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!

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!!

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.

And So, Where Is Spring?

According to the calendar it is officially spring. Tell that to the robins who are looking for worms hidden under 3 more inches of the white stuff! And now the wind is starting to blow.

Poor birds!

The above is a quick casein with watercolor and pen and ink thrown in for good measure. I just grabbed what seemed right at the moment. I call it "Part Cob". It is a painting of a driving horse who lived near our farm when we lived in Pownal, Maine. It is available for purchase, but it will not be put on my website.

Pen and Ink from my Chair

So much time has been taken with packing artwork for shows, labeling, filling out paperwork......... I need time to play.

So today I sit with my Corgi and make up landscapes.....This little pen and ink is called "Falling Falling". On our Maine farm we have a small orchard and this is a loose rendition of our plum trees...as I see them, while sitting with my back to them , in my comfy chair. Not what one would call "plein aire"!! But on a windy chilly March day...this will do very well!

These little pen and inks are able for purchase.. but will not be put on my website.

Down the Pen and Ink Road

All the landscape around our farm .. and all the mountains and hills that surround us in Morrill, Maine.. are blanketed with snow. Maybe it is because of this that I have been drawing these little landscapes with pen and ink on paper...all depicting winding roads and trees and grasses. These little "dreamscapes" have been a bit of an escape for me, allowing me to get out from my paint and down from my loft and to sit in my big easy chair with my Corgi and my cat cuddled around me, as I create dream landscapes far different from the world around our little cottage.

Maybe too they are a bit of a metaphor for what has been happening in my life over the past year and a half. A lot of winding roads and up hill climbs............but nothing that I will not be able to conquer in time.

More about that later.......maybe.

The question now is "Will There Be A Harvest? Metaphorically speaking that is!??

POLO PONY

We had a wonderful warm family Christmas with our youngest son and his family. It meant hours on the road, but was well worth it. This coming weekend we go to our other son's for another "Christmas Day". How neat is that?!

Today life goes on, chores on our farm, painting and I have spent most of the day answering emails and inquires.

I have attached a pen and ink done of a polo pony. I am working on a papercut of a polo scene but did this sketch for something different to do. Again the black and white, yin yang and composition called me.............and I am enjoying doing these quick sketches.

What I Do When I Procrastinate

After taking care of our four horses, walking the Corgi and shoveling the snow that was steadily accumulating, I headed up to my studio with a cup of hot tea and "whipped" out this pen and ink on illustration board. It is of two horses who were taking part in a Civil War reenactment. Their bridles are like what the army used back then...........but this was an reenactment...I am NOT old enough to have seen the real thing!!! The photo reference of these horses came from a fellow Equine Art Guild member.

But doing this sketch gave me a needed break from the paper cutting I am working on.... a hunt scene with very small detail. I get so "into" a zone when I do paper cutting, that I forget the time and very often I also forget what I am supposed to be doing. Today was not a good day to be cutting. But it turned out to be a good day for a small [ about 7 1/2 by 8 1/2" ] pen and ink rendering.
I will be putting this work onto my mixed media gallery page on my website.