New Items for Etsy & Cafepress

Just added to ,Cafepress, many new items with my fairy foal artwork and also my gothic raven. If you are a fantasy lover, these items are not to be missed!






I just finished 6 new hand painted pendants and added them to Etsy today. There is a widget on the right side of this page that shows some of them.
If you are interested in receiving an email when I update this blog, please add your email address to the subscription box on the right. I may be offering some special pieces for sale on this blog and I will be having a contest soon for a free piece of art. Haven't figured out what it will be yet. If you subscribe to this blog you will be sure to not miss a thing!
Thank you!
Jen

Dressage, Sleepy Hollow Style

For fun I thought I would paint the Headless Horseman riding a dressage horse. He's a German so dressage is in his blood. Just added the auction if you'd like to check him out!

Hey, I know that horse...

I was looking through the Breyer website and found that my friend Kathy Whitaker's stallion, Oliver, has been made into a model. How cool! Just wanted to share. They made a beautiful model of him and he is even more gorgeous in person.

You Tube EHAG Video

I made a video that showcases some of the work from my fellow EHAG members. Click HERE to view EHAG art on Ebay.
Check it out!

Cafepress Update

Just wanted to let people know I have updated my Cafepress store to reflect my art studio name. If you have it bookmarked under Bay Mare Designs, you will have to change it over to Gypsy Mare Studios. I've also lowered the prices on 40 items and added several new designs in Halloween, Shire, Fjord and Dressage. Let's see, it's now almost midnight and I have been working on this since 7. Boy am I sick of looking at the computer screen!

Kitties

My cats (Meemee & Zazu) love to go out in our back yard with us. Today, for the first time, Zazu climbed the big maple and I had to get my husband to get her down. She was so stressed out she flopped down on the patio. My daughter was stressed out over it too and she flopped down next to her and pronounced that she was a cat:)

Horse Show (kinda)

I drug my poor husband and child to a horse show tonight at the Quentin Riding Club. I was a little reluctant to go because I had tried to go to a TWH show only a few weeks before and when we got there, no one else was there. Cancelled I guess.
So we get to this show and I had known it was going to be mainly saddle seat which is not my favorite discipline, but I thought I could get some nice photos to use as reference.
Well, when we pulled in I saw two horses. That was a good sign, at least something was going on. We get out of the car and the first of the evening's classes was about to start. There were two horses in the class! Yikes, not much of a show. Luckily my family found a slide and swing to play on while I tried to take a few photos because it was God aweful boring. I have never seen a show with such a small turnout. The next class was one for Friesians and lucky for me, two showed up. I was able to take a few shots of one in particular but the lady did not seem too impressed with me. I found her website tonight and I can see she probably thinks very highly of herself. She mentions several times about her friendship with Carson Kressley. How dare some peasant want to photograph her magnificent steed.
Then I watched another saddlebred class and that was it for me. I don't know why anyone would want to ride an animal like that. It is a shame what they do to them. They look so unnatural and they really try to work the poor things up by hissing at them during the class. They could barely stop the things when asked and it just didn't look like any fun at all. So, here are a few of my photos. Wish I could have taken more but there was only about 8 horses there!

Lovely dappled dark bay Morgan.

3 year old Saddlebred.

Does this look like a fun ride?


I bet this horse could play a mean game of Twister!


Whoa, you won a blue ribbon! All you had to do was beat one other horse.


Pretty boy.


"Lady, could you let go of my face for a second!"








Hey lady, that's an awefully high horse you're on!

Tricks for Treats

I had SO much fun painting my newest Halloween piece.
Reminiscent of Roy Roger's Trigger, I've painted a lovely palomino horse and his black cat pal performing some tricks in hopes of receiving treats. He's already gotten an apple and some carrots in his jack o' lantern pail, perhaps he is looking for a bunch of fresh catnip for the kitty now. There is a witch flying in front of the blue moon and each animal is wearing a colorful collar for the holiday.

Just listed on ebay!

Scenes from the Garden

A male ear of corn perhaps? I didn't grow this but bought it today at Roots Market down the road from me. The variety is called "White Out" and was the best corn I've had so far this year. Unfortunately I had to geld this strange ear.



Some gorgeous sunflowers!

Lovely zinnia.

I have cherry tomatoes galore. This year I planted Sungold, Sweet 100 and Sunsugar varieties.

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Coming soon, a new sheep sign! Just in time for Halloween. I think I will add it to ebay tomorrow. Check the link to the right.

Hallowed Grounds & Appy Halloween

Just listed on Ebay! Three day auctions so don't dilly dally:)

Mirabelle Ravensong

My newest witch painting is finished!
Meet Mirabelle Ravensong and her familiar, Adelmar.
Adelmar is an ancient Germanic name meaning "noble" and was given to Mirabelle on her 13th birthday. As their name suggests, the Ravensong family has always had ravens as familiars. They are excellent at communicating with all members of the corvid family and Mirabelle is no exception. Wherever Mirabelle goes, Adelmar is not far behind.
When Ravens are kept in captivity, they can live for many years. One such bird lived until the age of 80! They are also one of the smartest animals on the planet capable of learning solutions to complex problems they encounter.

Halloween Art Slideshow

Witchy Folk

I found a really nice book at a yard sale over the weekend on early American folk art and it has inspired my two most recent paintings. While I was flipping though the pages of said book, I thought that a lot of the women looked very witchy (especially the old ones - working on that). While I was creating these girls I was thinking about what lives they could have led and what their names would be. I added crackle finish so that the pieces would look old. I really don't paint many people so I was pretty nervous about how they would turn out but I kept telling myself, "It's folk art, it doesn't have to be perfect.". In the end I am very happy with them. Beatrix looks so nice sitting on my antique easel, I'm afraid it will be a little difficult parting with her!
Without further ado, meet my new friends...

Beatrix Nightshade

Bella Blackrose



I have a few more of these paintings in my brain so please check back in a few days!
~Jen


Ooo, ooo, ooo... I forgot to add that I just made a utube video of past and present Halloween artwork. Check it out:
Gypsy Mare Halloween Art

Nightmares, Fleet Foxes and Blog Awards

I just finished a new sign today and I'm so excited to post some photos of it.
It's a Night Mare Cafe sign and I have painted a leaping white horse that looks as if she is trying to rid herself of ghosts and bats. I think this would look so cool in someone's kitchen or dining room around Halloween.
I will be listing it to ebay later today so please check my auction link over on the right side of this blog.
I've also painted a smaller sign with a ghost horse. She has small ghosts flowing out from her mane and tail.




Okay, so here I go with the recommendations again. I am absolutely in love with this band called Fleet Foxes. You can visit their Myspace page and listen to their music. I will try and create a music playlist for this blog over in the right hand column too. They were just in Philly and I'm sorry I missed them.


Finally, I want to thank Lori of Retro Rudolphs for honoring me with a weblog award today. Thank you so much Lori! I'm so glad that someone reads this blog:)


Have a wonderful day!
Jen

Black Cat, Blue Moon

I've added a pretty black cat sign to ebay today. I will personalize it at the top for the high bidder. The colors look a bit dull right now but they will really pop once I finish it with varnish. Varnishing my pieces is my favorite part of the whole process because it really brings life to the artwork.
Please check my auctions to bid. Thank you!

New Work + Movie Recommendation

Just finished two new pieces with a horsey Halloween theme. The first is a mantle clock I picked up at an estate sale. The man that made the clock never finished it but I knew I could have fun with the piece and I bought it. All it needed was a clock movement and a little Hallopunking (my version of Steampunk). I'm really excited by this one. I had been working on the sketch for a few days and took a day and a half to paint the clock. I like how the gold hands work with the flaming pumpkin. I also added a bird in each tree and the trees have human profiles. In the gnarled branches are the numbers "3" and "9". In the grass at the bottom is the "6". Ichabod's old nag has her eyes shut. Maybe she is asleep or just too frightened to open them:)



The next piece is a peg rack I bought unfinished from an Amish woodworker. I was tooling around the countryside the other day with my friend Carolee of King of Mice Studios. We stopped at a shop so she could pick up some children's chairs to paint and I found these cool racks. Right away I could see the possibilities. I have two more left and I think they would make nice bridle racks.



On this one I've painted a Welsh or Shetland Pony giving Halloween hayrides to her black cat friends.

Both pieces are up on Ebay. Click here for my auctions.

Lastly, I promised a movie recommendation. I usually don't write about this type of thing but Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford was such and artfully shot film, I had to say something. Every scene was like an oil painting. I wanted so badly to pause the TV and sketch. Of course it doesn't hurt that Jesse James was played by Brad Pitt but I was really surprised by how well Casey Affleck played Bob Ford. I think this picture was robbed at the Oscar's. It should have been up for Best Film and Best Directing.