HOSSLASS ART

Pretty Horses, Stone Ponies and a Mule

2009-11-11T03:51:00.001-08:00

No, this is not the title to an old hippy folk song, LOL, this is a description to one of my latest functional art creations. I’m trying the idea of making some small affordable original art to list in my shops. When I was trying to come up with ideas for this I came across these small blank canvas pin back buttons made by Gypsy Goods. I thought, wow, this is a way someone could “wear” original artwork like jewelry! I asked if she had some watercolor canvas buttons because what was for sale was an all purpose canvas, which I wasn’t sure would work for water media paints, like my watercolor pencils. Gypsy Goods was gracious enough to send me a sample to try out. I tried painting on the all purpose and the paint just didn’t work out, the canvas didn’t “set” the paint.

So after a few discussions she made some watercolor canvas buttons for me. I ordered a set in the 1.5” diameter and a few larger 2.25” diameter pinbacks. So next was then coming up with the tiny paintings. I have to say, it was quite challenging painting on such a small surface, but the canvas worked beautifully with my watercolor pencils. I could finish each button in about an hour, from drawing stage, transferring to canvas and then painting. After drying for at least 24 hours, I then applied a protectant spray, and they were finished!

The subject of two of the pinback paintings is my cute little alabaster Navajo carved horse fetish I have. The actual carved horse is just a little bigger than the painting on the pinback. The mule painting was a bit of a challenge, really trying to get the size of the ear and face proportioned on such a small canvas. But I’m happy with the result!

I have them all for sale in my Artfire and Etsy shops, at $4 each plus shipping. I definitely have plans to do more of these, perhaps for magnets and actual buttons. I have lots of ideas to incorporate these canvas buttons as jewelry pieces, or key chains, etc. So many ideas and not enough time…..!

WIP Horse in Bright Grassy Field Complete

2009-10-03T10:37:00.001-07:00

My experiment with painting using an Aquabord clayboard surface is complete! Actually I finished the painting almost two weeks ago, went on with another project, yada, yada, yada….. So now here it is. Eventually I DO get around to all on the “to do” list! LOL!

Picking up where I left off on the last blog post, I had laid in some basic color of mid and dark tones, leaving the light areas so I could see where the light was landing. This is important because the warmth of light is going to be a focus in this small painting. I tend to work on one section of composition at a time, like the horse, the field, the front tree, the background trees. It helps me keep a reference for lighting among objects.

close-up on the horse: I wasn’t happy with the shape of the horses chest here

So I did some erasing and streamlined the edge of the chest, wasn’t that hard on the clayboard surface.

And this is the finished result, using the scanner:

Or under natural light:

Or under outdoor shaded light:

And close up on the horse:

I’m a fan of the Aquabord now!! The title of the painting is “Horse on a Golden Path” and is available in my Artfire or Etsy shop.

Next post, new project completed, cool Art Button Editions and Originals wearable watercolor pencil art!!

WIP continue Horse in Bright Grassy Field

2009-09-09T05:10:00.001-07:00

In continuing this series of work in progress painting, the next step was setting up a composition grid. I take some tracing paper and outline the reference pic border, then find the exact center (so I know where to keep the painting focus away from.) I prefer to break into quadrants and then break the pic into horizontal thirds. Pretty much the classic rules of composition. Once that is done, I can then see where the subject focus (large tree on left, centerish trotting horse and background trees right) are to be drawn in position.

Next is to free hand draw the composition onto my painting board size of 5” x 7”. Why free hand, when I could just manipulate the pic in Photoshop to the size I need, and then just trace it onto the board? Because I want to do this to sharpen my drawing skills and train my eye to follow composition positioning. Sure it takes longer, and I have to erase a bit and start again sometimes, but I find it much more satisfying as an artist. I then create a composition grid on tracing paper for the 5”x7”, figure exact center and the horizontal thirds. Then the sketch begins freehand after marking the grid essentials on sketch paper. And here's the result:

Ok, I then trace the composition using transfer paper onto the aquabord and now I’m ready to start painting. The first color layer goes in, I tend to push the darks first and leave the light areas white to see how that looks first.

After a few reviews, I decided I need to erase some lines on my horse and large foreground tree. This aquabord is super easy to erase mistakes on, I love it! After the lines are tightened up, I then add some more color.

And compared to the reference pic:

So I’m pretty happy with most things right now, but I am honing in on what needs to be changed abit. So the next blog post will be more along what I can tweak, the real “meat” of painting which I love!

New Work in Progress painting Trotting horse in Grassy Field

2009-08-22T10:18:00.001-07:00

Recently I've discovered a new painting surface board to try, the Ampersand brand Aquabord. This product is a clayboard that's textured for watercolors, and can be displayed without glass in the frame. I actually haven't painted on it yet, so I'm starting with the small size (5"x7") to get a feel for how it's going to be to paint on.

For these small paintings, I wanted to keep the composition pretty simple, after all this is a first try on the Aquabord. Two ideas came to mind, a horse in a field and a horse jumping a creek/ditch in a southwest landscape. Off I go to the reference pic library on WetCanvas (where artists can use volunteered pics with permission for painting references). There are hundreds of pics to go through but it wasn't long until I found the first reference pic, a beautiful composition of a trotting horse in a golden grassy field in front of woods.

When I start a painting I like to do a little homework first. One of the first things I do is work out a tonal sketch in pencils. Keeping things simple, my mantra, I work out the darks, lights and medium tones in the composition with 2B, 4B and 8B pencils. All I do for this is just print out the pic on my printer and trace the outline on sketch paper. Sketch size is 7"x7" approx. I did not want the fenceline in the painting so I left it out.

Once that is done, I'm then ready to do a simple color sketch, which helps me to see what colors to start the first color layer with. This way I can get a "sneak peek" when the painting will go and how to start the tweaking process. The color palette I used was treeline: Indigo, May green, Olive green (derwent brand), pea green (cretacolor), dark pthalo green (faber castell), tree trunks are in sepia (derwent): horse in french grey (prismacolor)(I left the horse in neutral color on purpose): grassy field and shadows: ivory (cretacolor), burnt umber, blue grey,burnt sienna, primrose yellow, gold, deep cadmium, middle chrome and flesh pink (derwent).

By doing the pencil and color sketch, I start to get a feel for the painting outcome and a helpful guideline. Now the next step I will do the architecting of the painting; freehand transposing the sketch to the actual painting size and setting up a composition grid to make sure the painting objects are balanced. This way I can be sure to create a visual "flow" across the painting. So that will be the subject for the next blog posting.

