Girl with kitten, ACEO collage.

She's just cute, thats all there is to it. This was done like the other card. Some glue, some watercolor, some scissors....It was so relaxing to be putting these things together.
Donna

Victorian horse collage, ACEO.

Well, this is different! It sure was fun but I know nothing about collage, so I'm totally experimenting. I liked the strange colors. The horse was something I printed out that wasn't the correct colors because my printer was running out of ink. It's archival materials and inks and I hated it to go to waste. Got to save things from the dump you know. The rest was things I found laying around the house. The base is 140 pound watercolor paper which I layered with some flowers I found on a page from a magazine.

I then cut out these other flowers and put them around the horse. I did some watercolor and some acrylic painting over it all. Then I cut out another horse's head and pasted it on top of the first one. After that, I covered the whole thing with a couple layers of heavy gloss medium from Golden.

The feel of these cards, with all these layers on them is very "real". They have so much substance compared to a simple watercolor.

It seems the way it made me feel so happy to do this, I'll probably be making more....
Donna

Merry Christmas

Our families are scattered and because many of them are very extended types of families, we spent the day together with no one else here. It seemed a little funny not to be cooking, opening presents, wondering what to do with volumes of wrapping paper and "things".

At first, I was a little sad, but as the time progressed for Christmas day to arrive, I began to be glad. It was the perfect time for me to think about the reason we have Christmas, it all began with Christ! It became a blessing for me to spend a quiet day, realizing how important He is to me and how thankful I am to know Him.

We've not had the perfect December. My grandmother passed away. Her death was expected as she'd had a stroke and lay in a coma for a week. The hardest time was just beginning. Our nephew, Curtis, who was 18, was killed in a horrible car crash. His life was just beginning and we thought so much of him. He spent a few days staying with us this last summer and we enjoyed him so much. He was happy, willing to help, full of plans for his future. In a few days time, we learned to love him. We hadn't known him before that.

It's said all the time that life is short and we have to make the most of what we have. This Christmas is for me, a time to give thanks and to learn to appreciate what the Lord has given us. I'm going to treasure my memories of my Nan and of Curtis.
Donna

Work in Progress, colored pencil, horse aceo.

This is the start of this painting, and I'm scared it might be the last. I got this bright idea to try colored pencils on my 140 pound hot press paper. In the first place, I haven't had my colored pencils out for a long time because I lost them. So I'm out of practise with the thought process I use on them. In the second place, there isn't enough tooth in my paper to layer very much. I'll keep plugging along just to see what will happen but I've got two or three layers on some places and it seems it's about all the paper wants to take. I'm going to try rubbing it down hard with paper towel and whatever else I can think of to get more layers on here.

I'm in between studios again. We bought a 14X70 mobile home and we're going to convert it to my studio. So I'm moving out of the other house. For the winter, I've moved back into the spare bedroom in this house we live in. Somehow in the middle of having three incomplete studios, I lost my colored pencils. I was determined today to find them so I spent some time looking. Guess what? They were under the desk at the other house. I don't know who put them there.

Spring will be exciting. I'll tear up the old orange shag carpet from the 14 wide, get down to bare particle board floors. Paint them with several coats of paint. Then move in my furniture and have a permanent studio.

I think the back bedroom will become my water media room. The front bedroom will become my oil painting room. The little bedroom will be for storing frames. Every cupboard and every closet will be full of the tools of my trade. Maybe I'll never lose my colored pencils again.

Now I have to get back to the problem of this painting.
donna
As always, thank you for stopping by. I wish you the best of holidays!
My website of Montana animals and scenery.
My horse ACEO cards.
Original art, a most treasured gift.

