Overly Ambitious?

"Levade"

from the "In Search of the Superlative Horse" series

Mixed Media

22" x 30"

$1500.00

Tomorrow is the Chinese New Year and it will mark the first day of the Year of the Horse. I was hoping to have a new painting finished and unveil it tomorrow, but I may have been overly ambitious considering my other obligations.

Coming along…...

Detail of unfinished painting

40" x 60"

Oil on Canvas

This one is coming along. I believe it will be finished in a few weeks, as long as no more unexpected paper work pops up. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Romancing Colour

I love colour.

I believe that it is so important, that I use the British spelling with a U.I feel that spelling gives the word more dignity on the printed page.

Colour is mood altering, deliciousness.





I am enthralled by it.

May not look like much………..

Detail from unfinished canvas

I always work on multiple paintings at the same time. They are all in various stages of evolving. Some are almost complete, some are bright white gessoed surfaces awaiting their first wash of color. A few are just notions floating around my studio.

Last week I completed three paintings. I have one very near completion. Several in stages in-between. So I felt compelled to work on this one. This is a detail from what eventually will be a diptych. It has been on an easel for several months waiting for me to put down the first charcoal marks. Last Tuesday it received these lines.

I don't know who long this one will wait. Maybe a few days, maybe a few weeks. I never know. I just know that it is coming into being.

Committed

I am always giving myself deadlines. Then I break them, I get distracted and start something else, or forget about them. After all, what am I going to do to myself? Fire me? I tried that, I just kept showing up so I was rehired.

The only deadlines that I adhere to are when outside forces are involved. An upcoming show, a commission, a promise to a friend. These are the deadlines I can stick to.

In light of this I have joined a FaceBook Group, "February Art Daily". The premiss is that you make a piece of art each day in February. That right, a piece of art each day for 28 days. Just do it, no editing, no deep exploration into whether or not it is deep and meaningful, or God Forbid! BAD. Just make a piece and send a photo to the group page.

It is an open group that is also welcoming of people who want to look at art. No selling, no harsh criticism, just open sharing. So, if your interested you may also join the group.

Now that I'm committed, let's see if I can make the deadline.

Life Paths

I recently was talking with a colleague and mentioned that I knew from the time I was three years old that I wanted to be an artist and equestrian. Of course when I was three this was expressed as, all I wanted was a horse and to draw pictures of horses. He asked me what that was like, the knowing what you wanted to do with your life at such an early age. I shrugged and said that I had not taken a straight path to where I am now.

I later started thinking about that question, "What is that like, to know what you want to do at three?" Well, quite frankly for me it was hell.

I was told by teachers that that was absurd to believe I could be an artist. I needed to grow up and pursue something more realistic. I needed to stop day dreaming.

Other well meaning adults told me that my parents would never let me have a horse. My parent said we couldn't afford horse or riding lessons. I believe the closer truth was that they knew nothing about horses and didn't have the time to shuttle me to a stable for a weekly lesson.

I was a relatively undemanding child. I believed that if you knew me and loved me, you would know what I wanted and needed. So when I didn't get the horse or the lessons, I believed that there was something wrong with me and that perhaps my parents didn't love me.

My parents did support me in art. We went to Museums and the Ballet. We always had books on art and artists. I always received art materials for Birthdays and Christmas. And, from the time I was 7, I was always given a place to set up my studio.

And so, I dreamed about horses and sketched them in secret. What I wanted to do with my life was unrealistic and foolish.So I even stopped drawing and painting horses, even in secret, when I was 13.

Try as I might to completely turn my back and walk away from art and horses, I was always drawn back as if they were sirens. The two things I loved more in this world than any other. But still, I was a fool and would listen to the negative rhetoric.

At 30 I went back to school. I knew what I wanted to do, what I needed to start learning. I still listened to negative comments and took many of them to heart. I still have plenty of well meaning adults in my life who tell me that I need to get a "real" job, that I shouldn't have a horse, that I need to be realistic.

I have no retort. They may be right, I am not sure about this. I am sure though that for me, not pursuing
what I hold most dear would be a wasted life.

So here is to the dream.

Night Flight

"Night Flight"

Monotype and Mixed Media

on Canvas

17.5" x 6.25"

Sold

…………..and now for something entirely different.

Well Enough Alone

Balancing Act

12" x 12"

Sold

I can never leave well enough alone. This is an Intaglio that also has Chine- collé. Could I stop there, no so it also I added watercolour.

Longer Days

"Spring Romp"

22" x 30"

Mixed Media on Paper 

As soon as the days start getting longer I start thinking of spring. All the glorious greens and the feeling that everything is full of life.

Happy Birthday George!

George is 10 today by Jockey Club standards. He will actually not be ten until April, which gives George and most of his Thoroughbred brethren two birthday. He however is unconcerned with all the hoopla and very content being a horse.