Evening Antelope

A rare painting from a photo I took myself (yes, someday I will purchase a grown up camera with a good zoom). This young antelope had just ducked under the fence, as antelope do, on my father's alfalfa farm in central Nevada last summer. There were no antelope out there when I was a child, they were reintroduced long after I had grown up, and now there is a very healthy and populous population :) This painting is a 6x6 soft pastel and is framed in a gorgeous plein air style frame from Randy Higbee Gallery (kingofframe.com). The glass is Conservation Clear, and all acid free materials were used in framing.






SOLD

Satisfaction

This was inspired by a recent ride into the high country in an area the elk really like. It brought to mind memories of a camping trip up there where we observed several large bull elk napping on a ridge where they could keep an eye on things. Through binoculars we could see they all had huge racks, and were at the end of the growth cycle. In a few weeks they would shed their velvet and not be buddies anymore. While perusing the website PaintMyPhoto I found a photo of an elk that embodied the memories I had. I call it "Satisfaction" because he looks very pleased with himself. This is a 6x6 soft pastel on Pastelmat, and is framed in a Randy Higbee Gallery frame (love these frames!) using acid free materials.

Billy

Billy the Billy goat right? Actually he is Billy the Kid, as in kid goat :) Young goats are called kids, like how young sheep are called lambs. This was painted from a crop I took of a photo provided Leah Gretton on the website PaintMyPhoto, and is a 6x6 in soft pastels on Pastelmat. Framed in a Randy Higbee Gallery frame using acid free materials, with Conservation Clear glass.

SOLD

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!

Bling

I decided to call this painting "Bling" because I almost didn't add the sparkly hangy bits, and am so glad I did! This is a Marwari horse at an Indian horse fair from an image taken by photographer Manu Sharma and used with his permission. The painting is 6X6 in soft pastels (Nupastels, Caran de Ache, Rembrandts, Mount Visions, Senneliers, maybe even a Unison or two) on PastelMat:





"Bling" is now framed, pics and PayPal button coming soon!

Rare plein air

With little time available lately for painting I thought I'd share another older painting. This is from October 2012 on a camping trip in Comb Wash, Utah:

"Campsite Cottonwood"

NFS

 

I started painting in August of 2012, so this is with a few months of experience under my belt. We had our horses with us and were there to ride, but I was coming off a cold and then my husband got it, far worse than what I had had. So, there was some down time and I took advantage of it and did a few small paintings from our campsite, just south of highway 95. This one is approximately 5" X 7".  So far I have done very little in the way of plein air, but I did enjoy how it was like a meditation of place, and how it stays with me, how it looked, how it felt. I miss being there so much, plans are in the works to spend more time there soon, after we have caught up with our sculpture business work :) I can hardly wait, it always feels like a part of me waits there for my return.

Sunflower

I've been busy with my sculpting and haven't had any time to paint since the first of the year, so I thought I'd share some older paintings. This one is from last fall, my first flower attempt and I am thrilled with how it turned out. My next attempt did not fare so well. This is a 6X6 on, I think, UArt pastel paper:

"Sunflower"

Not for Sale