Chicken painting, watercolor chicken by Donna Ridgway

I believe she's looking at a tasty bug. She seems very intent, and she doesn't care at the moment if her feathers are a little mussed. She's about to strike and let that bug slide right down her throat!

I didn't know I would enjoy painting chickens as much as I do.

I used to raise at least 50 chickens a year for the meat.  It was a big job butchering them and I didn't like it much but it was kind of necessary to have good meat in the freezer for the year. The part I didn't care for much was that my chickens were my friends along with providing meat.

The kids and I had pets we loved among the laying hens. They'd walk up to us, and wait to be picked up and loved. I miss that about my chickens.

Donna

Black Chicken painting, watercolor on Yupo paper.

Here's a little black chicken. She's going to a new home tomorrow! I'm glad, she's a nice little chicken but someone really wanted her and that is nice.

Donna

White tail doe finished

This did not turn out to be much of a work in progress! The reason for that is because she almost painted herself! I got so involved in painting her, I just didn't think to stop and scan her in the process.  That's the fun of painting, sometimes you get totally lost in it.

Donna

Work in progress painting, watercolor on Yupo paper. First scan.

I'm beginning a painting, watercolor on Yupo paper. A very wary deer! I hope she's going to be adorable, but I never know at this stage of the game.

I'll be making adjustments from here on out....this is the beginning drawing, just putting something down on paper so I have the start of a plan to work with.

She's probably thinking, "Can I trust you or not?"

I'm using a photo for this painting by Crystal Stacey -Feather Edged Photography, from the photos for artists group on Facebook.

I have thousands of photos of my own, but it's so nice to work from someone else's photos also. Thank you to Crystal for making this available for artist's use.

Old Hopeful, portrait of a dog, begging for treats.

Here's to high hopes! Look at this guy. His cheek is full of treats he's gathered, and he's hoping to get at least one more!  

I don't always use my own reference photos, this was painted using a photo that Karen Broemmelsick took with her camera. Using her photo, I kind of exaggerated the size of the ears, and the size of the muzzle to create this dog.

Her photo was wonderful, the expression in the dog's eyes was worth a million bucks! Thank you Karen for making your photo available in the photos for artists group on Facebook.

Sincerely,

Donna Ridgway

Bison, original watercolor painting, wildlife art.

In "real life" this bison was out on the prairie, with the Rocky Mountains behind him.  He was following a cow, and feeling his "Cheerioats"!  I loved the way his fur on his face went this way and that way...it was certainly fun to paint. Their fur (wool?  fiber? fleece?) is so soft, it's like touching a cloud. It's kind of unexpected to know such large, tough, animals can be so soft.

I hope your day is interesting and full of new things!

Donna Ridgway

Original painting of a mule deer, watercolor, wildlife art.

Robert and I were driving near the Dearborn River when I took photos of some mule deer. That was a few years ago, and I just painted this deer from those photos, this month.  Sometimes it takes me a while to get to all my plans. I did like how this deer turned out, it made me happy!

Donna Ridgway

Raven in the Woods

8X9 inches

Watercolor on Yupo paper

In my Etsy shop

In some cultures ravens are associated with healing. I hope my raven helps to heal my friend who is ill. I've not painted many birds, so this was quite fun to notice all the differences in his eyes, compared to horse's, dog's and cat's eyes. And then there are all those wonderful feathers and finding the best way to portray them...I enjoyed the challenge and painting the raven was great fun.

The day I began this painting, Robert and I installed a row of cedar board fence behind our house. By the time the day was finished, and I got into the studio it was late.  I was so tired I had a time walking to the studio.

But I joined the dailypaintworks to create a painting a day and that painting had not been created yet! So I slogged my way to the studio and sat down to make a painting...I feel quite committed to this process.

So here is a raven for you....
Donna

As it goes, I'm still painting flowers.

For a while, as I was painting flowers, they tried to become more and more real! I didn't want that.
I wanted these to be kind of impossible and fun looking! Preposterous flowers! :)

So I found working in abstract is just as difficult as it is trying to recreate a form of reality. I have to work at it to keep the flowers crazy and abstract.

The flowers at the top of this post are so far away from reality I made a poem for them:

Are these flowers?
Or are they not?
And if they are.....
What kind have you got?
Donna Ridgway

More "Forever Flowers", floral paintings.

The Fire Vase

8X8 inches on gallery wrapped canvas

A bright red vase, full of happy flowers. I think that is some kind of fire weed in there with the flowers, it's very pretty!

I'm still painting a bouquet of flowers each day for my friend who is ill. I did not know I'd like painting flowers as much as I do. It's surprising to me, because I've always painted animals before. But I'm learning a lot, studying a lot, and enjoying the process of painting these flowers.

Donna

Inspiration comes in many ways.