They're ready for a new home, the mini journals that is!

2009-08-16T11:28:00.000-07:00

After what seems like a revisit to writing college term papers, the listing descriptions of each southwest wildlife mini journal are complete! The journals are available for purchase in my Artfire and Etsy online shops. Although in Artfire, I could go more into the inspiration for each journal in the listing. I feel good that this step is finished, and the next step is hopefully shipping them off to a happy buyer soon! Have a great and blessed day!!

Southwest Wildlife Mini Hiking Journals are here!

2009-08-13T16:36:00.001-07:00

The southwest wildlife design, handmade, original mini journals are finished!! Oh my God, I can't believe it's taken me this long to complete this project. *Sigh*, real life pulled my creative energy out of me for about six weeks. But I'm not going there, this blog post is about celebrating one of my original design of functional art!

Initially, I got the idea about making a mini journal to use when hiking or riding down the trails. For those of us who enjoy these activities, sometimes you can just get such a rush of feelings while out in country, you just want to write it down! I thought, why not make a small journal that can be put into a zip-lock bag but make it with an original watercolor pencil painting and theme it with corresponding natural beads/stones. Each of these journals has a theme as to selection of animal, background and beading.

For this journal, my theme is the feral mustangs on the north desert Nevada range. One day, I hope to see the Mustangs in this natural habitat, running the range where abandoned gold and silver mines keep them company. The background represents the mountain ranges typical of that area. The stones I selected to compliment the painting are turquoise and sterling silver beads, because of natural turquoise and silver mined in Nevada. The natural turquoise beads are from the Fox mine area in western Nevada. I am a turquoise nut, ahem, I mean collector and I try to choose southwest USA mined beads in my functional art creations (as best as from the source of info I can gather).

I know that I'm going to sound like a broken record here but when I saw the Grand Canyon south rim for my first visit this spring, I was so inspired!! I took tons of pics but I really need to go back and take more, for painting references you understand! LOL! I loved being there and lucked out and hired a semi private guide who was helpful in talking about the wildlife in the canyon. Elk are predominant on the south rim, and while we were there, I saw some elk scat (manure) pile really close part of the canyon trail edge. So this painting is my attempt to try to catch some semblance of the beauty of what is the Grand Canyon and one of the natural wildlife species that walks the trails as its home! I had a tough time choosing beads to match the theme of my painting, as I was looking for natural gemstones/minerals of the Grand Canyon or Arizona that would be small enough and affordable to use. After some research I came across info of the Arizona fire opals but didn't find the sizes needed available. What I did find, and decided to use was the Mexican fire opal beads as a close second choice . The colors and "fire" match those of the Grand Canyon walls. The other beads are antiqued copper beads, as there is some copper found in the GC, and I thought antiqued copper would represent the ancient history of the wonderful canyon. To the Grand Canyon I say, "I'll be back!"

How can I call myself a southwest wildlife artist if I don't include at least one painting of a buffalo! This painting idea came from my goal of one day visiting Yellowstone National Park and seeing the natural buffalo that freely roam among the geysers. While gathering my reference materials for the painting, I was blown away by how painters of buffalo seem to portray the great beast with such reverence and presence. I like to think my painted buffalo here is small but mighty!! Now what turned out to be a real gem for me was in my research for a natural gemstone of Yellowstone river area I found Montana Agates. And was lucky enough to find a source of the Montana Agate in the bead size I could use from a natural stone cabber in Montana. The natural Montana agate beads are flanked by copper beads to reference the copper mining around that area. I really like the beads a lot!

So there they are, completed and they turned out just as nice as I had hoped! It was quite a journey getting these small journals finished, a lot of reflection in the time they took. They will be up for sale in my Artfire and Etsy stores soon. Thanks for visiting and happy travels!

Hiking or Riding Mini Journal Update

2009-06-11T03:09:00.001-07:00

Huff, huff, that's me blowing the dust off of the blog posting! LOL! I know I've neglected posting updates, but that doesn't mean I haven't been creating. Let's get to it!

The mini journals are approx. 4"x4" size. These are my first run, first time making this type of journal. As part of the functional art guidelines I have, this journal should be user friendly and yet be a work of art. So I took a regular size paper and divided it into thirds, like folding it to put into a business size envelope. The paper used is a handmade faux dark brown leather, it's one of my favorites! Then I played with a few ideas of paper combinations until something suited me. Now, what kind of lacing? I had some black leather cord I knew to use, and decided on trying a zig zag formation, like three mountain peaks. Played with that a bit, I was smart this time and made a template of how to measure the holes to punch and to figure out the lacing. I secured the lacing by using a crimp tube for necklace making on the back of each journal. Who knew I would actually use some geometry in my art projects, I really did use my protractor for the template! (Draftsman I'm not, but I can get by). Gold parchment paper was used for the pages, and I hand cut all sheets. As the booklet was forming, I felt like it needed a real leather border, so I got some of the Tandy leather scraps bag with black leather. Experimented a bit with measuring leather strips and got a leather border glued on each of the three journals. This is one area I will do a little different on the next set of journals. I like the look, but my gluing skills are a little rough. As a result, the inside covers with the leather borders looked rough, so I added a silk paper liner inside to cover up the leather gluing process. Figured that was a smart move on my part, LOL!!

Now for some pictures showing the process of creating the paper journals and binding:

Next post, the choosing of the beads and theme of each journal!

New Project, Hiking/Trail Riding Journals

2009-04-27T04:57:00.001-07:00

With the Unicorn painting finished, and listed on both Etsy and Artfire (and Twittered!), time for my latest functional art project. Small, hand held size hiking or trail riding journals. These journals will be embellished with natural stones or silver on the leather lacing and then a miniature painting on the cover. I think these will be very unique.

My theme is wildlife and landscapes of the southwest. I plan on using stones that are natural to the landscape depicted for the journal decoration. For example, one journal cover will feature the feral mustangs of Nevada, and I will be using natural (as possible) Nevada mined turquoise and silver beads. Reason being, Nevada is well known for it's illustrious turquoise mines and of course the abundant silver mines. I will also make two additional journals, plans are for an Elk looking over the Grand Canyon (copper and silver beads) and a Buffalo (bison) in Yellowstone (still deciding on stones; need to do some more research).

So I have the theme selected, still need to get more reference material together for the miniature paintings. I have cut all the paper out and am ready to start binding the journals. I'm thinking I will bind and bead each journal first, and then get started on each matching painting. My time is now directed on this new project; I'm excited to see how these will turn out in time! I'll keep on with updates every week!

