Adorable!

There is a farm about a mile down the road from us called Goat Flower Farm. They raise fainting goats and miniature horses. The owner has asked if my daughter could come and help with training one or two of the young minis to carry a rider. Of course we were delighted! So we ventured over there yesterday and were thrilled to discover that one of the minis had a foal this week. He's so small the owner carried him out to the field. Just around 34 pounds at birth! I have never been around minis before so I am just blown away by how cute and tiny they are. Had to share some photos of our morning. I really like the goats too. May have to paint one soon!








Thank you so much Zan, from Wild at Heart Farm, for my latest blog award!

Wordless Wednesday...

Woo Hoo!

I finally got a scanner! Thank you Circuit City going out of business sale.

Since I've been painting a series of jumpers from Devon lately, I wanted to share some of my photos of one of my favorite horse and rider pairs, Michael Matz and Judgement. These photos were taken with my old Pentax K1000 at the American Gold Cup around 1999. Matz won that year in a breath taking jump off. He is such and incredible horseman. Not only an Olympic gold medalist, he trained Kentucky Derby winning Barbaro and saved 4 young children when the airplane they were on crashed in 1989! What an amazing man!

You can see the love in his expression as he gives Judgement a pat in the warm up ring. Maybe I'll have to turn one of these photos into a painting someday!
Please click on each photo to view a larger image.







I have two wonderful people I must thank today. Angie of Free Rein Art - I was fortunate enough to win her first blog giveaway, a darling wild horse magnet featuring her art, "September Stallion".
Thank you so much Angie!


And last but certainly NOT least, Horseypants for my newest blog award.
Thank you so much you guys make my day!


Oh yeah, one more thing. As much as I don't want to sell them, I've added my four newest original ACEO paintings to Ebay tonight. Each one represents several hours of work. I have a really good scan of each so hopefully I will able to make prints soon.

Mahogany Bay

Just finished my newest ACEO sized (2.5" x 3.5") mini painting. This horse was from a photo I took at the 2000 American Gold Cup at Devon. It may have been called the Budweiser Gold Cup by then. I hate how huge corporations have to own everything!
So this sweet guy, with the gorgeous reddish brown eyes, was ridden by Mclain Ward. I've been looking everywhere to find his name, the closest I could find was a Selle Francais stallion that he was riding around that time named Galileo. He was also riding a horse at that time named Fior. Wish I would have written these things down!
Anyway, this was a really striking horse, had a lot of Arabian traits. I may want to make a larger painting of him someday. His coat was difficult to paint. It ranged from nearly blacks to burnt orange to dark mahogany. This little tiny painting took me all day believe it or not! Wish I could have gotten a better photo. I really need a scanner.
I'm really enjoying these mini paintings I think they are great practice for creating larger works.



And here is a picture of one of our crazy cats. His name is Meemee Doodle. Our cats prefer their water fish flavored. They have refused to drink out of their own water dishes. Luckily they never bother the fish. In fact the fish often comes up and touches the cat's tongues when they drink.
Meemee likes to rest his head on the bowl in a very awkward way with a crazy look in his eye.

Chestnut Landing

How do you like the new look? I know it's not March yet but I thought I'd jump the gun. I've always loved March. It's the month that contains so many cool things: Spring, wild weather changes, St. Patty's Day, mine and my dh's b.days, occasionally Easter, daylight savings time...


So here's another jumper from Devon. This guys in the landing phase of the jump. Wish I could remember the names of these horses! I do think the last grey horse was named Mr. Spoon. I'm working on a gorgeous bay right now. I think he was ridden by McLain Ward.


Original mini painting (2.5" x 3.5") - "Chestnut Landing"


THANK YOU so much to everyone for their kind comments! Really keeps me going. Please accept my apologies if I"m not able to reciprocate the comments. I'm trying my best to visit everyone's blogs.

I'm tossing around the idea of selling at a horse show this summer. I think it would be a lot of fun and get me close to all those wonderful sights, sounds and smells I miss. Plus I can have the hubby man the booth while I go and take photos!
We'll see!

Devon Grey

As promised, here is my second ACEO sized (2.5" x 3.5") original painting inspired by a scene at Devon. I think I may eventually make some prints of these. Just started working on a chestnut jumper. Hope to have him finished by tomorrow.
Looking through my boxes of photos, I found I have a seemingly endless supply of subject matter from Devon ranging from sidesaddle to jumpers to saddlebreds and even Arabians in native costume. Should be a lot of fun!

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go!

The funny thing about having a lot of blog friends is that you get tagged a lot. I'm sure my readers must be sick of hearing quirky facts about my life but I'm not one who doesn't enjoy playing along!
I was tagged this time by Melody and Linda. Both of them are wonderful artists. Their work really shows the love they have for animals!

Okay, here are 7 things about moi, all work related...

1.I started working at a horse farm when I was 13 - Watermark Farm, google it.
They taught me most of what I know about horses. I worked there on an off until I graduated HS.

2. I worked for an Amish furniture company before doing decorative painting.

3. I worked at an Amish buggy tour ride place for a few months. It was dreadful. I did get to learn how to drive and hitch a wagon with two horses and a buggy with one. I was a bit on the punkish side back then and I would get some strange looks from tourists in their cars thinking I was an Amish girl. I had to memorize oodles of Amish facts and regurgitate them many, many times a day.

4. I mailed a sign to Wayne Newton once. It was a Xmas gift from a friend.

5. I worked at a frame shop for 4 years and framed things for the lead singer and drummer from the rock band Live. The first time they came in I nearly fainted (I was 20).

6. I have tried two jobs that only lasted one day: picking grapes at a winery, and working at a pet shop. Both of them were bad, bad, bad! I left the pet shop when they told me I has to handle tarantulas!

7. I have always wanted to see what it would be like to work in a cubicle, tend bar, and sling hash at a greasy spoon diner.


I have the best job in the world, getting to stay at home and raise my daughter and create things that people buy. It makes me so happy! Thank you so much to everyone who has purchased artwork from me and who visit my blog regularly. Your comments and friendship keep me going (that and the fact my sales put food on the table)!

Don't forget to stop over at my Etsy team's blog and enter our horse art giveaway!

Check back here soon for some new original mini paintings of scenes from the Devon Horse Show! Okay, I'm ready for my white grape martini now:)

Team Giveaway and New Work

I'm happy to announce that Whoa Team, an Etsy horse art group, is having it's first of many monthy giveaways. To enter you must visit the Whoa Team Blog and leave a comment on the giveaway post. We have three wonderful prizes to win! I'm giving away a pendant, Artwolf has donated a purse mirror & magnet and De La Renaissance will be giving away two lovely prints.
Each month stop back to see what our next giveaway will be!

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On a seperate note, I've added a few new pieces to Ebay. My favorite one is this miniature, ACEO size (2.5" x 3.5") painting of a bay thoroughbred. My inspiration came from a photo I took during a sidesaddle class at Devon a few years ago.



And to those who were curious, we did see Coraline on Saturday and it was excellent!
My husband fell asleep somewhere in the middle so maybe it's not a film to drag your dh to but I thought it was absolutely gorgeous. They Might Be Giants even did a fun song for it. You can hear the main theme song on my playlist on the sidebar of this blog. It is hauntingly beautiful!

Etsy Sale & TGIF

I've gone into my Etsy Shop and marked down most of my inventory $3-$10 to make room for new work (and buy some groceries this week hopefully). The only items I didn't reduce were my larger size pendants.
Also added a new spring nest barrette and 5 pendants. The wolf pendant in the photo has been sold but all the horses are available.




I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! I'm about to settle into a bottle of Pinot Evil - had to buy it because it had monkeys on it. Also excited to see Coraline tomorrow. I read the book and I love Nightmare Before Christmas, so I had to see it.




Cheers! Jen

One World One Heart Winner!!

The winner of my One World One Heart 2009 giveaway is Kim of Kim's Art!
Thank you SO MUCH to all of the 350+ bloggers who left comments. I can't wait until next year. I think I will give away mulitple prizes then.

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There is a chance that the kiddo will be going to her grandmother's house for the night. If that's the case, I have three Spring themed signs ready to paint for Ebay. I also painted 2 dressage horse pendants yesterday and a really cool robin's nest barrette. Hopefully I will get them up on Etsy today.
Have a wonderful day!
Jen

New - Arabian Painting

The kiddo has decided to finally take a nap today so I could finish (maybe?) a 12" x 12" oil painting of a black Arabian horse. I like the bright turquoise background.
I was working from a photo I took in York, PA at and Arabian show a few years ago. I guess this guy appeals to that kid in me that will always be in love with The Black Stallion. Probably one of the best horse movies ever made.
Here are some pictures...

Lovin' my Canon G10

OMG, if you are in the market for a new camera, check out the Canon G10. I was just in Circuit City and they have them for $399. I bought mine on Amazon for $409. Here are some photos I took yesterday. Please click on the image for a larger photo.



This camera has a feature that will take a b&w photo and pull out a few colors. How cool is that?


Snowdrops coming up in the yard.



Nearly full moon in front of my mother's house. I didn't even know there was a flock of birds flying in the distance until I saw this picture on my computer!



Winter aconite coming up in the yard. Always surprises me to see flowers in February.



My mom's neighbor's little steer. He's so friendly and loves to play with their dog.



My mom's calico cat. I think she's so pretty. I may have to paint this one.

Finished?

I never know if a painting is finished. Always seems like I could work a little bit more. My main focus in these two paintings are the horses so I didn't want to fuss a lot with backgrounds. Please click on the pictures for a larger image.


14 x 18 oil on canvas

"Long Legs" 11 x 14 oil on masonite

On a side note the darn squirrels have finally figured out how to get into my birdfeeder. It took them 2 months this time! It's not like I don't give them corn at their own feeder.