paddock and be an irritation. Ricco pranced a few paces and then trotted over— away from the mare— to stand by ME to protect him from the mean (10 lb.) dog! What an honor!! He stood quietly right by my side so I scratched his withers as he ‘groomed’ my shoulders, I think, as a way to say ‘thanks’. Isn’t that cool?? :)

Ricco is being featured in my most recent equine mural at Lehman’s in Kidron, Ohio. Most Thursdays between now and the first of the year I will be doing painting demos in Lehman’s Amish Buggy Barn and selling equine and farm animal art. To see more of my work or to commission me for a horse or pet portrait stop by the store or my web site at http://www.suesteiner.com/

I will be posting ‘work in progress’ pics of my mural here and on my other blog http://www.kidronarts.com

Thanks for stopping by!

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

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