Sept. 18 of 30//30

Today is my sisters 71st birthday!

This was photographed rather poorly, and I failed to crop and fix it.  Whooops.  This is the oil I did.

Jan. 22: Lucky Airstream

Lucky
1962 Safari Airstream
Oil on Canvas 9 x 12

Lucky is our Airstream, which we renovated 3 years ago.  She is a pleasure to travel in, and always a source of subject matter.  That aluminum surface reflects her surroundings, and makes for a wonderful center of interest.  

Jan. 14: Lonnie McFadden

Lonnie McFadden
8 x 10 oil on canvas panel

I took a photo of Lonnie McFadden at a private birthday party a couple of years ago.  He is an amazing musician.  

# 12, 13: Summer and More

detail #12

'Summer' #12
This painting is from the photo you see on the left.  A friend took this photo of her niece, Summer, riding this beautiful horse.  Fortunate for me, my friend gave me permission to paint from her wonderful photographs.  

I took the photo for the prickly pear cactus this summer.  I have reworked the painting today and I am starting to like it.

#13

It has been a quiet day around the house.  I don't know how my dog Jill puts up with Woody sitting on her.  The window sill is chilly and I have pillows for them to be able to comfortably look out the window.  But Woody prefers to sit on a warm body.  She is totally ignoring him.  

Horses

I really wanted to take a trail ride this summer, but it never happened.  So I guess I will have to just be satisfied with painting one.  There is a new movie coming out Christmas day about a horse, and every time I see the ad on tv, I get the chills.  It must be fate...

I have explored artists that paint horses and found Howard Turpning's work.  He is a master at people, horses and landscapes. I think the process of copying a master painters work is a healthy exercise.  I imagine some will argue that point.  I would much rather be standing by a horse, with an Indian on his back, next to a rambling spring etc.  But it is not happening Dec. 10 in Kansas City MO.  So this computer is the next best thing.  I did go out and photograph this afternoon for my own reference photos.  I pulled over and parked to ask permission to photograph the horses.  I found out of the 5 animals, only one was a horse, the other 4 were MO jumping mules!!!  Never the less, I took several photos.

I'll post the beginning of the painting, and the work after about 1 1/2 hours of work.  I am certain there will be more work required, but I have a good start!

#1 and 2

Why didn't I do this sooner?

I don't know why I didn't set up a personal blog for my art work sooner.  I assume I could use the excuse 'time restraints', but I would be stretching the truth.  So this is day one.  It's my husbands birthday and his one year celebration of being retired for one year.  Seems like a good day to start.

The last day of November I completed this painting from memory and a photo reference I took this summer.  We were traveling from MO to CA and on the journey home we passed through some incredible landscapes in AZ.   I have a new found appreciation for that area.  Maybe it is because we took our time to get to know 'her', stopping every once in a while to take photographs of the beauty.  Being retired you can do that.

I have many paintings to post from our journey to the West coast and back.  We were traveling in a vintage 1962 Airstream.  More on that later.  I do have a blog on that project as well.  See the blog list for the address.

I have been looking at paintings by Matt Smith (www.mattsmithstudio.com) and thought a Prickly Pear Cactus would be great fun to paint.  Take a look at his work.  Amazing.