Hay and a fiddle,
I don't like the riddle,
Where the cow jumped over the moon.

That's a crazy verse,
I said with a curse,
For everyone knows....
THE HORSE JUMPED IT FIRST!!!

Have I been spending to much time thinking lately? :) I don't know. But I've always been mad about them writing the poem about the cow jumping over the moon. How dumb can you get, a cow is a clumsy beast and I can't see one accomplishing such a feat.

A horse, that's a different story!

Reminds me of the time I was helping an old cowboy move his cows into a corral. Right at the gate, a cow escaped. I headed my horse after the cow. The cow went up over the top of a little knoll and my horse followed. The neighbor was right behind us. At the top of the hill, a very old car was sitting in a small irrigation ditch. The cow jumped the car, and spun to the right. So did my horse. I felt like we were jumping the moon! Our neighbor, even though he was some cowboy, had pulled his horse to a stop and I heard him yell, "Holy Sh...t!" as we spun back by him and chased the cow into the corral.

I did have some fun on that horse.
donna

"Plus and Minus"
This is another of my electric horses. She's plus and minus energy. She has dark and light spots, her hair sticks up and it lays down. She's surrounded by ions of energy, some positive and some negative. If you look carefully, you'll find more postive energies than negative though, because I believe life is good!
Donna

15 minute sketch.
I can't draw anything from my memory with a pencil. I guess the Good Lord made me to use a paint brush and that's it! Some artists can draw the most wonderful looking horses with a pencil in about two seconds. That isn't me! I can draw something when I have a brush in my hand. I did this without looking at any horse, anywhere. It has it's flaws. If I was going to turn this into a horse in a painting, I'd work on it a little longer but this was like a 15 minute challenge.

We spent most of the day hooking up a new phone line so we could both be on the internet at the same time. Robert looks up information about 56 Buicks, Old Mack trucks and Harley Davidson Motorcycles. I can't think about anything but horses. We enjoy each other's hobbies anyway. He's always calling me into his studio to look at a truck that someone painted. Last night he found a 54 Chevy pickup. It was painted green on top and pink on the bottom. It was really cute.

My dad taught me drive in a truck like that. You ground the starter on the floor. Dad took me out into the pasture and found a steep hill. He made me start and stop the pickup on the hill until I had control of it. When I taught my daughter to drive a stick shift, I did the same thing to her. :)
donna

"Low Voltage"
This painting came from a childhood memory of mine. When I was growing up, my horse roamed in kind of a large pasture. When we'd have lightening storms, I'd worry about my horse. I'd sneak out the window and head out into the pasture to find him. He always looked a little like this in the eerie light of the storms. Please feel free to take this image and pass it around to your friends on the internet. I'd like to spread the word about my website. The image is copyrighted, please don't print it out, just use it to invite friends to my website. My electric horse paintings will be posted for sale on my website when the series is either finished or there are several of these posted. Who knows how many I will create? Donna

I'm playing around with color and design a little bit. This one is called Electricity! I wanted to get some energy going somewhere. My next one is called Low Wattage...it will possibly be finished sometime today or tomorrow. I'll call these, my electric series. I might need to fix a few things on this one...But it's close to what I was wanting it to be. The scan is washed out and funky looking, compared to the shine of the original. donna

"Pretty Foxy"
I painted this fox in the grass yesterday because he looked so good with all that green grass. We had a raging blizzard outside all day long. I think I'm ready for summer. Pretty Foxy is for sale for $35. He's 5X7, watercolor on gessoed mat board.

On a different note, the Charlie Russell auctions brought in (unofficially, from last nights television report) 2.2 million dollars. I think that goes to show, art is alive and well... It's encouraging to me.
Donna

Here's the Barrel Racer again! This is a painting that wanted to be finished in a certain way and it wouldn't let me stop until I got the job done. I don't think she'll be begging me to do anything more to her ....I think she's really finished!

I spent the last few days at the Charlie Russell art show in Great Falls. My head is swimming with all the beauty I saw. I met several artists who's work I've admired for years. There's nothing like talking to other artists and learning from them. I exhibited my work with the Studio 706 artists in the High Plains Heritage Museum.

I've done several hours more work on this, so I'm posting the update. It looks, to me, much more lifelike and real. I had to figure out a lot of things on this. It was a learning experience!
donna

A Barrel Racer and her horse.

Promise not to laugh. I haven't done that many people in my paintings. Perhaps, I should not do any more. ha. In my mind, I call her the Buxom Barrel Racer. This has been a learning experience and that's all it is. But I posted it anyway. It's my effort for today and yesterday.

