Burro painting

This guy was painted earlier this year from a Bureau of Land Management photo. It's an 8x8 and is framed in a gorgeous Randy Higbee frame using acid free materials.

SOLD

Randy Higbee Gallery 6" Squared show

I am excited to announce that two of my paintings were accepted into the 5th annual 6" Squared show at Randy Higbee Gallery in Costa Mesa, California! The show opens December 6th and runs through mid-January. They will hang over 600 paintings by many of the country's top painters, all of them 6"X6", all of them in their gorgeous frames. I am sure it's a sight to behold :) Many galleries have small paintings shows this time of year because they are perfect gifts, but the Randy Higbee show is regarded as one of the very best. When I first started painting I heard about it and made it a goal to enter one day, and here I have and I got two paintings in!

The paintings accepted are "Happy Goat" and "Mustang Filly":

I won't be able to attend the opening myself, but maybe some of you Southern California people can. The direct link to my two paintings in the show's online gallery is:
http://www.dailybrushwork.com/Sort.aspx?UserID=17486&GSID=51&pg=65
The entire show of 622 paintings is viewable (and purchase-able) at http://www.dailybrushwork.com

Some rock paintings

I received an inquiry about my canyon country paintings a few days ago, and did I have them on my blog....yes......wait.....no. Somehow they slipped by, were painted before I started this blog, or were in an old post and needed to be updated anyway.  I have done quite a few of them. What can I say, I love Utah's canyon country. Here's a few of them:

Bullet Canyon #1

Another one from a riding trip in SE Utah. One of our favorite areas is Cedar Mesa, where there are few other people and the amount of public land is vast at 400,000 acres. Some of the canyons can be ridden in, but most of them are too trecherous. We enjoy riding along the canyon rims and peering into the huge canyons. This is looking into Bullet Canyon. 6X6 on Colourfix Suede, unframed.

SOLD

Bullet Canyon #2 

 

Another one from the rim of Bullet Canyon. 6X6 on Pastelmat, framed in a gorgeous Randy Higbee/Kingofframe "La Paz" frame. I will sell framed for $125.00, or unframed for $75.00.
 

SOLD

 

Moab Red Rock

A Facebook friend took the photo I used for reference, thanks Sabrina! I cropped the photo to get the composition that I liked and painted from there. 6X6 on Pastelmat, framed in a gorgeous Randy Higbee/KingofFrame.com "La Paz"  frame.

Potholes

From a crop of a National Park Service photo, somewhere in the magical expanse of Canyonlands National Park. Some potholes are large enough to swim in, others barely a few cups. They come and go with the rains. They often have tadpoles, and brine shrimp that hatch from cysts. 6X6 unframed.

 

Not available-gifted

This one was from a photo taken on a family Lake Powell vacation. I don't recall which canyon, but it looks like the Escalante area. I gave it to my father as a memento of a wonderful trip. 9X12 on LaCarte

Not available-gifted

This one is from a horseback ride into White Canyon, west of Natural Bridges and east of the Black Box. I gave it to a friend when he helped me out by giving me one of his old wheelchairs (those things are expensive!). 8X8 on Uart.

Believe it or not I have more, but will save them for another post :) 

Sulphur Horse

Fresh off the easel, this is a 6X6 pastel of a Sulphur Horse (mustang) currently available for adoption through the Bureau of Land Management. Photo reference provided by the BLM. The painting is not currently for sale as I might enter it in a show, but for information on the real horse visit his page here.  For information about the history and origin of the Sulphur horse can be found here. They are one of a few wild horse herds that are Iberian (Spanish) that has been shown through DNA testing. They sure are gorgeous!

Mustang Filly

Just finished this girl up yesterday, from a photo provided by the Bureau of Land Management's online adoption gallery. The info listed with her was "2 year old 14 hand pinto filly # 9641,  captured 11/27/12 from Little Owyhee HMA (Nevada)". 6X6 soft pastel on Pastelmat (heavy card stock pastel surface):

Heading to the Randy Higbee 6X6 show in Costa Mesa California! Show opens in December.

A Bevy of Burros

I haven't done any mustang paintings in awhile, so recently I visited the online adoption gallery of available horses on the Bureau of Land Management's website. I go through a lot of photos to find the few that 'speak' to me. I look for lighting, for emotion, movement, color, something that will work well in the formats I like to paint in. I went through all the horses, saving a few aside, and then.....there were burros! Lots and lots of burros. Unfortunately most had their photos taken in flat light (either a cloudy day or after the sun went down, so no shadows, nothing to suggest form). That is fine for potential burro adopters, but not so great for me, the painter.  I did find a few, though. Their cute furry burro faces lend themselves well to paintings, don't you agree?

The first, a jenny. Photo reference for this and the next one are courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management. Their description of her is "#4558 - 6 yr old gray jenny, captured 10/2011, from outside an HMA, California". Outside of an HMA-Herd Management Area means technically she is not protected by the Wild Horse and Burro Act, but she has found her way to a facility anyway. I am not sure exactly how that works, though. 

The second painting, this time a jack. His description is "#3952 - 4 yr old gray gelded jack, captured 11/2010, from Cibola-Trigo HMA, Arizona".  Both these, and many other burros, are available for adoption throughout the Bureau of Land Management's Wild Horse and Burro program

Both of these paintings are 8X8 in soft pastel on Colourfix Suede. I have decided to keep the jenny, but the jack will be available soon here on the blog!

Top Secret

I did another painting after the Sierras one, but it's a gift so for now it's top secret. I feel confident that the recipient will be delighted. I will post photos soon....

With almost half on my November paintings selling (thanks SO much to those who purchased) I decided to buy a few more pastels. Unlike oil painting where you can mix color on your palette, pastels must be layered on the painting itself. Getting started in pastels is more expensive at first because you need a good selection, and those beautiful color drenched sticks aren't cheap! When I first started my pastel painter friend Sonya Johnson gave me some great advice, get some NuPastels, a half stick set of Senneliers, and the Mount Vision Thunderstorm Gray set. They were great to get started with. I added some Unisons, and some Terry Ludwigs (the dark "eggplant" he sells is something everyone seems to use. Today I ordered some more Mount Visions using a handmade color chart I bought from Dakota Pastels. Fingers crossed I finally have the sky blues, sagebrush, and red rock colors I have been wanting.

Some girls like chocolates, some jewelry, but for me this is the shiz :)



UPDATE: here is the finished surprise painting for my niece, her beloved mustang mare "Bug":



Katelyn loved it and promptly hung it up in cowgirl fashion: