Still Studying - After All These Years

"The Cob - Walking Away"  Oil on Canvas  10 x 8"   ©2012 www.kathipeters.com

 

My vegetable garden is in fall mode.My perennial gardens are growing rampant. I have been busy painting and drawing .....and  studying.Yes ,studying. I recently bought several books in my never ending quest to tweak my artwork and stretch as an artist. I strongly feel that if I want to grow as an artist, I need to read and learn from artists past and present.So I study!!

But I have been painting too. The above oil painting is of a Welsh Cob.....our Welsh Cob mare, Victoria. She does NOT like to have her photo taken and dislikes even more having me doing a painting of her. What started as a plein air painting became a studio painting as she decided that she had had enough of me.


And as the days get shorter and the afternoon sun dips lower and lower in the sky I felt the need to paint my last roses blooming in my studio garden. I just finished this 6 x 6" oil on copper......so two paintings done recently. I have been drawing too This is good!

 "Last Roses Of Summer"   Oil on copper panel   6 x 6"  ©2012 www.kathipeters.com

   . So what books am I reading now???? "Hensche On Painting" What have I learned? To get OUT OF THE STUDIO.....and paint outside to learn color!!  And I am also reading "Childe Hassam - American Impressionist" So what am I learning there? [It is a big book!] that I need to paint more!!  That being said....I am off to paint!

What Words Can Not Express

Sweet Adeline  6 - 20 - 2000  ~ 1 - 12 - 2011

Last week was a week of storms, tears and loss. We lost our Sweet Adeline, a 10 year old Pembroke Welsh Corgi. She was my heart dog…that special friend who was always beside me ….watching me…..looking for a signal from me about a task at hand to be done…be it a horse that needed herding , a cat that needed putting in its place, a Jack Russell who needed a warning not to touch something. Addie came to us a wee snip of a pup, but all ears…..and then her nose grew…..her body lengthened …but her legs did not.

"Pembroke on Persian"    casein         10 x 10"

She was a fine specimen of Corgwyn…..and with a vocabulary that was longer then her body and just as pointed as her nose. She sat by my side in the studio and talked to me while I painted. She always had something to tell the vacuum cleaner….a story to tell anyone who came through our house door. When I came home from hospital in 2006 after suffering a stroke, she would not leave my side. She had to be with me, watching and making sure I was ok and not leaving again.

"I Am Watching You"       casein           6 x 8"

 And now she has left me alone…Even having our Nellie here with me, it is not the same. Nell is sweet…and loving….but she fills different voids…different needs with her company. She is not Addie.

"Cob And Corgi"     casein       12 x 12"

We knew our time with Addie might be short from the get go... Addie was born with a heart murmur, and suffered congestive heart failure…..But we were blessed with her presence for 10 lovely years. She was my muse and often painted. Words come hard right now….maybe a painting IS worth a thousand words. Tears come easily.

"Pokey Pembroke"      oil on copper        5 x 7"

“There is sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.”  ~Washington Irving



Wrapped in Snow

Rocks with wraps of snow.

The winter months loom before us with days of snow and gray skies to come for sure. The daily chores of the farm still need doing, whether there be sun or snow, wind or hail....much like the proverbial postman...I trudge out to the barn, with dogs in tow, to do that which needs to be done. My award for this dedication is a whinny from a mare,a neigh from a gelding. I wouldn't change a thing! [Except maybe longer days with more sunshine??]

The meandering brook by our cottage.

The brook looks so lovely this time of winter, cloaked in its mantel of white. This winter the brook has been open with running water. This winter has so far been a bit mild and so the water runs and gurgles through the woods. I am going to get out , plein air, and paint the brook...some warm sunny winter's day. I swear!

I have been busy shipping sold works to their new homes. Thank you too new collectors!  I have sent works down to Freeport, Maine to Edgecomb Potters, so please check them out if you are in that shopping mecca of Maine....And it is that time of year when I need to get the office cleaned up, and pay Caesar. I do have a new watercolor in the works, and some other new work in the beginning stages, but office work is calling me a bit loudly at this time......

And Nellie is getting on the bed more often than is really necessary!!

Around the Farm

All our equine kids on the farm are well fed and busy these days, keeping the fields mowed. They complain that it is a full time job....and that I should not bother them this summer, as they are far to busy! Our bay Cob mares are the busiest, for sure!