New Painting, Black Unicorn Bust

2009-04-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

After the lake painting I was ready for another horse subject. Here is my latest completed project, called "Northern Unicorn". Done in watercolor pencils, 136# watercolor cold press paper, size is 9" x 12". I worked on this painting for weeks, I had a stretch where I was either too tired, out of town, or uninspired to do any progress with it, which accounts for the length of time to get it finished. I'm just not one of these artists that does a painting a day! However, it feels good to call this painting finished.

I had the idea for this painting a while back. Sometime last year, I was looking through reference photos on WetCanvas Reference Library. When I saw this photo of a Friesian horse, a unicorn immediately popped into my head! So I filed it away, bookmarked it for another time! Sometimes a story unfolds in my mind when I see certain photos, and this black, strong, powerful, beautiful horse head somehow made me think of a unicorn in a Celtic forest, forging an adventure in a mystic land.

I worked on some other projects first for a while and then I got to thinking about my unicorn again. And so now it was his turn to come to life from my thoughts to paper. First I gathered some reference prints, close up of that mane and a pic of highlighted light sources:

From here I made a full size sketch using 6b drawing pencil, trying to get the perspective right and practicing my freehand sketching.

For my colors I used my favorite combination for a vibrant black which is ultramarine, pathlo green, and crimson red, with additions of burnt umber or indigo as needed. For highlights I used violets and turquoise, some peach or pink. Background is mostly warm greys, light ochre and sanguine orange, with lots of loose water to push the colors around. The horse is painted with a more controlled application of water on the pigments.

I'm happy he's done, I was ready . I plan on getting this painting, along with two others, listed on my Etsy and Artfire stores. I'll enjoy my Northern Unicorn until he gallops to another admirers home!

Painting Wet, Lake with Boat landscape

2009-03-19T16:21:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I try my hand at painting other subjects outside my usual interest (horses, southwest themes). So I decided to stretch my art skills at painting a small fishing boat on a lake. Painting water is very interesting, from what I studied, water is a reflection of the surroundings but yet needs to yield a fluid appearance. To me, like moving shadows, layers of shadows. I found I needed to be in an abstract frame, colors that would flow directly into one another. I decided it would be fun to document this try at painting water as a WIP (work in progress).

Here is the initial sketch, on sketch paper, with a reference photo:

And a close up of the composition sketch:

Now I drew the sketch on to the watercolor paper. First color sketch of darks (indigo) and neutral green, painting size is approx. 10" x 6" on 136# cold press paper:

And the first layer of the landscape colors added, my focus on keeping the highlights blank, pushing more dark and middle ranges:

Next, I'm adding more middle values, filling in the boat and fisherman. I decided I wanted to add some depth to the background. I tried to recess the middle trees as a secondary treeline to imply the lake flows further between the initial treeline. I'm not sure it works splitting the treeline into two parts. Used more greys on the small back treeline.

Now working on the lake highlights. I used more greens and violets to accentuate a warm still quietness for the water. Fishing is supposed to be a relaxing activity!

With all three tonal values in now, (light, middle and dark), I went to work on creating more depth in the water, shadows of the treelines, punching the clouds and sky depth and color.

I continued to go back and forth on adding depth more blue to the water, more blue greens for the treeline water shadows and the fisherman and the boat. I then wanted to add some highlights to the water, adding those special reflective sparkles, making water like a faceted jewel. Finally, I decided that I had to finish, and leave it as is as I felt myself starting to over tweak the painting. And now, the finished painting:

I'm ok with the outcome; I learned a lot, like waterscapes just may not be my thing! But, I can't say that I won't do another water themed painting in the future. Funny thing though, I found myself thinking about all sorts of new horse painting ideas while thinking about painting water!

Homegrown Business Cards

2009-03-04T03:39:00.000-08:00

My business cards I had printed quite a while ago from Zazzle have been outdated as far as web addresses so the time is right for new, updated cards. So I decided to give it a go on my own, using my Photoshop Elements program. I did not use a business card template, just used the DVD jacket label option and poke and prodded around until I could figure out what went where! Does that make sense? LOL! Real techie bable here. For the last few weeks I've been working off and on on design, colors, tweaking things here and there. Finally I pretty much decided before I get too caught up in "paralysis of analysis", just go with what I had done! The result is the two card designs here.

I'm also going to experiment with printing the cards on 100# bristol paper and acrylic "canvas" paper. Which of course means then I will have to cut the cards myself. Yea, I can be quite the "do it yourself" person. But I really don't need tons of cards right now, so why not!

I plan on sending out the cards whenever I can, I have a friend who did me a big favor with sending some horsemanship teaching materials she had access to and I will be sending a little thank you gift to her, along with a couple of these cards.

It's fun pretending to be a graphic designer every once in a while!

I'm in Twitter!

2009-02-26T04:44:00.000-08:00

OK, I have to admit, all these Internet social networking sites (facebook, myspace, twitter, etc) had always kinda spooked me. I believe in meeting folks with an actual handshake and seeing them smile. However, as I'm trying to build a career as an artist, I read more and more about how online artist get a lot of traffic to their sites with these networking sites. So, I decided to study the areas, try to be careful and savvy, and see what's going to work for me.

So I tried myspace, like over a year ago, got a bunch of spam and porn boogeymen and deleted my account fast! Then a few months ago, I updated my Facebook page which I had forgot I had because I had a friend who used it to send all her emails out on so I had to make one, like almost a year ago. Still didn't get "it", but I was learning. I kept seeing more and more written about Twitter. When I went to the site a couple of months ago, I just didn't understand the concept. But for some reason, this Twitter was so popular, and I kept reading on the Etsy forums about how artist were getting traffic and sales from "twitters". Ok, so I gave it one more try, signed up and then started posting and pretty much "going with traffic flow".

And then it happened, I became hooked on exploring and writing on Twitter. Oh my God, how did this happen? It's a frenzy of info and for some reason I'm getting the hang of it. I've only been on the site for a couple of days and already have over 20 followers and have no idea how these people found me. This is a whole nother world, sheesh, who would have thought! I guess it went easy for me because I just jumped in and really didn't try to figure it out, LOL! I'm already learning to see the "spammers" who follow me and the people who just do nothing but constantly write updates that are only to promote their Etsy shop items. Like any internet social networks, there are the bad apples out there to prey, so I just use my gut feelings and if it "smells fishy" I just ignore the follow request.

Already my shop views from Twitter are up! This networking avenue just might be worth it! Check out the Twitter widget on the blog now.

My RRC Photo is in a Guide!

