Sunday, May 31, 2009

Stewie Update



Someone named Anonymous asked how Stewie's doing. He's on meds to get rid of some urine crystals. He is still having bouts of peeing, but not as excessively as he was. His accidents are fewer now. It also helps that I'm watching him more closely.

Today he played in a friend's rock garden and, as usual, spent some time beating up on Rip.

Today's Watercolor - Swans



Here's mama swan with babies, the finished version. THey are on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180363692810

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Today's Watercolor - Swans


This was inspired by some pics I took of a pair of swans and their cygnets, which I have been visiting regularly. I started photographing this swan painting as I went along. I started the painting with a pencil sketch, then followed by using my handy masquepen, to block out the white areas in the painting.



I started blocking in large areas of color, including the algae areas, and the water. I will need to add several layers to the water. I rubbed off the masking fluid, but will need to continue tomorrow as I am outta daylight!

Mare and Foal Pencil Drawing



This mare and foal drawing was slated to go to Walking Horse Gallery in Lansing, but since I never seem to get up there, I decided to post it on Etsy.

Have I mentioned... I LOVE ETSY!? I have done almost all my Christmas shopping there the past two years.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Clifford's New Watercolors - Real "Equine Art"!



Today's watercolor, above, has appeared as an elated dog running through a field of flowers.



This one is another angel. I love the blue wing. Clifford has marked both of these with his hoofprint. In this angel piece, his hoof print is in the upper left corner, like a halo!

This angel is on eBay.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Today's Watercolors - by Clifford!

It’s going to sound crazy, but Cliffy and I worked all afternoon on a system for his watercolors. He is learning not to try to give me the sponge. All I want him to do is push it around. I am trying to learn the best way to put color on it, to keep it from getting muddy. The layers have to take time to dry. Clifford loses patience sometimes. He actually picks it up and throws it once in awhile, like any other frustrated artist! HA HA!!!



This is his third painting. Here you can see the small even strokes, as he kept removing the sponge from the paper to try to give it to me. This is called, “Rowboat”.



Here he was learning to leave the sponge on the paper for longer periods. I thought he went a little overboard with the orange, but he seemed to like it. Maybe because it’s the color of his hide? Anyway, I liked the way this turned out after all.



“Iris”. Hoodathunk he would be so into the florals?! Here, there is more effort to keep the sponge on the paper, as you can see the shape of the edges a little more. He has also gotten into rolling it, so it makes interesting hatch marks too.

We took a few breaks in between, but by the time this one was finished, we were both ready to quit. It took a lot of concentration on both our parts. I’ve never produced abstract art, and I think these are a lot more interesting than anything I would come up with. It was really very fascinating for me.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Clifford Learns to Paint

Today we tried something new. Clifford learned to paint with watercolors, using a sponge. I made a YouTube video of the process.

He did this painting first, which I am saving to give to Dad.



This one, which I call "Drummond Island Sunset", was Clifford's second attempt:



I posted this one on eBay. I think they both are very interesting and beautiful and we sure had fun doing it!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

My Pal Clifford!


We took our long overdue first ride of the year today. Cliffy's knee had been bothering him quite a bit, so I treated it two days ago with some StemEquine plus Bute. It was big and swollen. I mean, even bigger than usual. I think he may have twisted it. Today when he came running to greet me, I knew it felt better. I got him saddled up and then we just went a mile or so down the road. He was really stiff. His steps were short, especially in the beginning of the ride. But when we got to the neighbor's back field, to cut across behind the barn, he became his old self. He loves running across that field. I had a struggle keeping him at the walk. He's so out of shape and still has so much winter fat, that I want to take it slow and get that knee feeling better.

After our ride, he posed for his picture.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Ugly Ducklings?





Today I finally got to meet the babies. I've been seeing these swans on my daily walks for a couple of months now. Momma swan seems so happy to be finally off that nest! The dad swan was good about trading duties with her. Her right foot is half gone, so she doesn't walk very well. She was using her left foot to scrape the bottom and kick up stuff for the babies to eat. When I showed up, she brought them over without hesitation. Seeing them was a nice little spring event!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Today's Equine Art - Rachel Alexandra



Here's the filly who is creating some drama for this year's Preakness!

She's on eBay.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Rex and Tuff Video!

A great demonstration of a human/equine partnership in action. Here's the link to the video I took of Rex and Tuff at Quarterfest!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

My Weekend With Movie Stars



I had a thrilling weekend at Quarterfest in Nashville. My friend Rex Peterson gave a demo with some of his movie horses. Here he is with Tuff, who was in Appaloosa, Flicka and some other films. Tuff is a son of Doc's Keepin Time, aka Justin, who starred in Black Beauty. Rex is doing a quick demo in the barn aisle. I will upload some videos on YouTube tomorrow.



I posed with Cache, the big BIG sorrel stallion that Viggo Mortensen rode in Appaloosa, and Tuff. Do I look slightly euphoric?