Montana Appaloosa, Missoula Carousel Horse, oil painting.

A few years ago, the Missoula Carousel had their 10th anniversary. The anniversary party was a fund raiser for the carousel. I volunteered to do a painting for the party, and this painting, along with others by other artists, was to be raffled off to create funds to keep the carousel operating. Once the painting was gone, and the party was over, I never learned who bought the painting and didn't know where it went. Today, we arrived at my parents house, and soon afterward, my son arrived with my grandson. My grandson was holding photos of this painting. My son said, "Hey Nathan, give those pictures to your grandma." I looked at the photos and asked my son, "Where did you get photos of my painting?" He replied, with a funny look on his face, "Mom, that's not your painting!" I said, "Yes it is, how'd you get photos of it?" He said, "I saw this painting in one of the big hotels in Spokane, I thought you'd like the painting so I took pictures of it. It's not your painting." I started to laugh and I said, "Johnnie, I did that painting for the Missoula carousel's 10th anniversary party-it's MY PAINTING! I promise you, I painted it." He started laughing, he said, "Well, I saw this in an exhibit in a hotel in Spokane last year, and I thought you'd like to see this painting, so I took pictures of it. It took me a year to remember to bring the pictures to you." My son saw the painting in a hotel in Spokane, didn't know I'd created the painting, and brought me pictures of it because he thought I'd like to see it. I think that's so funny. He said he didn't even look at the signature on the painting. And now I know a little bit of the history of what happened to my painting after it was auctioned off years ago. I don't know if the painting was purchased by the hotel at the auction in Missoula, Mt, or if it ended up there some other way, but it's fun to know a little bit about what's happened to it. Donna Ridgway

Sunshine Girl, my horse Class, an acrylic horse painting.

Classy was walking toward me, and the sun was shining right through her eye. It gave her an eye the color of a lion's eye. Seemed interesting to me, so I had to paint her as a Sunshine Girl!
Donna Ridgway

Leopard Appie with Spot on his Ear.

My friend, Linda Shantz, is having a busy month, what with writing projects, caring for horses, and painting a horse a day, she's one busy lady! The weather isn't co-operating with her, as the rain makes her horses muddy and causes a lot of extra work.

I got to thinking about when I was creating at least one painting a day, and how it's hard to come up with reference material of your own when you're doing that kind of project. You get so familiar with your own photos, sometimes it's hard to see the forest for the trees and you can't decide which photo you want to paint from on any given day.

So I sent her a photo from my collection, of a horse with a cute look in his eye. I didn't know what day she would paint that horse, but she did tell me was going to use him. When I saw her blog, with that horse and the cute look in his eye, I recognized him in one second. She did such a great job of painting him!

Here's a couple more photos of that same horse, he's got such an odd spot on his ear, and see below, he has vertical stripes down his front legs! I just think that's interesting. I wish he was mine, I could really get used to the way he looks!

Hope you enjoyed seeing him too...
Donna Ridgway

My Fire Fox, horse oil painting

Fire Fox, a glorious buckskin horse, bows to the morning sun. He welcomes the warmth of the coming day, his spirit is in tune with the world in which he lives.

Seeing this horse in your home each day, brings a sense of peaceful harmony.

$350, 12X16 oil painting. I accept paypal. Free Shipping. Inquire

3 in a row, horse photo.

There's something about this photo that catches my attention. It could be that I spent about three hours out in the horse pasture to finally catch three horses lined up like elephants marching!

I like the way their forms are repeated right down to the end. You kind of wonder what you're looking at, then the tail on the last horse gives it all away. You can tell from that tail, these are horses.

And just for fun, here they are in living color. I go back and forth as to how I like to look at them best....Class, Bunch and Murphy, all in a row!
Donna Ridgway

I down and dirty, double dog-dare you!

To join my Facebook challenge event!

The challenge is this: Consider shopping with an artist this Christmas! It doesn't have to be me, I'm suggesting shopping from any artist you know or find on the web. You'll have the most comfortable shopping experience you can imagine! You'll probably meet a new friend, and you'll have an item for a gift, that's so unique and wonderful, the recipient will never forget it, or you!

Go to etsy.com or ebay.com and shop type in the search bar, "original art from the artist", lots of things will pop up for you to consider.

Or...go directly to your favorite artists website, purchase an original or a print. It probably won't cost near what you think it would.

Here's an idea for you, my friend, Sheona Hamilton, has designed Christmas cards from two of my photos. Her cards are wonderful, something you won't find anywhere else...unique...elegant...what else can I say about them? Send them to your Christmas list this year, and you won't be forgotten!

On etsy, do a search for WWAO, you'll find silk screened art, handmade jewelry, art prints, original art, pottery, clay sculptures...more than you can ever imagine! And the aceo cards! Start a collection for your grandchildren, they'll learn to appreciate art and the joys of collecting specialized treasures.

I could go on forever, but I'm off to buy a present I found for my mom from a fellow WWAO artist.... I'll be posting the gift on my double dog dare you page...
Donna Ridgway

Make it a WWAO Christmas!