2009-02-20T13:55:00.000-08:00

I have a Flickr account that I put some of my hiking trail pics on, specifically my Red Rock Canyon trail pics. There's not a lot there, just some of the highlights. Well, about a month ago I got an email from Schmap Guide editor indicating that one of my RRC photos was being considered for inclusion in the new Las Vegas activity guide! I thought, COOL! Now, I'm not a photographer by any means but I do try to follow basic composition guidelines just as when I'm putting a painting together.

Today I got the conformation email that the photo that was being considered has been accepted and is now a part of the 2009 Schmap Las Vegas guide, under outdoor activities, hiking. Now, I know it's not a big deal really, like the photo is in Time magazine or something, but I still think it's a nice little thing to have happened!

Schmap Guide has included a widget for me to put here so there's a direct link to that aspect of the guide. Take a look over on the side bar and check it out. My photo credit is labeled "hosslass".

Glad someone enjoys the photos of Red Rock Canyon too!!

Eagle Trio Sketches and Painting

2009-02-18T04:16:00.000-08:00

I know I alluded in an earlier post about an eagle themed painting I was going to do. Well, it's finished and made into a beaded bookmark that's available in my Etsy and Artfire shops. I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with how the finished product looks. This post will be about the painting process though, just my thoughts about how this miniature painting came about.

I have in mind for a series of bookmarks of southwest wildlife animals, such as eagles, cougars and bears to start. Eagles and birds of prey have always been a fascinating subject for me so I chose eagles to start. In researching my reference photos, I decided on a collage of three scenes, a young eagle bust, an eagle in flight, and an adult eagle bust. So I had the reference pics chosen and then set out to make tonal drawings and sketches. Since I don't have a lot of experience painting birds, the tonal sketches will help give a better guideline of where to push the dark values, the mid range values and light values. I sketched the eagles freehand from the reference pics as I need a very small size to fit on the bookmark size paper. Sure, I could have manipulated the reference pic copies to a small enough size and then just traced the outline, however, I wanted to work on my artistic skills and chose the long tedious way. And yes, my eraser got a good work out but I learned so much in the process.

The page of sketches:

Compiling this type of composition took some math skills, which I sorely have struggled with all my life (I'm also slightly dyslectic). It took some time to get the balance just right and then all the resizing of the sketches of the birds. I used the eagle eye as the balance reference, draw the eye first and then balance the rest of the bird around the eye. Seemed to me to be the logical choice of where to start! Now what gave me the most grief was getting the beaks curved and positioned just right!! I never knew . So I wound up breaking the beaks down to a series of stacked blocks to give me a better perspective of attaining the three dimensional look. You can see that in the lower right hand bust sketch. My eraser got the most workout here!

Pics of the finished sketches:

Once the sketches and composition was done now onto the actual painting! Doing the sketches gave me a great base to work from and helped me tweak some changes as I was doing the painting. I used mostly Faber Castell watercolor pencils, they have great color and flow with water, and some creata color and derwents brand pencils too. Unfortunately I did not keep notes or pics of my painting process so I don't have them to show here. So that's a project for the next wildlife painting! Here is the finished product with the sketch reference:

This was a wonderful learning process, it may have taken me a while, but when you insists on learning at your own pace, that's what happens!

Valentines Day

2009-02-14T05:43:00.000-08:00

Seems the older I get, the less I get excited about holidays. They usually mean to me now "gee, more extra work and pretend to like it...". I should be happy about Valentines, I am so blessed to have my Joe with me for about 16 years, pretty good record now days!!

I did at least make a couple of Valentine tags for my shops. I came up with the designs in one afternoon and then put them together over the next day or two. And then got them listed on Etsy and Artfire about 10 days before today. While the tags have had a bit of views, no sales, unless someone rushes in today! I guess after today, I'll take them off the stores and stash them with the unsold Christmas tags I did last year.

Actually have an Etsy meeting today with my Ft. Worth mini team of the Etsy Texas Crafters. And it's going to be at Central Market on Hulen. That's going to work out great, because I can then pick up some prepared food for our Valentine's dinner tonight. Joe will be home late from work and we'll both be too tired to dress up and find our way through the crowds at the local resturants. Our Etsy meeting will talk more about getting a booth at a craft fair /flea market set up at a monthly local trade days, which I'm interested in. Gotta keep the ideas flowing!

Happy Valentine's Day, I am grateful for true love whenever it happens!

New Trail Adventures

2009-02-06T11:20:00.000-08:00

I was able to take a solo trip out west in January, back to Las Vegas. Besides some much needed r&r my main reason for going was to get back out on the Red Rock trails I love so much! So I planned for weeks before the trip which trail I was going to tackle. A big help for me was this fantastic Red Rock trail hiking site, www.birdandhike.com . Finally, my trip came and I headed out to Red Rock around 8:30 AM. Drove on the Scenic Drive about 7.5 miles to the Willow Springs Picnic area where one of the trailheads started. My trail quest for the day was the White Rock Hill Loop. While I saw the trailmarkers that said the trail was rated "difficult", esp. the direction I was starting. Of course, I thought, "well, how difficult could it be?". I finished the trail four and half hours later and six and half miles underfoot, I understood the "difficult" rating!!

But the views and the time out in the backcountry was so, so worth it!!! I am so hooked, I can hardly wait to get back to trek another trail. So now it's time to share all the pics I took. A lot of pics were taken during my rest periods, when my thighs were screaming that I would be in some serious trouble if I kept going without a break, mainly through the uphill portions! This trail was mostly either uphill or downhill, with a few flat areas just enough to give enough rest to keep going!

Pics are in the slideshow on the right side!

Merry Christmas Eve! Special Paintings for Family

2008-12-24T04:00:00.000-08:00

Like most folks, these last couple of weeks have been really hectic for me. I didn't even manage to send out Christmas cards this year, *sigh*, so sorry I did that. However I think I have redeemed myself with the latest art project completed! I wanted to make something different for my nieces and nephews this year. I normally take the easy way out and just get gift cards to WalMart or Target, which for the most part I did this year again. However, I decided to present the cards in a gift of their own, a "gift within a gift" if you will.

The idea came to me to make small paper decorated cowboy boot sleeves with a themed card that fit inside. I made three pair that I put up for sale in my Etsy shop but did not sell. Again, *sigh* (oh well, there's always next year!). So I decided, why not make a larger size that a regular gift card could slip inside? And, why not decorate it with a small painting of an individuals likes? And the gift card boots were on their way to being created!

