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!

In past years I have enjoyed summers at Acadia, with my husband, driving our Welsh Cob mares. Lazy summer days with the pair trotting down the carriage roads built by Mr. Rockefeller, so that he could enjoy the spectacular views of Mount Desert Island and coastal Maine. If you have horses and haven’t been there, you need to go!!

At Wildwood Stables, where we camped with our horses, I took many shots of the draft horses there that pull the carriages that take the tourists through the carriage roads, so they can get a glimpse of the beauty that hides on these roads forbidden to the automobile. This casein is of one of those big boys, on a respite. I have done several versions of this draft, in different mediums- in casein, watercolor, acrylic, liquid gold, and pastel. Some of those can be seen on my website.

“A Quiet Spot” is the latest version of this gentle giant.

PC Problems Etc, Etc....

The month of August started with computer problems and went down hill from there.....but the "puter" is fixed and life goes on.

Yesterday, while waiting for my computer, I sketched a self-portrait in graphite. It is a fast study of myself. They say [and I don't know who "they" are.] that we should sketch ourselves often as a exercise in art. This was an exercise to say the least. But at least I can chock that exercise off as done for a while.

Over the last few weeks I have been finishing up some caseins and some graphite studies of works to be done. I have also been getting works ready for "A Dog and Pony Show " ,an Invitational Exhibit that opens on August 31st at Skyline Farm Carriage Museum in North Yarmouth, Maine. This is the second year that I am curating and exhibiting in this fun show.This year we have some great artists participating and I am sure there will be something for every one's artistic taste.