Full Circle

With another beautiful August day stretched out before me, I have just finished a new papercut, I have already cleaned the stalls, mowed the orchard and then weeded a bit in the veggie garden. I have also started sketching out a new cutting and I am watering the front gardens with the dragonfly sprinkler. [It cuts a wide swath of water over the thirsty flowers....but a different type of cut than my cutting paper!]

This circle isn't actually round, but it is hard to cut a perfect round. I feel I have done a good job when the final image does not leave a horse with one leg missing or no ears!

"Full Circle" is sized about 9 x 9" ........ a good size, and it depicts a sidesaddle rider and her mount.This image was inspired by one of the exhibitions at the Kentucky Horse Park when I went to KY. A lot of my new works will be coming from inspirations from that trip!

Almost Ready

As we rode the roads in Lexington and Versailles, KY., farm after farm had horses, mares with foals, mares alone, and frankly some mares were ready to pop! This lovely gray was one of the ones who caught my eye..........in the huge fields she had to roam with trees in the far distance.

I love mares and I miss our having a mare in foal. But I think our breeding days are done with our Cobs. At least for now. our Maggie is only 4 so has time to wait.

This painting is a casein on gallery wrapped canvas, sized at 10x10". I love square compositions and the puzzle of getting the balance and design right. I think I got it.

I am doing a series of these Kentucky paintings ,all sized the same and all in casein.

Friesian Drill Team

This scene, depicting the Northeast Friesian Horse Club drill team practising at the Post's farm in New Hampshire, reminded me so much of Lucy Kemp Welch's painting of women exercising the horses [titled "The Straw Ride: Russley Park,Depot, Wiltshire"]. This casein on board is sized at 8 x 16". The Northeast Friesian team was photographed back it 2004. It has taken me this long to get this painting done. But I guess life does sometimes get in the way.

Today the farrier comes to trim the horses..........my afternoon will be spent with him and the horses. Our hay man is starting to put hay into the barn..........I am happy about that! It always makes me nervous when the hay isn't all tucked away for the winter. I think it makes the horses happy too to know their hay is stashed before the snow comes!!!

And then the lawn needs mowing...........and the fields need bush-hogging.......yep, life gets in the way!!!

Talk About Wildlife

This is not a very good photo.........but a Blue Heron had taken a perch on our back arbor right outside of our living room sliding glass doors last week. I was getting ready to head out for Belfast when something caught my eye and I turned to see this huge bird sitting there. Mind you usually the arbor is the perch of the hummingbirds that we have living near our deck. This fellow [?] is a bit bigger than the hummers!!! He stayed there quite a while and I did get the chance to capture some better shots of him that I will use for future paintings. This shot also captures my bougainvillea in blossom.It is so in your face with color right now.

Between the bird photos......the deer in our yard and my huge goldfish in our garden pond........I will be doing some works other than horses this winter......when time allows.

But for today the weather is so brilliant out how can I stay in the studio? I think I will get out and paint! Maybe the fish??

Paintings From Kentucky

My trip to Kentucky will afford me many scenes that will be painted and cut. Bobbye and I drove the back roads outside of Lexington and idyllic scenes such as this were everywhere... Miles of board fencing as far as the eye could see and pastures with grazing horses and mares heavy with foal lined the roadside. Everywhere I looked I saw a painting begging to be done!!! This 10 x 8" watercolor is the first of many watercolors from this trip.

Bobbye took this shot of me taking a shot at Keeneland...

I am working on a casein painting from that great photo-op too. My studio is a mess....papers and photos everywhere......the gardens outside the studio need work, and a garden edging job I started this morning on our back gardens is strewn across the lawn.....I am feeling the need to paint and that takes president over anything else at this point!!

So I am back to the easel.......! Driven!!

Poor Girl's Pony

My mother always liked the photo of her riding one of the pigs on the farm down in PA. and I have always been enthralled by it since I was a kid. This one is for you, Mom.............