So the next step was to discretely find out what each of my nieces and nephews enjoyed and then create a representative painting. Luckily, through the help of my sisters they directed me to what I should look for. My oldest nephew enjoys fishing, the other nephew enjoys dragons (which I remembered from his wedding theme), two nieces enjoy wine and one niece enjoys cooking. With this info, I went to a few websites I use for reference pictures and was able to find suitable photos to use. I was a little stuck for the cooking reference, so I used a collage of different photos to come up with a "cooking" theme. I hope my niece "gets" it and doesn't think I'm the strange old aunt! And here are the results:

Each boot shank is large enough to slip in a regular size gift card with a small envelope. I hope they keep these boots as a keepsake. I am going to tell them that if they just want the gift card and not the boot, I'll take the boot back! (I put a lot of effort into these). I also personalized each boot on the back with their name and the year. But these guys are all old enough to be appreciative of a family member's efforts just for them. It was fun and good artistic exercise for me, creating miniature paintings in still life, fantasy and realistic styles.

Today is the busiest day of the month for me but I never forget why Christmas day is here for us no matter how tired or busy I get. Hallelujah, He is born!

Catching Time

2008-12-05T08:11:00.000-08:00

As usual I let my blog time slip away. Thanksgiving came and went, very good, good meet with the family, ate too much great food and drove too far. But hey, it's all worth it in the end.

I've got some art projects in the fire, so to speak. I'm hoping to do a WIP on these. I've decided to do a western wildlife bookmark painting series, focusing on three magnificent creatures: Eagle, Bear and Cougar. I plan on creating one animal montage on each bookmark. Somehow the need came to me about painting something other than horses. It's good practice and a good challenge.

(one of my reference pics for the next project, copyright free and public domain)

Another activity I've become involved in is my local Etsy group Ft. Worth chapter of Etsy Texas Crafters. Recently there was a meeting in west Ft. Worth where I met some fine and excited artist and crafters. It was a small turnout, but I felt like a pioneer of sorts. I really enjoyed the folks who did turn out and we all are in agreement of helping to support one another in our Etsy endeavours!!! One gentleman was kind enough to blog about our meeting and took some wonderful pictures! Check out the blog here: First Ft. Worth Etsy Meeting

Hopefully, I can get back to working on my art, this week has been very busy at work! One day, one day.......

Continuing with the Etsy shop promotions

2008-11-16T08:06:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note, at least to keep the blog current! Here are the list of more etsy shops up for promotion highlighted by www.neatostuff.com.

Thursday- www.purpledaisyjewelry.etsy.com

Friday- www.maryzoom.etsy.com

Saturday- www.threadedgoodness.etsy.com

Sunday- www.uniquegarden.etsy.com

I feel so strongly about supporting individual artisans on Etsy. There is something so unique about one of a kind handmade items. Plus it's nice to know that my gift was not made by child labor in a third world country!!

I should get another batch of shops to promote next week. I am working on some real unique gift cards for my Etsy shop, hopefully I will get those all listed this week. I'm starting to feel the crunch ! More thoughts next time!

More fine Etsy store promotions

2008-11-12T15:08:00.000-08:00

So here are two more Etsy stores for consideration as part of a promotional deal I've signed on with www.neatostuff.com . (once again I'm a day behind, *sigh*)

Tuesday- www.craftilycharms.etsy.com (wonderful handmade charms)

Wednesday- www.norakaren.etsy.com (does some fine work with a peacock theme on clothing etc)

I do want to just slip this bit in, one of my etsy store items was selected for an individuals Treasury selection!! Woo Hoo, a first for me! Check it out : http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=20659

Sharing the "Wealth"

2008-11-10T15:32:00.000-08:00

I'm learning fast that if my art career is going to be successful, esp. through Etsy, I need to learn how to promote, get the word out there in internet land. Luckly, I am not alone, there are lots of other enterprising artist who are in the exact same boat as me. Finding a good avenue to devote my limited blog time to is another matter altogether. Recently, there was a post on Etsy board about a marketing website that would promote one store a day on their website banner for FREE! If you signed up, all you had to do was simply plug the Etsy stores on your own blog and Etsy store. Simple enough, huh!

Shamefully, I am behind in getting these stores promoted. But I'm doing my part now, below area sample of the fellow Etsy artists stores I've signed up with. Please check them out, there is an artist out there who will blow you away with talent AND is affordable!! From last week here are the stores I needed to promote:

Thursday www.randomscraps.etsy.com
Friday www.gogokioko.etsy.com
Saturdaywww.Elladean.etsy.com
Sunday
www.babymakesthree.etsy.com

So for today, here is the store for promotion:Monday- www.paintingsbyjude.etsy.com

And of course the website so kindly offering this cross promotion is www.neatostuff.com, which offers all kinds of gifts for women, kids and men.

There, I feel better now!!! I am having fun checking these sites out too!

WIP New Horse Action Painting Finished!

2008-11-09T03:50:00.000-08:00

And it's finished! So you can see from the color sketch in the previous blog post I just really didn't add anymore color to the horses and riders. But I decided to add a bit more to the background. I added sepia and more yellows to indicate the dust flying especially on the center sliding horse. I also added more yellow and a cobalt blue "ribbons" behind the center horse to account for the energy of action around the horses and riders. I used the technique of wetting the tip of the pencil and then rolling the wet pencil tip on its side to lay the ribbon of color for both the blue and yellow. I then took a slightly damp brush over certain sections for some slight blending. Here are some closeups:

Compared to the more detailed paintings I normally do, this painting took only half the time to complete. I almost feel "lazy" to call this painting finished!! But I'm happy with it, very good exercise for me artistically. I may do a series of action horse events like this, with cutting horses or jumping horses or something!

Oh, I've titled this painting "Reining Riders Trio of Dreams".

This painting will be available for purchase in my Etsy Shop very soon. Now it's time to make more horse themed Christmas tags for my shop, already sold one set of eight! Yipee!

WIP New Horse Action Painting Continued

2008-11-09T03:14:00.000-08:00

I truly did not forget about blogging the WIP, just been busy! But now I'm ready to complete the WIP. Once I had the initial sketches done, I made a few changes to correct proportions, like horses head size, legs and feet size, riders arm positions,etc.. and then used tracing paper to copy and lift the designs to the watercolor paper. Here you can see how I placed the drawings ready to be rubbed on the background.

So now the big decision, COLOR! I've decided this painting is going to be more loose in style and more contemporary in presentation as opposed to my usual realistic style. Every once in a while I like to go "outside the box" for me!! When I paint, I really enjoy painting using lots of complementary colors so that was my starting point. Found my trusty color wheel and went to work. Here is the initial color sketch for horses and riders.

I tried to chose colors that would all complement each other (according to my trusty color wheel) in some way or another. This was like putting a jigsaw puzzle together, which color would "fit" with another, I hope I pulled it off though! I used three brands of watercolor pencils, Faber Castell (FC), CretaColor (CC) and Derwent (D). So let's start with the left horse which is in a left spin manuever: horse, blue violet (FC) body, bluish turquoise (FC) mane & tail and receeding areas; rider, naples yellow (D) outline and recessed areas with ochre light (CC) and golden brown (D). For the larger center horse performing a sliding stop, colbalt green (FC) body outline with orange (CC) for eyes and forelock; the rider in madder carmine (CC). For the right side horse in a right handed spin manuever, horse in permanent red light (CC) with magenta (D) for mane & tail and eyes; the rider is in moss green light (CC) and earth green yellowish (FC). Yea, LOTS of color here! Well, this is what I think I want, LOL! So now time for water and painting!

WIP New Horse Action Painting

2008-10-28T04:59:00.000-07:00

Ok, I've decided to start a WIP (work in progress) here, testing to see how I handle it schedule wise! An idea came to me about starting an "action" series depicting various horse sports. Somehow, I decided on a reining horse scene. Don't really know why, I enjoy watching reining horses but I was never that interested in actually riding in reining sports. But this is what came to me from Him so I'm doing the smart thing and going with it!

I'm thinking about a loose, more contemporary style, with lots of bold color to create a sense of action, speed and grace. As I'm looking to be original and different in composition I didn't want to depict more sliding reining horse side views that is very common. So I went with a left hand spin horse, a right hand spin horse and in the center a front view sliding stop. Here is a working sketch drawn freehand from references:

And I've started on the background using wet pencils and washes on dry paper, size is about 6" x 10" :

Next I'll "tighten" up the sketches, refine the lines and get them where I want to transfer onto the painted background. Then the color will begin!! Stay tuned....

And the Site builds, Jeweled Bookmark Paintings!

2008-10-20T04:34:00.000-07:00

Well I'm making progress for getting art listings in my Etsy shop. This weekend I finished beading the four bookmarks and photographing and listing. Amazing just how much time goes into this process, however it's worth it to me if someone lets me know they enjoy the art! Putting art out for public view is a tricky thing you know, what appeals to the artist and what doesn't is the exact opposite to a viewer or buyer! So I try to create with that in mind.

I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the creative process with these bookmarks. Not only coming up with the painting subjects, but then designing the coordinating beaded tassel. So I combined the process of drawing, watercolor painting, leather work, collecting/combining the beads and stones and then sewing and gluing. Then learning how to get good photographs to best represent the art, *sigh* which I think is the most difficult part for me. The creative process flows pretty well in stages. A lot of times, I'll get to a point in the design, and then a little voice will say "stop" or "let it rest" for now. So I'll go do a barn chore or something and then the rest of the design will come to me! Then I just have to remember it for when I can get back to my art desk later! LOL!

I hope folks enjoy the bookmark art, anyway, there's four in my Etsy shop, each very different to appeal to different equestrian taste! I tried in each of the bookmark painting descriptions to delve more into what inspired the painting for me. I found that was something very personal to share. People could think I am one of those "nutty artsy fartsy types"! HA!

I've got to gear up in making more Christmas themed items, but there's this new painting idea stuck in my mind, so if I know what's good for me, I'll get started creating that first!! LOL!

UPDATE ! ! *** UPDATE ! !
BOOKMARK ART SOLD! And just like that, my first bookmark art piece sold this morning!!! The English rider and horse piece "Practising the Good Hack" now has a new home! Thank God! What a great feeling!

Back from My Walk in the Desert

2008-10-15T04:51:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone can see the photo slideshow displayed above. These pics are from my latest sojourn out to the desert city of Las Vegas. While most go to Las Vegas for inside a building activities, I go for the incredible scenery outside the Strip and city! My favorite place to get away from it all is the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, which is surprisingly less than 20 miles from the city. Since I was on a solo trip, I could do whatever activity I wanted (my usual travel companions are not interested in hiking for hours in the desert and rock), and getting on the trails at Red Rock was my main agenda this trip!

This was my first time really spending time exploring the trails. There are many miles of trails out there, a lot to choose from. I decided to hike on as easy access trail as I could, which turned out to be the Rocky Gap trail. This trail is well seen and is actually wide enough to drive a 4x4 vehicle through. The trailhead starts at the Willow Springs campsite, which is about a mile from mile marker seven on the Scenic Drive road. It's very easy to drive to and lots of space to park your car, esp. since I was there before 9 AM.

The trail is fairly rocky, but not too difficult to walk on. The trail does go uphill quite a bit and is not marked other than a trail head marker back at the campsite. But I didn't really care, I've had some experience being out on trail for a few years so I knew how to stay smart and safe (rattlesnakes and poisonous lizards do live out there as well!). To make a long hike story short, I wound up covering about a six mile round trip hike. And I loved every step!

When I'm out there what I love is that it is so quiet. Quiet, real quiet, nothing but nature sounds and a dry cool breeze keeping you company. I understand that some people would be scared by this isolation, but I'm not and I really don't feel isolated at all. For me there's nothing that refreshes me mentally and spiritually like a walk in the desert like this. I feel like my burdens are freed into the canyon winds and I come back to my real life with a clean slate, ready to keep pressing on with whatever I'm supposed to be doing in life!

Plus, getting in better shape by slow hiking is a nice benefit too!

When will I get back out to the desert? It will be a few months I'm afraid. Like everyone in today's economy I've had to cut back on just about everything. But I know that the desert trails will still be there for me when I'm able to come.

Etsy Texas Crafters

2008-10-02T15:13:00.001-07:00

Etsy Texas Crafters

2008-10-02T14:44:00.001-07:00

I haven't ever been a social butterfly per say, my college years saw the most active participation in groups and clubs. And I've been involved with a few horse groups here and there in the last couple of decades or so. But now, with my "fire in the belly" for pursuing an art career, I'm looking into joining art groups that suit me. On Etsy, there are many "team" organizations according to location, theme or interest that artist can join. I'm starting with the Etsy Texas Crafters, and don't think it's going to be a bad decision at all! Check out the website by clicking on the new tag added. I'm already getting inspired and working hard on projects so I have something in my shop to participate in the team events! I will use the ETC blog site to keep my notes up to date on the activities, and my art projects here on Blogger.

Yea, just need to keep up with one more internet blog, that's what I need, Ha! Oh well, it will all draw me out of my "anti-social" shell so to speak!