Percheron's Eye, ACEO horse watercolor

This horse was one of the Priefert Team and I photographed him this last summer at the state fair. He had such a twinkle in his eye, like he had a great sense of humor. I really enjoyed trying to capture the look on his face.
donna
Update on this painting. I really wanted to keep this for upcoming shows, but I couldn't resist. I listed it on ebay and it has a bid on it. So if you like this painting, and you want it in your collection, click the link to my ebay store and place your bid. I listed it last night so I think the auction has five or six days left on it.

A wonderful person bought two prints from my ebay store today also. That makes this a good day for an artist and I hope for her also. When I purchase ACEO cards from artists I admire, I get so excited, waiting for them to arrive.
Donna
Thanks for dropping by to see my paintings.
Montana art, the animals and scenery.
Horse aceo cards are easily purchased with paypal here.
Original art, a most treasured gift.

"The Percheron's Eye" is sold.

She's almost a Christmas cow. ACEO

I took a photo of this cow, near Dupuyer, Mt. I liked the way her green ear tag complemeted her red hide. I think she's a red angus cow. She was curious about something and I also liked the look on her face. It made me want to paint her. This is another aceo card on 300 lb Arches watercolor paper.
Donna

Buckskin Horse ACEO card watercolor

Buckskin horse done in watercolor. This is an ACEO card. I used my horse Class as a model for this painting. She's a bay but I changed her coloring. I love using her for a model because she's so pretty.
donna

Square Butte on Yupo paper.

Another painting of Square Butte. I put a little farm in this one. Nice little farm house with a great big shop. Isn't that the way it goes on a farm? :)

This is another aceo card. Only 3.5x2.5 inches in size. I like the way the paint slides around and does it's own thing on this Yupo paper. It gives this particular painting a soft look.
donna

Landscape, Square Butte, Vaughn, MT

We live below Square Butte, the butte of Charlie Russell fame. It's always changing, it never looks the same two days or two minutes in a row. I love the way the light plays across it's surface. I decided the other day I need to make more paintings of this wonderful landscape. So here's the first!

2006

2006 has been a successful year for me as far as my artwork has gone. It's the first year in a long time I've sold so many paintings and got so many paintings finished. There are two major reasons this has happened. My desire to do it, and my spouses desire to have me do it! Robert's very supportive in three major areas. He doesn't expect me to work anywhere but on my art. He encourages, critiques, and physically helps me when I need it. He and I both like to work alone, so when I'm in the studio, he's happy to be working on his own projects, he doesn't need me to babysit him while I work and vice versa.

This year hasn't been easy as far as personal problems go. Robert has had his left shoulder replaced, his neck fused and his back fused. He has scars upon scars from all these surgeries. So you can guess a lot of our time was spent in the hospital, going to therapy and recuperating from being in the hospital. My grandmother passed away, my dad had his shoulder operated on. We went camping for several days with our kids. We got married. We bought a 14X70 trailer house for a new studio and got it hauled in here.

There have been many things going on to keep me from painting but at the same time, I've done nearly 200 paintings and sold most of them!

I tried painting en plein aire for the first time this year. I did some unique landscapes, some crazy experiments and bought some new mediums. Painted some animals other than horses, which is hard to believe. All in all, this was a great year!
Donna

Quick studies on Yupo paper.

When I'm practising my drawing, or playing around with paints and papers, I'll spend 10-20 minutes on some quick study work. Mostly, I try to get the shape of a horse on paper and I'm using my how to draw horses books for examples of different positions horses can be in.

These studies are drawn on Yupo paper and I used my watercolor brush to do the drawing. Yupo is plastic paper so it's a unique experience. It's slick and it's not absorbent. The paint sits on top of the paper. You can wipe it off after it dries and you don't even know there was a mark there.

It's perfect for loose flowing things like the mane on the top horse. You can also flow in the shape of a horse, then go back in and draw the details on top. If you do this, you stroke the lines on fast or you'll melt the layer beneath them. Nice thing is, if you put a line where you don't want it, just wet it and pick it back up again. Let the paper dry, then place the line where you want it to be.