This afternoon I took a walk out to the pond to snap some photos of our pond-lilies that are in bloom.The sun was too bright to get the true color of the lilies, but I so want to paint them and I am thinking this HAS to be done in oil and on copper! It won't be plein air, but close to!!

And then, as I walked back from the pond and the fields, I  saw the hydrangea in full blossom, a delicate blue and begging to be photographed...and should be painted! I know these are not horses, but I just have this need to try everything on copper and in oil!

 But I have been painting too....between the walks....

 "Pokey Pembroke"           5x7"              oil on copper

Today I finished this small oil on copper of our Corgi...this will be added to my website and is available.In the meantime I need to get some caseins done for the September show at Gallery B ,in Lexington, KY. So it is back to the studio for me!

New Painting Done In The Spring

"A Winter's Day"       casein on board      12 x 12"

I know it spring here on the farm, but I have just finished this painting of a cob on a cold snowy winter's day. This is our chubby little princess 'Maggie'  [pictured above] and her ever present pile of hay. The girl lacks for nothing...except maybe a bit of work! This painting will be able through my website.

Today the mail brought me notification that two of my paintings have been accepted into the New Jersey Equine Artists' Associations "Art Of The Horse 2010" exhibit which will be hanging at the Somerset Art Association in Bedminster, NJ. The show opens My 20th and runs until June 20th. I hope that you can get a  chance to see the works there...some of the best equine art work around!!This show is only a short distance from the USET headquarters in Gladstone.A perfect location for an art-show featuring the horse!! One of the paintings is also a winter scene...and a Welsh Pony too.....

"First Snow -Revisited"        mixed media       8 x 10"

This fellow was our granddaughter's first pony.His name "Frolic". Old Frolly won the hearts of many young girls...and elder women too! One of those once in a life time treasures of a horse!

Some other news  [Things are happening at Cob Cottage Studio!!] is that  my watercolor titled "Hello"  has been chosen to grace the May cover of Equine Marketer magazine ! This is the second time this publicatio has asked for use of my work for cover art. I am very honored to do so again!

So now back to the studio. I am working on a hunter jumper painting..almost done, this is a 40 x 30" canvas work......and I am still working on a figurative commission.....that also is almost done.

But first the dogs need walking...

Nell is getting ready to get up from her nap! 

"Rough Life For Nell"        @kathipeters 2010

A Dream Vacation?

I have started a Facebook page and have been meeting tons of new friends from all over the world. Artists work in an isolated environment and so while suffering a bit from cabin fever this late winter, I got “poked” into starting Twitter and Face book.
The reason I mention this is because one new friends is from England, and she has told me about a vacation idea where one could rent a horse and wagon…a gypsy cob and Vanner wagon. What a great idea that would be. And Les could do the driving and I would just sit and enjoy the scenery!!! At a nice slow pace. A step back in time! How lovely that would be!

The lovely Gypsy Vanner’s and Cobs are so neat. I can appreciate their strength and classic confirmation. We own Cobs and I never tire looking at them. Or painting them. I did the above watercolor of this Gypsy Vanner, and threw in some tempera to do the details of the wagon. You can see a larger image of this on my website.So while I work in my studio today my imagination takes flight and I am discovering the English countryside and listening to Sting!

Knee Deep

The snow keeps coming. I am doomed to days filled with shoveling, I think! But I am getting snippets of time in the studio and am finishing up a watercolor commission and working on two new caseins. I will be having a show in Lexington, KY. in May, but will write more about that as the time gets closer!

In the meantime, I am posting these snowstorm shots…so you can feel sorry for me!

And will sip more hot coffee before I trudge back to the barn, dogs in tow,

to get stalls done so I can get back to my studio!

The Cob mares just eat and eat!!
Enjoy my Narnia world in Morrill, Maine!

After the Storm

This past Monday was spent digging out from too much snow. Even with a snow-blower it was an all day affaire. Nothing was done in the studio....it was all about the snow.

But today is sunny and not too cold out. I am back in the studio....and getting things done..sort of.

Our Cobs want hay...just keep them fed and they are happy. Look at the chest on our little Maggie. She will be 5 this year! How time flies! She is really ready to be worked!!

Back to my painting.....because time is flying.....and my casein paint hasn't been lately!

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!!