More Paintings Finished

2008-09-30T03:51:00.000-07:00

Well, have to say I'm proud of myself for getting these miniature bookmark paintings done, I'm gitting, oops, getting, more disciplined about my time during the day to devote to creating some artwork. Plus, it's actually fall season here in Texas (hey, when the temps are 90 degress or less in September and October, it's Fall! LOL!), so I'm not tired from working out in the heat around the farm.

I want to start with the bay horse and the hand painting titled "The Polite Offering". This depicts a natural horsemanship concept called the horseman's handshake, which is all about approaching and inviting the horse to seek the human first, not the human just taking over the horses personal space and grabbing and pushing the horse around (which is rude to the horse, and they know it!). The hand in this position shown is placed to simulate another horse's muzzle in a friendly non-threating position. There are volumes of thought that go along with this, and for me, learning about it opened up so much more depth in my horsemanship! The style of the painting is rather controlled, and I'm pleased with how it turned out. Takes a lot of patience to work a lot of detail in a small (2"x2") space! I will put this is a vinyl bookmark sleeve and embellish it with a beaded/leather cord.

The next bookmark I went in a different direction stylisticly, looser and more abstract. I don't have a name quite yet for this one, so it's working title is "Bold Spirit Horses of Color". This painting is based on a vintage Navajo sterling silver pin I have. I love collecting and wearing Native American artisian made jewelry, and have a special interest in horse pins. The horse colors represent the stones often used in NA jewelry; turquoise, coral and spiney oyster. There are stories from several native indian cultures about how the horse was created and was used by the dieties. I found a very interesting story about a horse of turquoise color that was ridden across the sky every morning and thus the reason for blue skys! ( Thanks to Twin Rocks Trading Post of Bluff, Utah for sharing this info online!!) The ruddy colored background is an abstract representation of the red rock sandstone formations that I've seen ancient petroglyphs on. With this painting it will give me the opportunity to embellish with some genuine natural Kingman turquoise and spiney oyster beads (once my bead order gets here) for the bookmark cord.

The very top painting is called "Practising the Good Hack". Here, something a bit more traditional in equestrian painting. While I live in the mecca of cowboy country, there are a fair number of English style riders and activities around. In fact, I know several riders from the UK across the pond who have been riding among the cowboys and wannabe cowboys here for many years! All of my barn boarders are english riders and I myself, ride either english, western or bareback. Depicted in the painting is a rider on a proper turned out horse working on their form. I could just hear the rthyhm of the trotting footfalls across the arena sand and the rider quietly counting, "one-two, one-two" in posting up and down. I think it turned out to be a very plesant looking little painting! This one also will be put into a vinyl bookmark sleeve with a beaded leather cord, perhaps gold embellishment on this one!

I'm planning on getting these in my Etsy shop by the weekend I hope, as I will also have some little notepads ready to list by then too! Now, back to the day job....

"The Inviting Path", first of a series

2008-09-21T04:52:00.000-07:00

Don't you love it when you finally get going on something you know you should be doing? Finally, I finished my first bookmark painting. I call it "The Inviting Path". After all these years of trying all kinds of horse riding activities, my absolute favorite riding endeavour is heading down a trail in the wide open spaces. There is such a bonding experience between rider and horse from doing something so simple as going from point A to point B down a path, whether it's for an hour or 24 hours!

As this painting is for a bookmark purpose, I wanted to tie in the theme with purpose. Reading a book takes the reader on an adventure for fiction or fact. If you will, taking the reader down a path. So here is a path painted that I hope folks find just as inviting as the book it's in to read! Notice how the horse has the right ear facing back; he's listening to the rider or reader in this case to keep going forward!

This is a freestyle painting, I used no reference photos, just what I saw in my imagination. My watercolor pencil palette was pretty simple of a few greens, yellows, browns and indigo blue and ultramarine blue for the background and my horse is a few violets, paynes's grey, indigo blue. I decided to put in a wildflower field in the distance and used a permanent red, orange chrome and a pink to add some bright color. Bookmark size of approx. 2.25" wide by 7.25" high on white Lenox 100 cotton rag paper (I LOVE this multi-purpose art paper for small projects!) I will put this painting inside a vinyl bookmark sleeve and embellish the top with a leather cord and wonderful silver horse charm. I plan on putting this up in my Etsy shop as soon as I get a few more bookmarks created.

Ok, so now that this first one is started, I'm going to stay on this momentum and get going on the next! And I will be sure to post it on the blog as soon as I can!

Oooohh, Ahhhhh, TURQUOISE!!

2008-09-11T03:58:00.000-07:00

Just have to share a wonderful essay on Deerwoman Designs blog about turquoise! You see, I'm ready to admit that one of my great loves in my life is southwest turquoise and Native American made jewelry. I'm always on the lookout for artist pieces using natural, beautiful turquoise stones, and silver work. I often study the designs and draw inspiration from it.

Buying turquoise isn't as easy as you think it is, as I found out. There are many, many, many fake stones or plastic being passed off as turquoise on the market. Learning to buy quailty turquoise pieces takes some homework and developing a good eye. It's something people have devoted their lifetime too!

This essay about turquoise on Deerwoman Designs blog really covers the basics and is a good start to help about learning how to distinguish what is natural gem quality turquoise stones to plastic fakes with little to no actual turquoise stone involved. If you love turquoise you will thoroughly enjoy the effort she took to compile the info and pictures!

I'm not one to believe in emotional attributes or tailsman qualites attached to stones, but if you do, turquoise is believed to have healing properties and was also believed to make arrows fly straight by some Native American cultures. Another belief I personally found interesting is that it's susposed to help a horseback rider stay on and prevent falls! Boy, too bad I didn't know about that all these years I've been riding, I would have been saved a lot of bumps, bruises, broken bones, etc.....!!! LOL!!!!

Promote! Promote! Promote!

2008-09-09T04:44:00.001-07:00

I started something I've never done before last week, creating promotional items of my Etsy art shop! Making my Etsy shop a success (ie producing a steady monthly income and showcasing my art) has become really important to me. So, I've been reading through all the forums for days on the site to glean ideas about how to do this, especially in the economy today! I gathered some great ideas and one of those was to join an Etsy Team. I joined the Etsy Texas Crafters last month and one of the events is a participating booth at the Maker Faire in Austin Oct. 18th. And, one of the members is cordinating "goodie bags" to give out to promote Etsy and the Texas Etsy members. And all I, or any member, need to do was simply send their shop promo items and the kind Etsy member will distrubute them out!!