I suppose you could wash the same piece of Yupo off and paint on it forever! It's fun stuff. I think I went to Yupo.com to find the paper and they sent me nice sample packs so I could try the paper before I bought some. It comes in different weights and it's all fun to paint on. The title to this post is a link to their American website.
Donna

The Christmas Pony, aceo card.

Mom and dad went out and found a pony for a Christmas present, now he's worried his new mistress won't like him!
Donna

Updated Rooster.

I added some sky color to the rooster. It gave him some drama, more movement, more anger. I like him better now.
donna

Mad Rooster, 5X7 watercolor painting.

I think I can add this guy to the silly animals collection.

When my kids were small, we had a mean rooster named, Duke Rooster. A trapper brought him to our house, and asked us if we'd keep him. This trapper had been tying Duke by one leg to a tree, using him as coyote bait. When the coyote came in to get the rooster, the trapper would shoot the coyote. This trapper said the rooster had fended off so many coyotes, so courageously, he began to feel sorry for the rooster and was looking for a good home for him so the rooster could live out his days in peace.

We took Duke Rooster in. Which was fine and good until Duke became the tyrant of the farm. The kids didn't dare go outside. He had spurs that would win in a Boone and Crocket spur contest. We carried a pitchfork with us everywhere we went and when Duke squatted down and spread his feathers for a charge, we'd pick him up with the pitchfork and hold him until he got out of the mood. With his feet through the tines on the pitchfork, he couldn't go anywhere and he'd eventually get over being mad.

Duke roosted at night on the corral rails. We think a hawk got him because one night, he disappeared. For a rooster, he lived quite a life.

My grandma is dying. She had a massive stroke last weekend. She wants to die, she refused all life support. Her throat is paralyzed and so is one side of her body. She never wanted to live to be as old as she is, she wanted to die when my grandpa died but that didn't happen. She's been in a place where she was cared for as she couldn't live alone for a few years now.

I guess I feel as mad as this rooster one minute and as sad as all get out the next. I wish she could peacefully go to be with the Lord in heaven. Who knew she would suffer this long without food or water? And knowing how she would hate to live with IV's and feeding tubes and not being able to move and being to old to recover, how can we wish her to live any longer? And how can we, as her family, not respect her wishes? Even after she had the stroke, she couldn't talk, if a nurse approached her with an iv or oxygen or suggested a feeding tube, she'd get so agitated. She jerked oxygen from her face, she doesn't want any of it. Talk about courage to the very last. She always told us, "Don't worry about me, I'm a tough old bird." It's true, she is.

But how I'm going to miss her presence on this earth. She's the one person who taught me it's ok to have fun in this life. You don't have to take yourself or the next guy seriously. Drink a beer, invite your friends in for a party, go fishing and whoop and holler! Cook a huge meal that almost founders your friends and family and enjoy every minute of it. Dance until dawn. Camp under the stars.

She hassled me every step of the way over my paintings. She rarely liked what I painted. To her, everything had to be "real". You couldn't paint just the eye of the horse. You had to paint the entire horse. Mountains had to look like they really are, you couldn't interpret the way you loved that mountain by adding your own colors and style. Yet she's the one who gave me my first set of oil paints and nudged, prodded and poked me to keep painting. She was an artist herself, like her mother was before her and like I am now.

When my son called me last night, he said, "Mom, how are you really?" The first words out of my mouth, "I'm a tough old bird, Johnnie, don't worry about me." They were her words and I said them without even thinking... her legacy lives on and she'll always be with me.
donna

Rocking horse, ACEO art card.

Here's another version of the rocking horse, this one is an aceo card.
donna

Rocking horse, watercolor, work in progress.

Here's the finished image. I think maybe blogger was down when I tried to post earlier.

donna

Here's the final version of the painting. It's possible I'll put a couple more touches on it, but it's pretty much finished.

Donna

Rocking Horse, Work in progress, watercolor.