Just a note here, to remind everyone, handmade, original items make great Christmas gifts. At the World Wide Women Online Christmas store, you can purchase, fabric art, paintings, dolls, sculpture, anything an artist can create!

The gifts are unique and exciting, the kinds of things you won't find in any Wal Mart, Sears, Macy's etc......

The store rotates through the gamut of WWAO artists, you'll find different items featured each time you visit. Shopping is extremely easy with paypal, through Etsy.

Come by and have a look!
Donna Ridgway

The Silly Filly, horse pictures.

The Silly Filly is kind of flirty and coy. She's exceptionally cute. Thought I'd share some of my photos of her today.

As it turns out, we took Daisy donkey back to the rescue where we got her from. She hasn't quite worked out for us. She's mean to Pedro and today she walked right through the fence to escape onto the road. Thank goodness she didn't head for the highway. After the accident a while back, we didn't want to be the cause of another one, so Daisy went back home.

Pedro leaves the fences alone and he minds his manners so well, it was hard to put up with Daisy's antics for much longer. He doesn't seem to miss Daisy, I think he was relieved to have the place to himself again.

Good thing is, Daisy returns to a place she's well loved and we'll probably visit her now and then.

The Silly Filly is one of Daisy's old friends, so they're united again.
Donna

A walk in the woods.

Robert and I went for a walk in the woods, and came upon this eagle, landing on his nest. It was quite a gruesome site! Click the photo to look at his nest closely, he's got deer antlers and all kinds of things in there, not counting the human skeleton. He was a pretty big eagle to be able to carry all that stuff into the nest!

We ran as fast as we could!

And I hope you don't believe a word of it, because none of it is true. LOL. Someone in Lincoln, Montana set this up over Halloween, it's sitting on main street. I just did a little photoshopping to take the buildings, power lines, roads, and solar panels.

Hope you liked the sculpture! :)
Donna Ridgway

Suzie Q, a watercolor painting of a cute cow!

Suzie Q is kind of cute with a bright look on her face and some grass hanging out her mouth. You can tell she was eating, as cows tend to do, when some movement in the pasture caught her attention. Maybe she's looking at a coyote who wandered across the field, or it could be you're bringing her a bucket of oats?

If you use your imagination, you can figure out what she sees!

It's always been my wish, to create a lot of paintings of animals, and maybe not put a very big price on them. I don't want you to have to be rich to buy one of my paintings. I'd rather have a hundred of these paintings out in homes where they're enjoyed, than to have them sitting on my shelf, crying at me to sell them somewhere!

So don't be afraid to ask about this painting. She isn't going to cost you much. She'll be in my Etsy shop for sale with a wonderful, decorative, gold frame around her. See...that wasn't so hard! You've just purchased a nice, original painting for a friend, and one Christmas gift is out of your way!
Thank you!
Donna Ridgway

Life and Death

I was in my studio painting when I heard the unmistakable sound of two cars, slamming head on into each other. I know the sound from a time when I was rear ended. Luckily, I walked away from it, unhurt.

I yelled at Robert who was half asleep sitting here on the couch on his computer. I was running toward the door as I went by him, "There's been a horrible crash, we need to see if they need help." I grabbed blankets and towels and ran to the highway and the site of the crash, he was right with me.

A lady was screaming in agony, her ankle was fractured and bleeding, people were all over the place wandering around kind of dazed, some of them were trying to help. There were teenagers, standing there with fear and disbelief on their faces.

Ir an back into the house to call 911 and bring flashlights.

We got the blankets on a man who'd been lying down in the back seat when the crash happened. He was unresponsive and had a bad head injury.

Our neighbors came running from all directions, wanting to see the action. One of them threw a burning cigarette on the ground. Gas from the smashed car was running toward the borrow ditch toward the cigarette, I stomped it out.

By this time, the emt's were arriving on the scene. One of them told me, you get out of here. So I came into the house.

I'm remembering Robert standing in the middle of the five lane highway, swinging the flashlight, trying to get traffic to slow down. Some of them honked their horns at him and blew right by.

If you can believe this, an emergency room doctor from Washington was one of the first cars upon the scene. He took immediate control. It was wonderful to have someone there who knew what needed to be done to care for the injured people.

When I got back into the house, tears fell from me like rain as I prayed for the injured people and their families. It came home to me, how sudden life can change. One moment you are down the highway, happy as a clam, tending to your family or singing songs, or rejoicing in high hopes of where you are headed. The next you are hurt and headed for the hospital, left to the care of strangers, either the good care, or the bad care, depending upon how much they might know of first aide. You are at their mercy.

I was also thinking this, people Robert and I tended to tonight, will never know who called 911, or who brought the blankets and towels or who stopped other cars from crashing into them...... And that is fine with me. For I believe God's angels are you and me, right here on this earth, sent to care for each other.

Even though we don't know who was in this terrible accident, please pray with me they will be ok.
Donna