I thought, wow, this is a great and affordable opportunity for me, so why not participate and take advantage! Now, what in the world do I send as a promotional item? The obivious is business cards, however, I asked myself, would just a business card be motivation enough to get someone to come to my shop? While I have some very nice business cards, they do not really promote my Etsy site (it mostly highlights some other websites I use, but I'm in the process of changing my mind about those sites as I'm not getting ANY sales there!). I racked my brain and thought back on my experience from working in a doctor's office and when I was a veterinary pharmaucetical distributor salesperson. At those jobs I was innuadated with promotional items from all sorts of drug companies. The ones that I handled the most, therefore in my eyesight more often, was nice, cute USEABLE, items........

So, there you go...... (as Texans say)....

I tossed around a few ideas and decided on two products that would get some good attention and say "Pick me" "Look at Me"! Or at least I think so! A small handmade notepad (4" x 2.5") and a bookmark/business card combo. The notepad will have my store info, a copy of one of my paintings and a beaded accent and backed with some handmade paper. My bookmark with be printed on some cotton linen type handmade paper with a ribbon and bead accent. And here's a sample of what I came up with:

The first notepad shows how I did the back of each pad, bound with real leather cord and assorted handmade paper. Then two of the examples of the pads showing the beaded binding and a painting example. Each pad has five pages of off white resume paper. I'm thinking people can use this pad as a mini sketch pad too. I'm having to practically hand cut all the pages so it's a lot of work. The front of the pad is printed on some great cotton rag paper (Lenox 100) that has a nice stiffness and thickness. I used glass beads with gold beading wire and just wrapped it around the leather cording (these supplies, beads & leather cord, came from WalMart so I didn't have to spend much). I'm making around 30 or so of these!

And these are the business card/bookmarks:

I'm making around 30-40 of these and hand tying each ribbon and bead. The paper used has more of a cotton linen feel to it, I really like it a lot.

I'm trying to be very disciplined and keep working on making all of these and then get them mailed off. This being the first time I've ever hand made promo items I'm getting a good idea of what it takes timewise and cost wise. I'm learning a lot, it will be very interesting to see what kind of response I get after they are handed out in October.

Now, after this project is done, it's time to really build art projects for my shop in time for October. Lots and lots of ideas........Stay tuned!!!

My Latest Artwork - Desert Runners Tres

2008-09-02T12:55:00.000-07:00

Here is a piece I call "Desert Runners Tres", it's a watercolor pencil, 5" x 9.5" on 136 lb watercolor cold press paper. I did this piece as a refuge of sorts from a project I did earlier that did not turn out as well as I wanted. I also put the other piece up on an artist website for constructive criticism and unfortunately, got slammed by a couple of people who, let's just say, did not give what I call "constructive" comments. Aaargh, anyway, I needed to do a piece that would restore my confidence a bit.

So I used some background shots of the Valley of Fire state park from my personal collection (Valley of Fire State Park is located just north of Las Vegas, NV) and a copyright free horse photo from an online library. The horses are all different colors, or different bay colors, and I wanted to portray them just running because they can! An allegory for freedom, my freedom to be creative and like what I produce. When I am out in the desert, I feel this immense sense of freedom and my mental burdens gone or lightened. My three horses here, I feel, are enjoying this sense of freedom too. When I look at this painting, it reminds me of that special sense of being free in the desert!

I plan to sell this piece. I should have it listed in my Etsy shoppe soon and I'll make some prints as well. I'm going to be working on some small paintings for bookmark projects next so hopefully I'll have those ready soon!

Understanding Art Confidence

2008-08-29T04:41:00.000-07:00

When I decided to pursue creating an art career at this stage in my life, I've found that I relied on my passion and excitement for creating a piece. Well, soon I realized those feelings don't necessarily result in a piece that all comes together automatically! And then, I became very disappointed with myself, and heading down that useless road of doubting my talent and choice. However, I do have a bit of a stubborn streak and like to think of myself as practical and sensible so I "hunkered" down and took a realistic look at my technique and understanding of color theory, composition, light and dark values, etc.... and allowed myself to be ok with what I felt was an honest assessment (where my naturally strong points and weak points were). From that point on, I sought projects that would always challenge me on some aspect so I could gain that all important confidence in painting a finished piece!

This painting is from a series I call Prancing Horse. The painting is entitled Prancing Horse Faux Black. It's called faux black because I did not use any black paint in the painting. When studying on my favorite artists self-help website, I came across a discussion about painting blacks without using black paint. I thought, ok, I can do this. And my black prancing horse came to be. The black is a combination of blue + red+ green, in various hues and layers. After playing around with this color combinations and seeing how mixing in the water brings it to life, I'm hooked! Now I understand when other artists say they never use black straight from the tube (or pencil in my case!) This is one of my favorite paintings so far, simply because I was so fascinated with the color mixing discovery! I think the color came out so much more vibrant than a straight painted black. And, as an added benefit, my confidence was boosted!

Prancing Horse Faux Black is a small format painting, the size is 4.25" x 5.75", on 90 lb watercolor paper. The mat is hand cut and formed by me from some wonderful handmade paper I bought from Under The Sun ( http://stores.ebay.com/Handmade-Paper-Store), a faux brown leather with a white linen surface. This painting is available for purchase. http://www.hosslass.etsy.com/

Thanks for visiting!

Hanging Out the Shingle

2008-08-28T18:39:00.000-07:00

This is Sisco, my partner in all equine endeavors! He's the third of my lifetime horses so far. My first horse I got when I was 16, and we shared adventures for the next 25 years. My second horse partner, who taught me through the school of hard knocks, how to truly discover the ART of listening and understanding horses, was with me for ten years. Both of these horses have passed over the rainbow bridge in recent years. So, now it's just Sisco and I, and we are in our third year of being together.

These horses over the years have provided so many days of inspiration for my future art ideas and expressions. So have so many other horses I have encountered over the past almost 30 years I've been a "horse person". Seems like I needed all this experience first so I can now hang my shingle out as a horse artist!

When I was younger, I showed a talent for art, painting and drawing, horses, horses and more horses. I didn't develop that talent as I entered college and went into another direction in life. Now, after a few decades, I felt drawn back to drawing and painting. I think it's a mid life crisis, LOL! Whatever it is, I love having this activity as part of my life again!

Around two years ago, I started searching out art sites and began to re-educate myself about drawing and painting and began the creative process. And while my art production maybe a bit slow, I'm now feeling that I'm getting my rhythm now and have begun to build a portfolio to share. And now, here is this blog, another way to share my art creations!

Next blog time, the art sharing begins!!!