This is a close up of the rear end of the horse.
donna

Rocking Horse, WIP, Watercolor.

This painting is going through a lot of changes and each one seems dramatic enough to create another post for it. I think I'm pretty much finished with the background and the horse. Now to decide what to do with the rockers. I'm envisioning light blue washes to push some areas back and maybe another yellow wash to bring some forward. At this point, I've layered a very light transparent yellow and then Alizarin Crimson over it.

On the off legs, I outlined with green instead of bright red. I probably used cad red light to outline the horse. When I first transfered the drawing of the horse to this paper, I saw that red line around him. Don't ask me why, these things pop into my head and I have to get them out onto paper.
Donna

Rocking Horse, Work in Progress, watercolor.

I wanted a more velvety color of black than I was getting so I added a layer of cobalt blue and the paint was pretty thick. I didn't put the blue under the horse yet. I'm not sure if I will or not. I'll work on the horse some more to decide if I want to.

I'm now seeing this thin red line all around the horse. So here goes, that will be the next step. Then you wonder why artists want money for their paintings! So many layers, so much work...... to much thinking for my poor brain...ha. I'm joking. I do love what I do, but I still want to get paid for it. No different than a doctor who loves his job. donna

Rocking Horse, Work in progress, watercolor.

This seems to be getting fall colors. I never knew that would happen. Painting is always a surprise to me. I don't want to know ahead of time what's going to happen. It's more fun this way. The darker the background gets, the less you see the roughness of each layer, yet it's all there. It creates some strange patterns and colors when you slurp the paint on and around like this. So far so good on getting the paint in the right place, I haven't totally ruined the horse by a wrong brush stroke. That's not to say it can't still happen as I have more layers to add.
donna

Rocking Horse, wip

Here's the painting with four alternating layers of Sap Green and Alizarin Crimson on top of what was there before. I use the hair dryer to dry the layers. Some people say it dulls the color to use the dryer but I do it anyway. I'm liking the look of this. It's getting better. Only a few dozen more layers to go.....
donna

Rocking Horse, wip

It's got the uglies that's for sure! This is a layer of sap green over the AC. I'm going to keep going back and forth between these two colors until they get really dark. I like thin watery glazes. It seems each one shows through the others and you get so many layers and mysterious happenings inside your painting. It all has something to do with the way light bounces off some colors and absorbs into others. I don't get very technical about this stuff.

If I had liquid mask, I'd mask off the horse and branches and this painting would go a lot faster. As I don't have any, I'll be careful as I go around the horse each time. If I mess up one time and get these staining colors on the horse or branches, it's ruined. Or if I want to save it at all costs, I'll use acyrilics on it at the end. I'd rather not.

My paper is thin, so it's buckling up. I just let it. Some people stretch the paper to hold it flat. I don't care what it does, I'll iron it when I'm finished and try to make it flat again. As I layer on the colors, I work with the curls.
donna

One rocking horse, coming up. WIP

I'm working on a rocking horse. This is my beginning drawing. I'll do a lot of work on this. It was supposed to be half rearing but that didn't happen. So.... if you can see where there are two parts of the horse that didn't line up, you can see where I cut the horse in half.

I've now put him where I want him to be and I'll trace over this with tracing paper and put his belly and back together again.

I wish I had taken time to scan all the weird things that happened to this horse and his base as it progressed because there were some strange things happening. This is the final sketch and you can see, this is the point at which he became a rocking horse. As I went along, I refined the drawing of the horse, and the base came to life as twisted twining branches of some kind.

I've transfered my drawing to 140 pound hot press Arches watercolor paper. This paper is really thin and kind of slick. I like dragging colors around on it. I let the Alizarin Crimson on the outside of the horse look very rough at this point because I'm going to add layers of colors until the background looks black. It might take 20 layers of color to do this. You have to be very patient as one layer has to dry completely before you can glaze another color over it. I'm using transparent watercolors only at this stage. Doesn't look like much yet, and I'm wondering how it will turn out.

