Four-in-Hand at Acadia

Last weekend we went up to Acadia National Park carriage driving with friends. Wildwood Stable was getting ready to close for the winter season. What a wonderful time we had, with weather that was awesome. Maybe the fall colors weren't as brilliant this year as other years, but there were splashes of color that delighted the soul.



This casein painting above, done on Colorfix paper, is one of the works from the body of work that I am painting now. The four-in-hand in this painting is a team that was up at Acadia on an other occasion.

It always amazes me that these horses stand and wait , calmly, for the hitching and for the whip to take up the lines ......and then off they go! It makes me think that this is how we should approach life..............wait and then when the moment is right................off you go!!!

Waiting Our Turn

Maine Carriage Day is one of New England's oldest pleasure driving shows.For years it was held at Cumberland Fair Grounds, then moved to different spots, Snowfields in Pownal, and other training barns that had room for it. This year it is being held at Skyline Farm in North Yarmouth, and will have a different format.It will be held with dress classes and turnout classes being the most important themes. I hope to be there to get shots of interesting turnouts for future paintings, and to help with the ongoing art show that is still exhibited, "A Dog And Pony Show".

The small work pictured above is of a whip and her Morgan from a Maine Carriage Day event of years ago. This is a 5 x7 inch casein on canvas board. It of course is available for purchase.

This weekend we are heading to Acadia and Wildwood Stable to go driving with friends and their beautiful pair of Clydesdale's! I am looking forward to spending this time steeped in the tradition of carrige driving and the beauty of the carriage roads of Acadia, one of Maine's greatest treasures.

Sitting Pretty

After spending yet more time with no computer.........yes, my PC crashed again!! I am back on line on my NEW computer! And I am also getting commission work done and original work up on the easel ready to go. This is always a busy time of year for me, both for my artwork and for the chores that need to be done around the farm before the winter sets in. Today the temperature outside is still hovering above the normal. Thunder storms have rumbled through Morrill, but I shan't complain. The cold and snow will come quick enough!
This small casein portrait painting pictured above is of a very pampered canine that was done for his person in New York. What a life, heh? I have more canine works in the making. I keep working while "my" canine companion, Sweet Adeline, a Welsh Corgi, strikes a similar pose in our living room as she sleeps in my easy chair. I work and she sleeps. Who said dogs have a hard life?????

Jacob Cotswold

There was a farm on a road near us where a lady raised sheep. There were 'flocks' of them..big, little, ewes, rams, and baby lambs. I was fascinated with them. They sported horns....some had many horns, so many they could have formed their own band!!

I stopped one day on my way to Belfast for shopping and talked with the lady who had all these sheep. She was very proud of all her flock and let me snap photos of them for future paintings. This is the first of my works depicted these neat sheep.

They are an ancient breed that are mentioned in the Bible. This was my first introduction to Jacob Cotswold sheep, a rare breed. I have raised sheep before, as a child on my family's farm in New Hampshire for 4-H, and again on our farm in Pownal, Maine. I always loved sitting with the sheep, listening to them chewing their hay and the peacefulness of the barn.

I miss my sheep...............but for now 4 horses,a cat and a Corgi are work enough.

I will stick to painting my sheep.

Somedays I Feel Like This?

This casein painting has just finished drying. I am calling it "Non-Voluntary Dismount". If you have ever ridden a horse, you know that this is not how you would want to dismount. The photo reference for this was provided by an artist friend who does painting [I have one of her oils!] and photography. Donna Ridgeway and her poet husband live out west......someday soon my husband and I would love to go visit them.

In the mean time...this painting makes me wonder how our 3 year old Welsh Cob filly is doing at "school". Last weekend we took her to a trainer here in Maine, in order that Ms. Maggie could start her growing up phase and become a solid citizen. We hope that she will take to driving like her mother and aunt did.She will also be started under saddle when she is ready....and I am believing for her to be a kind and gentle mare....not like the bucking bronco pictured above!

I am getting too old for many non-voluntary dismounts!

I Can Do It Myself.... Sorta

This casein painting on paper is one of a body of works that I am working on now. I will tell more about this later, as the works come together. Stay turned!

The past few days have been full of hurdles .......my website went down when the server that carried it went"belly up". At the same time our tiny cottage was full of company and distractions.

But this too has past and the cottage is quiet again, and my schedule is back to "normal". I am painting pictures and cleaning horse stalls. The birds sing outside my studio windows.

My website is still down... but that will be fixed soon.

Am I Blue?

I did a lovely watercolor of a gray Welsh pony a while ago. [It is in the Center Piece Gallery in Seal Harbor this summer] The image was provided to me by a photographer friend from across the country. She resides in the great state of Washington. Wendi Ross and I seem to be drawn to the same sort of subject matter… Kindred spirits it seems.
I have been doing a lot of drawing lately and I re-visited this little Welsh in graphite with a watercolor wash of blue. This pony has the bluest of eyes, so it seems proper to depict him this way. All gray and blue.

This graphite and others....and some new watercolors... will be put onto my website soon, but this is a preview of what is to come!!

But now I head out into the gardens to work. A labor of love! Soon [well, I hope not too soon.] snow will be flying and I will be cooped up in my studio with much to be done. Now the gardens await!