"Longing for You"
When I was growing up, I knew there was a horse out there who was longing for me, just as much as I was longing for him! My Grandpa finally put me out of my misery when I was 8. He bought me a cow pony named Lucky. This horse is longing to be yours, the way Lucky and I longed for each other many years ago. He's for sale on ebay with a buy it now button for $9.99.
Just click the ebay store link to your right to find him. donna

"She's Walkin' Away!"
If you want her, you better go after her, cause she's leavin'...
This is my horse, Class. She's so elegant, long and lean..... I left the card simple to show her off. She's on ebay today, she'll be there for a week. donna

"I'd Move Heaven and Earth for You"
Big Montana drafter. He can do whatever you need done! I took photos of this horse near Heart Butte, Montana. I'll be doing ACEO cards of his buddies too. There were three of these great silver colored horses in the same field. They're awfully pretty. donna

"Take Me, I'm Yours"
This buckskin roams the hills of Montana and he wishes you'd come take him for a ride. You can tell from the look in his eyes, he's a good honest horse! (Although, I had someone tell me the other day, they've never had a horse lie to them!) So-o-o, come take old Buck and make him your own. He's going up for sale on ebay today. He'll be there for 7 days for $9.99. He has a buy it now button on him. You don't have to go through the process of the auction if you want him now. Donna

"Sleeper"
He isn't asleep yet, but his eyes are about to close...I think he's going to take a nice nap in the warm Montana sunshine. donna

"Wheatfield Appie"
I love the scenes in Montana. I never get tired of finding new images and enjoying them myself. This appie was in a field near Fairfield, Montana. He was enjoying the last rays of sunshine as they leap frogged across his back. Willow trees forming a windbreak, cast beautiful shadows on the wheatfield... Today's cards are posted on ebay for the starting bid of $9.99. How can you go wrong, to own a piece of Montana for a ten dollar bill? donna

"I'm Waiting for You"
I never get tired of seeing my horse looking over the fence watching me. This wasn't my horse, but he had that same feeling. Come play with me! I want you over here! This is the look that always gets a pat and a handful of oats over to the fence....
donna

7. Watercolor on gessoed board.

I've added the ink and I've signed this. I can find about 500 things wrong with this, but at some point you have to stop. An artist told me once, I paint as good as I can at the skill level I have. That's me...by the time I do 400 of these little art cards, I'll be better at creating them! Donna

6. Watercolor on gessoed matboard.
I've added some dark colors and added some light colors, found some muscles and shapes in the horse. It's almost finished. I like to combine watercolor and ink, so I'll go put some ink on him now....

5. Watercolor on gessoed mat board.
You can see here, when I placed the sienna wash over the shadow colors, I lost some detail. The leg now looks really funny. One thing that made me happy was the way the blue puddled up right where the shadow needs to fall behind his little shoulder. It's cool when those things happen! Next, I'm going to pull some highlights of straw out from the darker blue shadows in the background and attempt to fix his leg. I'll be adding shapes of muscles and trying to make his leg look like a real leg.

4. Watercolor on gessoed mat board.

I've added some lines and texture to the straw. I took the very sharpest tip of my paintbrush, and drug it back and forth, up and down in random strokes, laying a foundation for the look of straw and dirt. It's really touchy to add color over color with gessoed mat board. The bottom layer will pick up and mix with the top layer. I make sure each layer is totally dry before I attempt to lay down more color. Sometimes, when I get to this stage, I lay some acrylic medium down to preserve this layer. I then switch to acrylic paint to finish the peice. I'm going to take this one as far as I possibly can with the watercolor.

3. Water color on gessoed mat board.
Once again, I'm sorry about this bad photo. I didn't realize it was fuzzy when I checked it on the camera. At this stage, I decided to place my shadows on this painting. There are shadows from a fence it seems and some other things cast shadows on this foal. Because the straw will have shadows in it, I've added a few extra shadows to create more texture in the background.

Step 2, (how to do a watercolor on gessoed mat board)
You can see I've made some more lines. I used a burnt sienna for this color as it's basically the color of the horse. Isn't he cute? I'll call this Powernapper 2 as I created a Powernapper 1 a few years ago. I've added some yellow ochre to the ground around this foal. He's laying on some straw, a nice comfy bed. I let it run, puddle and drip if it wants. I need the texture the differences in color will create. After all this is going to look like straw when I finish. (If I'm successful) This painting isn't finished yet, I don't even know if I can do it. I decided to post it as I actually go along. You'll see the result as I do!

