Dressage, Oil Paint and Cats Hunting

"Tempi Changes"   oil on board       6 x 6" 

A beautiful day out today in our part of Maine......I sit with the door open,the sun spilled in and the air is filled with the sound of the wind blowing through the defrocked trees, stripped of their fall color, the rustling leaves blow across the lawn and into my gardens. I want to head out to plein air paint today. It is too beautiful a day to stay in.

I just did this small 6 x 6" oil of a dressage scene shown above. I have explored before. I often do this, re-explore a previous work, tweak it, change colors, composition...my approach. This small painting will be available on my website in the Small Works section.

While was outside this morning our Mittens went hunting.She has spent most of the morning stalking a chipmunk.....I am doing a small casein of this chippie.....Mittens is determined that she will be having a chipmunk dinner soon. I will immortalize him for prosperity.

But for the time being...the chipmunk runs around storing food for winter, Mittens waits for the perfect meal [in her eyes] and I am going out to paint or sketch.....out into the sun!

Another Shade Of Gray On A Gray Day

 The rain is pelting the windows as I sit now writing from the loft. But a better part of the day was spent painting in the new studio space we have created in our walkout basement. This will be' my space', craved out of the limited space in this tiny cottage in the woods of mid coast Maine. I am starting to feel that it is my space as it comes together...as I figure where I want what and what goes where. It amazes me, as I put things away in this much larger space, how much I actually had in my tiny [very tiny] loft studio. And a lot of what I had crammed into the old studio will be weeded over and be discarded.I vow I will not collect!! I will not horde!! I will simplify!!

The above painting is a 9 x 12" casein on paper.I will post it on my website when it is done....and did you now I have a few papercut drawings still available?

New Painting In The Ring

 

"In The Ring"     mixed media     12 x 12"

In spite of the distractions of the hint of spring in the air and the gardens needing raking, horses needing shedding and dogs needing walking.....AND the fact that my studio space is STILL neither here nor there....I have finished a 12 x 12 casein and acrylic painting of a gray dressage horse titled" In The Ring". 

I also have received the exciting news that my oil painting "Four-Up At Acadia" is to be exhibited in an invitational art show ,  "The Horse In Fine Art  'A Salute to the World Equestrian Games' " which will hang in The Lexington History Museum in Lexington,Kentucky during the summer equestrian games.The exhibit is organized by The American Academy Of Equine Art in partnership with Keeneland Foundation and will be on display from April 16 through November 1,2010. I will probably not get down to the Lexington History Museum show until September when I will having a show opening and reception at Gallery B..also in Lexington and on the same street!! 

I also have been doing my 20 minute ink sketches religiously....and having fun doing them...Check them out!! They are right here on my blog!!

Look up ^   up below the header!!! ;-)

Now time to haul some more 'stuff' down to the new studio space.........