I was busy yesterday and the day before trying to get frames on all the paintings. They're going to hang at the Charlie Russel Show in Great Falls this week. It's nerve wracking to get frames on everything, make sure the glass is clean, make sure they hang correctly. Make sure they don't look funny...But I had to try to paint in the middle of it all too.....
Donna

"Fightin' Flies"
Horses spend a lot of time in Montana, just fighting flies! These horses were near Heart Butte, on a hill top. Catching the breeze as much as they could and working together to fight off the darn bugs. I've even put the flies in this painting! You can see them buzzing around the horses. Ears are flopping, horses are pushing against each other, tails are swishing... it's fly time in Montana!
donna

"Prairie Run"
Here's another in my prairie series. I worked on this yesterday. There are four horses racing across the prairie. I liked it because they were all so close together. You can barely tell there are four horses here. In the photo I worked from, the horses legs are intertwined, yet that doesn't slow them down. The tail of one horse, is over another horses back. I don't know if you can see those details on your computer or not. This is an 8X10 watercolor on gessoed matboard. I'm liking this surface to paint on more and more. I discovered it when I was looking for a sturdy surface to paint ACEO cards on. After doing several of them this way, I decided to try something a little larger. I've heard there's a watercolor paper called Yupo that's something like this. I'd like to try it someday, I think I'll send out for some paper samples....
donna

"Moonlight"
Here's an ACEO card for the day. I pretty much invented this horse grazing in the moonlight. I like the rosy glow he has. donna

"The All Stars"
Horses grazing the Montana prairies and each of them has a star on it's forehead. I thought they were cute. I'm in the middle of doing a prairie series of paintings. You can tell that, can't you? This painting is 8X10 and I'm asking $75 for it. You can purchse it here, from this pay pal button, or you can find it on my website when I get it posted there. Donna

I don't know what to call this painting...so it hasn't got a name yet. It's the third wolf painting I've done in my life so I'm calling it wolf 3 to myself! Thanks to warrickh in the wet canvas reference library for providing the photo I used to create this painting. It's 5X7 inch and is for sale for $50.00 possibly on ebay and on my website when I get it posted there. Donna

"Pecking Order"
I decided to name this Pecking Order because of the relationship between these horses. I like the way the sorrel horse is obviously the boss! The Appie mare is next, she's boss over the blue horse. Look at the way he has his front hooves planted so he doesn't get any closer to her. She's stopped his foreward movement while she's in a hurry to get out of the way of the sorrel's teeth.

Horses are endlessly fascinating to me. I love watching them and seeing what they do.

This painting is a 5X7 on gessoed mat board. A watercolor. It's for sale on my website for $50.00 with a paypal button to make it easy for you to purchase it.
donna

Here's the second installment. My parents are visiting us this weekend so I got up early to paint. Like I was up at 4 am...I just couldn't help it, I wanted some time in the studio. I got this far on this painting and finished Sun Seekers 2. Now I'm going to go visit. I hear my parents in the living room, looking for someone to visit! :) Donna

WIP. A Work In Progress. Artist's like to say, wip. We post the steps on the internet and show each other how we begin a painting. Sometimes, people are interested to see how paintings begin. This painting is a 5X7 watercolor on gessoed mat board. I began this painting by throwing in some basic shapes of horses and land in blue and yellows. This painting is called, "Don't Cross Us!" A crabby appaloosa mare walked in front of two buddies and she made them mad. Now the fight is on. Next installment coming soon. donna

"Sun Seekers 2"
Another horse and rider, enjoying the last of the day. This is an ACEO art card also, original watercolor on gessoed mat board.

I think half the problem of becoming an artist is getting your own reference material. Once you have a huge reference library of your own photos, you can scroll through them, choosing which ones you wish to paint for the day. I now have thousands of photos. The one thing that's made them handy for me, is having the digital camera and the computer. I paint and draw from life, but most of my work comes from looking at my photos on the screen. I can remember the feel of this scene from being there and I think the paintings reflect that feel. This rider was at the Kentucky Horse Park when I snapped the photo I used for this painting. Donna

"Sun Seekers"
A girl and her pony, out catching the last rays of sun for the day. They look so happy. I took a photo of this pair when we were at the Kentucky Horse Park.

I got tired of working on the hot press water paper all ready. I think the gessoed mat board is my favorite to work on. The colors stay so washy and clean on this surface.
Donna

"On the Shady Side"
He's on the shady side, the shady side of the barn!
ACEO on ebay today, will be at auction for 7 days.
donna