I'm seeing the branches of the base with tribal carvings on them but I don't know what they'll be when the time comes. I'll post more when I get some more done to this.

Donna

Bucking Horse, watercolor

When some people say they're going back to the 50's they think of the cars, or the music. I'm going back to the 50's but I'm thinking of the art. My version of these old time horse graphics might have a modern twist to them, but they're done because I'm thinking of the old days.

This one is a watercolor on 140 pound hot press paper. I layer the colors over themselves until they're very strong and vibrant. It's 5X7 and I'm going to ask $35 for it.
Donna

The "Bucking Bronco" is sold.

Toy Horse on the Desert, ACEO watercolor.

This is a little departure from my normal work but I like the old 50's graphic things. It reminds me of old cowboy posters from when I was a kid. This is a watercolor with permanent ink.
donna

Horse ACEO, foal painting.

This little guy has perfected the art of the stretch. It isn't easy when you have such long legs and not very much control over them.

He's a watercolor painting with a little pastel pencil on it at the end. To make the background look black, I layered burnt umber, alizarin crimson, cobalt blue, sap green, alizarin crimson, cobalt blue, more sap green, more cobalt blue, more sap green and more cobalt blue for the final layer. The straw was easier, just a few layers of burnt umber, throw on some yellow ochre then add some lighter and darker colored straws with the pastel pencil. He even has his little milk whiskers showing.

I'll post him on ebay, although who knows if he'll sell. Ebay isn't doing very well right now for a lot of us artists. I guess the stores are luring the shoppers in with tantalizing descriptions of electronic products....

If this doesn't sell, I'll take that as God's way of protecting me because I have some upcoming shows and I do need art for them also! If I sell it before it gets to the show, I won't have much to let people look at. So either way, if he doesn't sell on ebay, he becomes product for shows.
donna
This little guy is sold.

Walmart experience.

My Robert is supposed to do a lot of walking to get well, he's recuperating from back fusion. So we went out last night and got a tread mill at walmart as the weather is supposed to get really bad here pretty quick. We got the tread mill home and there were some parts missing when we went to put it together. I called Walmart and they said come in tomorrow and get the parts, we'll take them off another machine.

So Robert sat in the truck while I went in this morning. I found this guy in sporting goods, he said he'd help me but he had to talk to management about taking parts off another machine. I said that's ok, you talk to them but my position on this is: I was going to buy a second hand treadmill from an ad in the paper but I thought I should get a new one to be sure it worked good and had warranty. I decided from all the stores in Great Falls to come to walmart for this treadmill, get it home and we can't use it because parts are missing. I said we held up our end of this business deal when we paid cash for your treadmill, now I expect you to hold up your end and deliver a tread mill that works.

He said ok, he came back in a bit with the arm that was missing off the treadmill. I got part way out to the truck and I got to thinking how there were some wheels on the end of those arms and they were also missing. So when I got to the truck, I asked Robert if he'd noticed those wheels missing. He said yes, you'd better go back and get them too.

So back to walmart I go. I found the same person, I said could I trouble you once more? There are also wheels missing from the treadmill we bought, I just asked Robert about it and he said they aren't in the box. The guy goes over to the treadmill he'd taken the arm from, gets the box off the bottom shelf and out onto the floor. He takes the lid from the box, he grunts and groans like it's killing him to turn that treadmill over. (I thought, what's wrong with him as I had carried the entire treadmill in out of the truck the night before and I had no trouble with it at all. It wasn't that heavy.) Suddenly the guy grabs the entire treadmill and sends it skidding down the isle. It made the hugest noise you ever heard and parts went flying out of the thing all over the aisle.