How to do a watercolor painting on gessoed mat board.
1.
The first thing I do is make a line. Any old line will do. I try to make the line in the correct place on the page, and I try to make it almost exact in position to create a likeness to my subject. If this doesn't happen, I don't worry. I can throw some water on this and wash off any part of it I don't like.

Dozing Horse. When I paint on gessoed mat board, I can get a loose, washy effect. I did this horse as a demo a few days ago, but my photos were so terrible, I took them down. I'll do another demo now of another painting. I have to post them the photos one at a time as this blog reverses order and puts them in funny places. I'm sorry for posting this again. donna

My early morning effort...Montana Horizon. I almost named this painting, Belly Deep. But the grass wasn't quite up to the horse's bellies. And when I started this painting, I wanted the sky to be a main part of the painting. There's a lot of detail in this little card. Muscles on the horses, the jaw is sideways on the darkest horse, he's contentedly chewing the long prairie grass. Manes and tails are floating in the breeze. I'm beginning to long for summer! Donna

Here's another ACEO Card. I found this little frog when Robert was on the fire crew for the Crazy Horse fire near Seeley Lake. We had the camper in the Holland Lake campground. I was wading in the lake when I spotted this frog. He froze long enough for me to take his picture, I had the camera with me...Judy Wood, an artist friend of mine, suggested I put a layer of blue glaze over the parts of the painting where the water should be. I think she's right and I'll post him again after I've done that...Donna

The Grey Arab. When Robert worked on the Crazy Horse fire near Seeley Lake, about three years ago, I was bringing the camper to the Holland Lake campground. I saw this horse along the road and stopped to take his picture. I promised myself I'd do a painting of him some day. It's taken me three years to get this done! This is an ACEO art card, posted on ebay today. They auction will be there for seven days. There's a lot of detail on this horse. He has veins, eyelashes, whisker bumps and wrinkles in his lips. donna

Guess what? This painting is called, Cow Pony! I wonder why? I have a series of photos of horses who were turned out for the winter with the cattle herd. I believe I'll do an entire series of these, 20X24 in size... This one, is an ACEO card. I think I'll post it on my website for $35. It's an original that I spent a lot of time on. It's on heavy 300 pound watercolor paper.

Young Matrons, we found these elk near Lincoln, Mt and took their photo. I liked the way they stood out against the Montana skyline. We're famous for our sky here! These were posted on ebay for $9.99 today. The auction will run for 7 days. Donna

The photo closest to this text is my first attempt at drawing this horse with watercolor paint. I Have a start of the head and some general shape of the horse on the board. In the picture above this first one, you can see the juicy water running around the painting. I sometimes mop it up with a paper towel. If you use this process to create a painting, you can draw the horse on the board untold times. If you make a mistake, flood the area with water, mop it up, let it dry completely, and try again!

Dozing Horse. I'm posting an art lesson on my website as to how I did this painting. I like drawing with paint, instead of drawing the image directly on the paper, or drawing it on some other paper and then transfering it. I just changed my mind... I'll post the lesson here. Some of the photos are blurry, I'm sorry about that. The next time I do a demo here, I'll be sure to get better photos. You can still see the progress in each step.

I'm working on gessoed mat board. I like this surface because it's perfect for drawing your subject right on the white of the board, using paint. I'm using watercolor paint for this. Very juicy, loaded brush that forms a sharp point when I need it.

There's a possibility this painting is finished. I get so worried when I do a portrait. I can do originals, because I know I have only myself to please. When I do a portrait, I worry my customer won't like the way I paint the painting. Is that insecure or what? I tell myself it's no different than doing any other painting, but it never works! Donna

Evening colors bounce from the snow to the silver fur of the wolves. I posted this for sale on ebay today for $9.99 plus shipping. I've also posted some free art lessons on my website. http://www.montanahorsegallery.com. There are 11 lessons there now. I'll be adding to them as I think of more to say. Donna

Montana horses grazing the high plateaus. Another art card. I'll put this on my website for sale in the next few days. I also worked putting up web pages on the basics of learning to create equine art. There are four pages there now, I'll be adding more as I go along. You can find them by clicking on the site map and following the how to links. donna

Evening is coming on, the weather is below zeero in Montana. These dude ranch horses have been turned out on winter pasture to wait for spring and a new crop of dudes. They're filling their tummies to get energy for the cold winter night.

