Abstract Friesian drawing

Last fall I went to a Friesian horse show with two other members of the Equine Art Guild to photograph the horses as reference for future work. It was a rainy day so we weren't sure what we'd get but the sun came out and we ended up getting some great pictures.
I'm working on some abstract artwork for an art show in April. I started this piece awhile ago from the photos I took at the Friesian show. Friesian horses are known for their black coats, long mane and tail and feathered hooves. They also have an intelligent, willing spirit. I called this one Patience. The stallions that posed for this piece seemed so calm and patient. It's 20 inches by 16 inches.
This and other pieces will be at Grand National Art Show at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, CA from April 4-12, 2008. The show runs in conjunction with the Grand National Rodeo, Horse and Stock Show.

Happy Holidays!

Hope everyone had a happy holiday whichever holiday you chose to celebrate! Here's our card for this year. We all decided to go sledding! I hope this next year I have more time to create. Now that the wedding album I started 2 years ago is finally finished I have a lot of painting plans for the coming year.


I'm also a finalist in the monthly art contest on www.asingularcreation.com. The theme this month was Feeling Blue. I submitted one of my abstract horse drawings entitled Determination. There's a lot of interesting work submitted this month.
Check out the gallery of all of the work at the link below.
The Feeling Blue Gallery
You can see and vote for the finalists at the following link. You have to be a member of the site to vote. If you feel inclined, it's a free membership and you can sign up and vote for the art you like.
The Feeling Blue finalists list

Children's book story and calendars

So it's been awhile since my last post. I've been so busy working on things that I haven't had a chance to get back to my blog. Since there's been other things going on at home in the evening, I've been drawing on the train. I can get quite a bit done in my 45-minute ride depending on where I sit. I'm lucky if I get a window seat in the middle of the train car. There's a better chance that I won't get crowded in and my drawing hand won't bop the person next to me or vice versa. Also, the middle is a bit further from the brakes so my seat doesn't get quite as much vibration which of course wreaks havoc on my drawings. The downside of the middle is that I don't get a good view of sleeping commuters to draw. No matter! I was working on sketches for a children's book story written by Erik Soulliard about a girl that dreams of a pony. How fitting! Below are two pencil sketches. I have about 10 of the 30 or so done. Some of these may even be a part of a mural I'm doing in a little girl's bedroom in the coming months. She really liked my Cute Pony art and this is in that same style.
My art was also chosen to be in the ArtWanted Animals and Landscapes daily 2008 calendars! My art in the Animal calendar will be featured on February 19, 2008 and another piece will be featured on June 21, 2008 in the Landscape calendar. You can Pre-order a calendar at http://www.artwanted.com/ps/Calendar
It's recommended that you pre-order by November 15 if you're interested in one because they sell out of these quickly.
They also have a new widget that adds the portfolio I have on their site to my blog. Check it out at the bottom of this page!

Avalon NJ ACEOs

I spent much of September on vacation. The end of September we went to Avalon to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday. I painted some small ACEOs while I was hanging out on the beach. What's an ACEO? It stands for Art Cards, Editions and Originals. They're always 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches. Sometimes it's nice working in small scale. Especially when you can so easily take your artwork with you. Since they were done on the beach there's likely some errant sand mixed in with the paint since they did try to blow away on me a few times.

St. John view and new art show

We returned from St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands last week. We had a wonderful time on a beautiful island. I painted this small watercolor while sitting on the deck of our house one morning. Our house was called Grandview and you can certainly see why. That's the view overlooking Cruz Bay.

I also have another show coming up on Saturday September 22. The skateboard show that's currently at Avenue.A is moving to the new york-tokyo music festival for the day. It's a big skateboarding and music festival in Central Park.
You can find all the info about the festival here:
music.newyork-tokyo.com
You can get tickets here:
www.inticketing.com/evinfo.php?eventid=17931
You can get $10 off with the promo code: SKATE

Reflections Equine Art Show

My artwork is showing in an online equine art show sponsored by the Equine Art Guild. In this show you were to have 2 pieces– one you created before joining the Equine Art Guild and one after you joined showing how you've improved or changed through your affiliation with the Guild. I chose one watercolor I did years ago of Rose chasing Thief down the fence and the second was from the show in Maine last fall where I used the driven horse as the subject for some abstract pieces. It's a really interesting grouping of artwork that shows the growth and changes in many artists since they joined this group. I've certainly gotten a lot out of the Equine Art Guild after joining just 2 years ago.

And it's really cool that my artwork was used in the banner too. :)

The banner above links to the show but here's the actual link if that doesn't work for you.
http://www.equineartguild.com/gallery

It's in alphabetical order. My work is on page 4 at the bottom.
Reflections page 4

To keep up with what's going on with the Equine Art Guild you can always check out the What's New page.
http://www.equineartguild.com/whats-new.php

Treedancers Skateboard

So I finished my skateboard! You can see where I went from the original sketch. The bottom of the board has some tree roots on it that are kind of obscured by the bent end of the board. It was painted in glazes of acrylics and some shellac. I tend to use a good bit of shellac I suppose. I think it's an underused medium. If you're in NYC on Thursday August 30, come down to the show at Avenue.A. My friend Rosa's skateboard will be hanging in the show as well. The flyer with all of the details is in a previous post. This skateboard is for sale as well.

Next weekend we're heading off on vacation and I'm bringing my watercolors. Hopefully I'll have some lovely plein air island paintings for you when I get back.