I was so shocked and half scared, I was just shaking inside. I pretended he hadn't done what he did and I said See that little box right there? We didn't have that in our treadmill so I think those are the wheels. He reached down, grabbed that box, slit it open with his knife and he was just fuming with anger, he said between closed teeth, is this what you are looking for? I said yes, and I grabbed the box and headed out of the store. About that time, a lady who works in walmart came around the corner and looked at that treadmill all over the floor and she had such a shocked look on her face. I turned back and got a look at the guys name tag and I reported him this evening to the manager of the store.

I was actually scared out of my wits when he did that. I hope he never does it to anyone else, what if a little kid had come around the corner in that aisle right then?

I still almost can't believe it when I think what that guy did to that treadmill. I kept thinking, if I don't report this, he'll try to sell it to someone and they'll pay good money for it and it's all broken inside.

So that was how my day in walmart went! I think the holiday crowds are all ready getting to the wally world workers.

Award winning painting.

What a wonderful surprise I received in my inbox last night! This little painting won an award at the Newton Fine Arts Small and Miniature juried show. I was so excited, I was running and yelling all through the house like a crazy woman! To make matters even better, it was a cash prize!

It was a second prize, taking second to a painting I loved. The painting that won first was of a cat, leaning over a rock to look into a pond. I didn't mind taking second place to that painting at all because it was lovely.

To find the art show online, do a google search for Newton Fine arts Small and Miniature show or Carriage Factory Gallery newton ks.
donna

Belgian Draft horse with lots of mane. Oil painting ACEO.

Even though Belgians are large horses, there's almost more hair to this one than horse! Her name is Adrianne and she's sure cute. She's a PMU rescue and her owner generously gave me permission to paint her. She'll be for sale in my ebay store
this evening.

If you click the title link above, it leads to a site about the Belgian horses. You can read up on them if you're interested in this wonderful draft breed of horse.

Painting Sold
donna

Sage Runner, ACEO Oil Painting, Horse picture

This is a little Sage Runner. It was actually my horse Class. We turned her out in a pasture after having her with us on our two acres all summer. Boy did she run. She was having the time of her life. Two acres isn't much room for a thoroughbred so we take her to the mountains in winter and fall when feed gets short. It gives us a chance to love her up but lets her spend some free time also.

Robert is doing better after having his back fused. He still has a hard time regulating his body temp and he's either hot or cold, he's gettting bored from having to sit around so much. He's used to being outside working. But that's a good sign that he's feeling better. He can get tired from walking a block. Back fusions are not easy surgeries and he had an awful one. I think we're lucky we had Dr Schaeffer and Dr Dube doing the work. They're excellent doctors.

My next painting is a belgian draft horse and she's all mane and tail. I'm working on those long tangled strands of hair and trying to make her look cute under it all.
Painting Sold
donna

WIP 4th installment, thoroughbred horse. Retired race horse.

Now, I like it for sure. I added a blue shadow under the mane, brought out the light places on her face and generally reworked the body. She looks kind of alive and glowing like Class really does look. She's a gorgeous horse.

I might make several more paintings of her, as I'm working toward a show the Equine Art Guild is having featuring the artist's own horses, or horses that influenced their lives. There are other horses that have been very important to me so I'll have to do paintings of them also.

One horse I loved for 22 years was my first horse, Lucky. I was 8 years old and so was he when my Grandpa bought him for me. He was a cowpony. I'd sneak out my bedroom window at night and sleep on his back so I could spend a lot of time with him. I've been thinking of him a lot since the idea for this guild show has come up. I don't have many pictures of him, I'll have to see if my mom has some.

So, this painting of Class is finished. No more updates, I promise!
Donna

WIP 3rd installment, thoroughbred horse. Retired race horse.

Much better. I'm not going to work on this forever, so it's probably finished. I like having more color in the horse and less in the background. I hated the red so I was glad to see it go! Can't say I won't put some more color in the horse, it seems to give her more substance and she might need it. Her shoulder isn't quite right yet either, the line of it is to strong and unatural. So I suppose I'll go back into it again...Once I post things, I see more I want to do to them. :) Donna

WIP 2nd installment, thoroughbred horse. Retired race horse.