I think I'll post this for sale on ebay tonight. My wish is to have these cards gain in popularity so I'll continue to post on ebay. I've begun a special Collector's Club for people who like to see my work. Email me if you'd like to join. Members qualify for a discount on shipping, the right to pass these images around the internet to their friends and of course, the right to view the images first! Just email me with Collector's Club in the subject line if you'd like to join. montanahorsegallery@earthlink.net Donna

This is a little ACEO card of Molly B. The cow that escaped the packing plant in Great Falls, Mt. She then ran across town and swam the Missouri river, hence her name of Molly B, the unsinkable. donna

My Hair's Messed Up, And I'm Mad! This horse turned out looking like he was disgruntled because his hair was all messed up. I'll probably put him on ebay also. Donna

I felt like sewing something, but I'm no good at it, so I made a Patchwork Paint. She's for sale on ebay today and she'll be there for a week. Donna

The beauty of brown. It seems a simple color, kind of plain and boring. But I thought it became beautiful in this painting. Montana turns brown in winter, sometimes we don't have much snow, the wind blows and everything becomes shades of brown. The contrast of the black horse was just right to bring out the other colors. I liked the colors so well, I did two paintings like this. These originals are available for $25 each. Email me or find them on my website. Donna

I was trying to see how this image would work up as a large painting. I think the design and the shapes will work. The painting, when I do it, will have a lot more realistic detail than this little ACEO card does. I do like the sun and shadow patterns on this painting. For sale on ebay for $9.99. Donna

I love carousel horses. Even though they're made of wood, they seem so alive. They have such personality, you can imagine how they'd be if they were alive. This is an aceo card of a carousel horse. It's water color and acrylic. One of my favorite subjects. Donna

An update on the horses who are scratching each others backs. It's coming along. I worked on the background and the bay horse. I'll be working more on these trying to finish them up. I need to make some adjustments on things that aren't quite right yet. It's a constant matter of changing things until you can call it finished. Donna

Hunter, a Wolf. He's hungry and he's on the trail of some animal. They're gonna die! Donna

Moonlighter. This mule is the same mule who was featured in my last mule painting. I got to wondering what would happen if I painted a blue mule. Of course then I had to put a big yellow moon behind him. If you like this image, download it and send it to five other people who might like it. The name of my website is on the image. It will help spread the site around. All I ask, is that you don't print it out. Donna

How about this little mule? I call him Mascara Mule. He looks like he's wearing mascara. One of my friends commented he looks like he needs a shot of whiskey or maybe some coffee to wake him up! Do you remember the movie Bambi? I love the part where Thumper says about Bambi, "He sure has sleepy eyes and wobbly legs." That's something you could say about this mule also! I was laughing while I painted him, he's a "make you feel good" mule.

I'll be posting him on ebay for $9.99 rock bottom price, from there, he'll move to my ebay store and my website. Links to the store and website are to your right. This mule is an ACEO art card miniature. Watercolor painting.
donna

Just down the road from us lives a Belgian team. They're so beautiful and well cared for, trained so well. Their owner takes them on wagon train drives around the state. I'm always happy when I see them out on the road by our house, as I have another chance to take photos of them. This is Candy. She's on sale on ebay for $9.99 starting price. Seller name, jackmorgan.....Donna

Glass eye. When I was 6 years old, my Grandpa bought me a Shetland pony named Scout. He had a glass eye. That's what we called them back then! His eye, and the look in it, inspired this painting. It's an ACEO art card for sale on ebay for $9.99 opening bid. donna

The Happy Appie! He's turned out in the winter wheat stubble fields until summer comes. Free to come and go as he pleases. Right now, he's enjoying the warmth of some winter sunshine. In Montana, that's a wonderful thing, to be warm in winter.... He's happy.
donna

I'm completely hooked on doing miniature art. This painting is the size of a baseball card. It's going up for sale on ebay for $9.99 today. It seems if I warm up with a small painting, early in the morning, it gets me ready to work on the bigger paintings during the day. I had a hard time getting out of bed today, until I thought about how fun it is to do these little miniatures, then I couldn't wait to come to my studio and begin to work. Donna