I do have a photo of Mom riding a pony, and will probably paint that one too soon....but this one was so much fun. I did it with mixed media - with casein,acrylic, photocopy and pen and ink. I call it "Poor Girl's Pony" and it is sized 12 x 12" on board. Someday I will get more into the process, but need to get started on a papercut while the weather cooperates.

More later!

How You Gonna Keep 'Em Down On The Farm?

I don't really know where these works are coming from....other than I am feeling a need to document my family's roots and the folks that came out of the Pennsylvanian farms where my mother grew up and formed her persona. They say we become our mother as we age..........boy, when I look in the mirror these days I see my Mom!

This painting is a 6 x 8" mixed media...a small step out of my comfort zone as far as media goes. But I must admit I am having fun with this detour and have several other works on the easel that also deal with the family and the farms. I call this painting "How You Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm?" ....after that same song which asked the question about how they would kept on the farm after they saw Paris! [or "Par-ie"?].

This past weekend we celebrated birthdays on our Morrill farm...some being celebrated a bit late, but better late than never, I always say. I watched our grandchildren playing on our farm........running through the field and orchard. It is so good that even though our farm is small and not at all self sufficient, that our kids can still have a farm type of environment to experience in this day and age of computers and quick fixes. Nothing quick about mucking stalls and throwing hay bales! There is a gentle rhythm about the days here on Cob Cottage Farm.

That is why I love it.

Sunday Go To Meeting Clothes

This painting is done. It has ended up being a casein.....sized at 12 x 9" on illustration board. I am calling it "Sunday Go To Meeting Clothes" I know my mother used to hide under their library table in an attempt to not have to get dressed up.This outfit would not have been one of her favourites.Like mother ..like daughter. I left some of the ink lines in the work....

I really like the angle of this piece, the ladies on the porch and the cat wandering through the picture too... all added up to an interesting composition.

Now if the weather would just break and allow me to get back into some papercuts, that would really make me happy!!

Where To Go Next?

Yesterday afternoon I went back into this work done on illustration board with my casein paints and I am at a point now that either I get focused in on my subjects, or let it go and leave it as it is. Open and loose and undefined. I need to think about this for a while.

And while I wait [thinking] , I am getting started on horse art works from my KY trip......good stuff. New stuff. I will be working on watercolor paintings to get started on these pieces.

At the same time I am working on some very different for me, new work, mixed media and collage...hmmmmmmmm.... and where will I go with these??

I will leave you guessing??!!

New Work Started or "Sunday go to Meeting"

My mother hated to get dressed up. I think I got my aversion to dressing up from her. I will go to extremes to get out of putting on a dress. And can you believe it that I used to do fashion illustration and wrote a fashion article for an American newspaper when I lived in Italy?

But now my life is simple....and on the farm, jeans are the fashion statement of my day.

This painting I am working on now is of my Mom and her big sister...all dressed-up, getting ready to go somewhere..maybe to church? I have done a quick pen and ink sketch of this scene and gone into it with a watery casein wash to get an idea of values. I am working on Crescent illustration Board, a favourite of mine for a support. I am thinking of maybe staying with casein for the first layer..and maybe will finish up with oil ...or maybe tempera.......so many choices will work with this board.

Another Cover In September

My casein painting above, titled "Please Don't Eat The Daisies" , will be gracing the cover of the September issue of The Equine Marketer, an all breed equine monthly publication coming out of Pennsylvania, that covers the Mid Atlantic region of our U.S. of A. I had been contacted last August [ of 2007] by the magazine for the cover of their “Future Champion” Issue for 2008. This casein depicted foals in a field playing, is already sold. As it is one of my favourites, I will be very happy to see it portraying future equine champions!!

Thunder storms are rumbling around our farm this day.....I watch as the Cobs run from their dry sheds to stand in the back fields with their tails to the wind. The rain pounds on their backs...but they feel saver braving the elements. Wild ponies that they are!!