I signed this but I can see I'm not finished with it yet. I'll probably work on the shapes of the colors behind the horse, they don't fit right. I'll make the horse more orangey brown too. What fun, to sit and play with pastels.
donna

Work in Progress, pastel, suede mat

Here's a picture of my horse Class again. At this stage of the painting, I have no idea what it's going to become. I look in the box of pastels, and I touch them, pick some of them up and put them back down again....After a while, I pick one up and use it on the painting in one place or another. I make random layers and shapes while trying to keep the form of the horse on the paper.

It might seem crazy to work this way, but at some point the painting will take over and appear as it wants to be. There will come a time when I'll get an "Oh Yes!" moment and know exactly how to finish this. In the meantime, I'll keep playing with colors, layering them in, blending some, letting others become sharp and clear.....wondering if I'm crazy.....and maybe when I'm finished, this will look like something fun for you to hang on your wall.....
donna

ACEO, Barnyard Duo, Pastel painting.

The pastel pencils have still got my attention. I'm starting to love these things. I'll be wanting more colors before long.
donna

Medicine Hat Paint, Pastel, ACEO Card

I bought some pastel pencils so I could work on ACEO cards in pastel. The large sticks are to hard to manage. This Medicine Hat paint looks worried but I'm not sure why!
Painting Sold
donna

Elk watercolor painting by Donna Ridgway.

Here's a little painting, 9X4". It's a watercolor, made with using two colors. French Ultramarine blue and Burnt Umber. We took pictures of this herd of cow elk near the Swift Dam trail head into the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

I call this "Girls Night Out". Just because it looks like the girls are ready to head off by themselves somewhere and have some fun! Looks like they're taking one last look behind them to make sure no one sees them leaving!

This painting is on gessoed mat board. I like this surface as I can float color across it and it doesn't sink in. This makes it easilly manipulated. You can lift color after it dries, and push it around the entire time it's wet. Makes for a fun process.

I haven't been painting much lately as Robert had his back fused and I guess I was worried about him and wanting to help him more than I needed to paint. He's doing better now and things are settling down. I'm back to painting again!
donna

Interpretations, online equine art show!

http://www.equineartguild.com/gallery/

I'll post the link twice so it's easy to find it.

I'm a member of the Equine Art Guild and we're having a members show called "Interpretations". In our painting reference library, we have several photos of two of our member's horses. We each chose reference photos that appealed to us and did paintings from those photos.

You can see, there were a few photos that were very popular and several of us used those photos, but the resulting paintings are so different! It's an exciting show and I'm proud to be part of it.

You'll see my paintings under Donna Allen Weber as the show went online before we got married. Next year, my paintings in this show will be signed Donna Ridgway!
Go now and see the show, you won't be sorry you did!

donna

New technique, ACEO, ARABIAN foal.

For me, art is a constant experiment. Sometimes I wonder if I'm ADHD, can't concentrate on anything for any length of time. Or maybe I'm just to curious. I always have to see what will happen if I do this, or if I do that.

For this painting, I was tired of putting color on canvas so I decided to try drawing with a pencil directly onto canvas and see what it would look like. It was ok, but lacking in excitement. I have some Rob Ross liquid white oil paint here so I dipped into it and began to smear it around the canvas into the graphite. It made the softest neatest colors of grey so I kept blending away until I liked the image of this little foal.

I've made another one since, but I'll wait until tomorrow to post it.
donna

The kids pony, ACEO, Oil painting

"Turned Out"
The kids show pony is turned out for the winter. The busy show season is over. His banged tail is growing out, his roached mane has grown so long, it's about to fall over on his neck again. He's wondering where the kids and all the activity went! He's all alone in a snowy pasture, looking for company. Hopefully, the kids will come by and spend some time with him after school, on weekends, and holidays....

