Morning Workout

Recently my daughter's pony club made a field trip to the race track. We had a blast watching everything, including the morning workouts, and I took pictures like mad. As you folks have seen before I like to crop my images close. I really like the visual interest and tension it gives to a piece. Much less static than having horse and rider centered in the middle of the canvas, with a lot of space around.

This painting is all about the rider, not the horse. Earlier in this blog when I did "Andalusian Dressage" it was the opposite, about the horse not the rider. "Working Out" is entered in an art show next month, therefore it is not available for purchase right now. But I can always do something similar if you're interested, or contact me in the end of July, and I can tell you if this piece is available.

This painting really shows the size of the horse, versus the size of the jockey. Later I'll post another of the pieces headed for the show next month. It's that green ball and the young stallion again, he was just too much fun to paint.

Working Out 18" x 36" oil on canvas

Babs

Babs 9" x 12" oil on board For Sale

Babs is so sweet. She loves to just sit on laps and be pet. I enjoyed painting her, she's another of the NOAH rescue animals, the third of four. I've got one more cat to post, whom I'm just calling "Tall Cat" while my mother is scouring NOAH, to see if she's still a resident, and get her real name. If she's already off to a new forever home, the she'll just remain Tall Cat. Which is fine.

Like Bogey, Babs' painting is for sale. Custom framing, shipping, and a donation to NOAH is included for the price of $250.00. If you're interested drop me a line at klm at kmdogart.com

Lhasa, Lhasa, Lha-sa!

11" x 14" not for sale

Or Lhasa, Lhasa, Ap-so! I've been singing that to the conga dance tune, and breaking out in the dance occasionally as I've been in Lhasa mode in my studio. The reason being is that I accepted a commission to paint several small (small for me 8 x 10 to 11 x 14) Lhasa paintings to be the trophies for the next Lhasa Apso National specialty show. So I've been in Lhasa land.

While I admit that I'm a short haired dog, kind of a person, painting long hair is great fun! And they come in a wide variety of colors to boot. I've been trying to incorporate certain amounts of Tibetan/Oriental items in the paintings, which had been interesting to research.

This 11" x 14" Lhasa painting is not named, and will not be for sale. If I get interest I may have a limited number of prints made. So if you are interested in one please contact me at klm at kmdogart.com

More Lhasas and the NOAH cats will make their appearance over the next few blogs.

My name is Bogey

Bogey 8" x 10" For Sale

There's not much I enjoy more than painting white animals. I love all the reflected color. As with Blue in the entry before, I realized I hadn't signed the paintings yet, hence the digital signature -- next time in my studio I'll get that little detail taken care of.

This is another of the dogs at NOAH, a sweet fellow who may not have been adopted because he's twelve years old, just my guess as he's a nice fellow. I really hate to part with this painting also, but sheesh the point of doing the rescue dogs was to help benefit them, so I'll bite the bullet and have him for sale. The price is $250.00, that includes a custom frame, shipping, and a large portion of those funds going to NOAH.

Ol' Blue Eyes

I'm going to kick start my blog and get it going again. I've been painting, but just not getting snaps of the results and getting them posted. I need to get better habits in setting time aside to get my blogging done. So here is the first of several posts.

As a brief catch up, I've finished a commission, had several pieces accepted into juried art shows, sold "Andalusian Dressage" which was featured in an earlier blog entry. I've also been doing my artist in action thing, most recently at the posh opening to our annual members show.

When trying to decide what to work on at the opening, I decided to paint for a worthy cause. Which started me on a kick of four paintings of rescue animals. The group I was painting for is N.O.A.H http://www.thenoahcenter.org/Noah_Adoption.asp which stands for Northwest Organization for Animal Help. They are a no kill rescue center for dogs and cats. I've visited their facility with my mother who volunteers there, and they are wonderful folks. They have a great turnover rate, they take animals from regular kill shelters, and place them in new homes. They even have a vet clinic at their facility where they do the spay and neutering among other things. It is the cleanest nicest place you can imagine, not what you would expect.

But I'm digressing from my art. Although they have a high turnover in placing a lot of animals, they have a couple that have been there a bit longer than others, and are actually still there (at the time of my posting this).

I would like to share with you today a dog named Blue, a lovely older gent, with really light blue eyes, and sweet disposition.

Ol' Blue Eyes 9" x 12" NFS -- yet

I have to confess that I really like this painting. So much so that I'm not willing to part with it yet. I love the way the color and the light came out, so I'm just not willing for it to go to a new home, it needs to reside with me for awhile LOL. But I still wanted to share it with you.

I will post the other three paintings of the NOAH animals (two dogs and two cats). They will most likely be for sale, and when they do sell I will donate a large portion of the purchase price to NOAH to help them continue with the good work they do. The NOAH animals will be intermixed with other projects I'm working on, but I'll save that for another blog entry.

peppermints and pewter

Peppermints & Pewter oil on canvas 6" x 12" for sale

I've photographed this piece three times, and I'm still having a terrible time trying to get it correctly represented. The whites keep showing up to washed out without detail in the peppermints, and now, the reds are to bright especially in the peppermint reflections. I really like this little painting, but I'm sure having a tough time getting a good representation of it for this blog.

I've got to move on LOL so here it is. I found this funky little pewter horse on ebay, and paired it with some peppermints on green wooden stool. I loved the reflection on the polished wood.

the green ball

10" x 10" oil on canvas NFS

I've been playing around trying something new. This is a linen canvas, but with a clear gesso on it so that the linen shows clearly through. I did a minimal painting on it. Kind of as I assume watercolor artists have to work, with every stroke counting as important, and being the last stroke put down.

This is very different from how oil painters usually work (myself included), when you can go over things until you like them. I normally work in a traditional way of blocking in areas, and moving from large shapes to small details. So this is about as foreign to my usual way of working as I can get. I had put in the large green wash first, let it dry, and then worked in just the young horse, as I said making every stroke count, and be the last one.

My model is a young two year old stallion at the eventing barn where my daughter takes her lessons. He is hilarious playing with his green ball. He would bite it and throw it up in the air, pounce on it with his front hooves, shove it around with his nose -- not what you think of as typical horse behavior, he acted like a dog or cat with his ball.

I enjoyed the exercise and process of doing this painting so much I am working on another (again with Dino and his green ball), this pose is tall and on a 24" x 12" canvas. This new painting will be for sale. If you are interested in the painting in progress email me and I can email you a photo.