You'll notice I'm signing my paintings differently and that's because I got married. My name is Donna Ridgway now! That's pretty exciting for me....:)
donna

Wolf, wildlife painting, DAR, ACEO

Been a while since I've posted anything. We've been gathering wood and doing fall chores. Finally got around to painting something! Click the title of this post to learn about wolves in Montana.

We found this guy near Bonner, Mt at a wolf keep. It was quite a feeling to stand just the other side of the fence from a wolf and look into it's eyes.

I can't help but think the wolves would rather be dead than penned up like they sometimes are nowdays. I guess they don't get much choice in the matter.

We also got married! So now my paintings are signed Ridgway! What a good feeling.
Each of us thought we'd never do that again, but when it's right, it's really good. I guess that's what changed our minds.
Donna

OSWOA art card, Rocky Mountain Front

OSWOA original small works of art, are a new movement on ebay, patterned after the successful ACEO cards. OSWOA cards are 4X6 or 6X4 in size. If you'd like to purchase some original fine art, these cards would look great framed on your walls.

To see all the artists who participated in the launch for these cards, click the title of this entry, it's a link to the official OSWOA website. Type OSWOA into the search bar of ebay when you want to see all the OSWOA cards that are for sale. You'll see every style and medium of art you like, just like you can with the aceo cards.

I call this painting, "The Changing of the Gaurd" as the seasons are changing on the Rocky Mountain Front, much like the gaurd changes at the Palace! It's an orderly procession that happens with precision ...
donna

A true Grizzly bear story.

I grew up with Leanne Haynes and went to school with her in Dupuyer, so I was surprised when I did a google search for grizzlies at Dupuyer and found her name in this story.

We were visiting with a rancher near Choteau, MT, yesterday. He told us another story about a grizzly bear sow and her three cubs.

He had some Hutterite boys who worked for him. These boys wanted to see a grizzly bear. He told them one day, he'd seen a sow and her three cubs down by the county road. The boys jumped into the back of the pickup with their cameras and they headed out to see the bear.

This sow grizzly was walking along parallel to the road and there was a fence in between the truck and the road. The bear suddenly charged the pickup. The rancher poured the coal to the truck and spun out in the road as he drove off. One of the boys was at the back tailgate, snapping pictures of the grizzlies gaping mouth, the other boy was trying to break the back window of the truck to get in.

The rancher was a little worried, wondering if he'd get them out of harm's way in time. When the sow turned back to her cubs, she gathered her babies up and headed for the hills. One little cub stopped in mid flight to get another look at the people and the truck. He stood up with his front paws in the air and his head high.

The mom bear realized he was missing, and she spun around, ran back to him, cuffed him right and left and took off for the hills again. The chastized cub kept up with the rest of the family and they disappeared from sight.

Donna

Hewlett Packard printer, Vivera inks.

Click the title link to learn more about Vivera Inks.

I always used Epson printers in the past. I've discovered something new! My epson quit me, wouldn't roll the paper through any longer. I was desparate and I didn't want to wait forever to get a new printer as I have prints for sale and have to be able to make new ones as needed.

I went to good old walmart and checked out the printers, I was madly searching for archival inks and a printer that would scan my artwork and print out my photos. Lo and behold, or hold and below and as one of my old friends used to say, I found an HP printer that would use archival inks. Tested to last 108 years or more!

Didn't think I could go wrong so I brought the printer home and tried it. I absolutely love the colors, and the quality of prints and photos I'm getting with this printer.

If I wear the printer out, as I will in a year or so, I can buy another right downtown. How handy is that? And the quality is amazing! I've never made such beautiful prints before.

I posted some aceo photos on ebay today. The colors are clear and gorgeous. You can see them above.
donna

2 ACEO cards. Black horses. Oil paintings.

I've been practising my black horses. Takes a lot of color to make a black horse look black and not like a blob. These two will be on ebay tonight.
donna