I watched a video on You Tube by an artist named Sandrine Pelessier. Her work fascinated me, I couldn't get it out of my mind. At almost the same time, my friend became ill. I wished I could send her flowers every single day.

So one day I got brave and I painted some flowers after watching several of Sandrine's videos. I was happy with the result and learned I loved painting flowers! So I painted more and more and more of them!

And that is why you see flowers on my page now.  I call them "Forever Flowers" because you can send them to someone and they will not fade or die. What a lovely thing! 

You can purchase forever flowers in my Etsy store which is on a link to the top of the page and to the right.

Donna

Horse singing to a "dark moon", equine art.

"Dark Moon"

9X12 inch acrylic painting

The poor old moon! He feels like crying....all his stars have shrunk, you can barely see them shining in the sky. There is so much pollution in the air, he wishes he could make it go away so his stars could shine the way they should!

The horse is singing to him, trying to comfort him for the moon is very sad.

I sure hope it works and the moon cheers up soon.  

Donna

Floating watercolor on Yupo paper, horse art.

There's a technique I like to do on Yupo paper, where I lay down a color, let it dry, and then carefully "float" another color over the top of the dry color.  This is not easy to do on Yupo paper.  It's fairly simple on normal watercolor paper because the paint soaks into the paper and doesn't rewet that easily.

But on Yupo paper, the paint dries sitting on top of the surface.  That is because Yupo is plastic paper. It's surface is slick and totally non absorbent.

With this horse, I covered the paper with a very wet wash of Cerulean Blue.  It was random, and variegated in value. As that was drying, I drew into the wet paint, making marks that determined where the eyes were, where the nose was, where the ears went....As the paint dries, I am able to refine the drawing and create details.

After that layer  of paint was completely dry, I mixed a very loose wash of yellow ochre paint, making sure I had plenty of it to finish the painting. I knew I had to lay that color down without making one mistake, which is quite terrifying when you have spent hours creating a drawing you like!

I began laying the yellow ochre down in areas of brightest light on the horse. That went well so I continued with a very wet brush, laying the color over the blue in shadowed and detailed areas.

If this failed, and the color mixed, I'd get a green horse, if it was successful, I'd get a horse in which the colors seem to vibrate and have a life of their own.

The colors did not mix, they seem vibrant and lively and I loved what happend here. The horse kind of looks like he's ready to blink or move toward you.  I think those lively colors help to create that effect of life in this piece.

He was posted on the dailypaintworks.com today and now he is sold. Thank you very much to those of you who purchase my work. It means the world to me. :)

Donna

Wake up Mr Moon! Equine art painting.

"Wake up Mr Moon!"

9X12 inch original painting

Acrylic, inks, varnish on acrylic paper.

"Wake up Mr Moon! You gave your stars new slippers yesterday and they are driving me crazy now. Your stars like the new boots and they're so excited about them, they tumble out of the sky. They land on my back, dance their way up my spine and use my ears for springboards. I'm getting real tired of this."

"My mistress and I moved 200 head of cattle to summer pasture today and I'm tired! I want to rest!" The horse shook his head and neighed impatiently, " WAKE UP MOON!"

The moon raised one sleepy eye and replied," Yesterday you complained the pointed toes on my stars hurt your back. So I worked myself silly yesterday to create new slippers for every star." The moon yawned a big big yawn and rubbed his eyes. "Now! Appreciate the slippers and let me sleep!"

The horse bowed his head and thought. He felt terrible. He didn't know the moon had been thinking of HIM when he made those slippers for his stars. He slunk over the hill while the soft slippers of the stars danced across his back. The stars had heard his complaints to the moon.

Each star came softly to the horse's ears, and whispered, "We're sorry. We were just having so much fun." And they spun away into the sky.

The horse felt lonely after they'd gone, after all they were kind of cute with their new slippers and their goofy ways.

He shook his head and his mane fell softly over his neck, silvery in the moonlight that shone from the still sleepy moon.

"I'm sorry", he spoke to the moon, "Next time you do something like this, I'll ask you why you did it before I get angry with you."

Many low whispers echoed to the horse on the wind, "Apology accepted. Are we still friends?" And he knew they came from the moon -and the stars.

"Yes, we are still friends."

The stars went along to dance and play somewhere else and the moon and horse had the good nights sleep they craved.

copyright Donna Ridgway 2015

Painting like crazy lately!

Robert and I were out taking photos one day near Gibson Dam. The mountain sheep rams were below us, near the river. I was peeking over the edge at them, taking photos of them from above, when they decided to climb the cliff and come up to where we were.

Most of the rams, as they walked by me, kind of hurried on by, this one stopped to look at me as I was looking at him.  I took several photos of him.

I liked the intelligence and curiosity I saw shining from his eyes.

I had to paint him!

Bucky

 And once there was a horse named Bucky who loved the snow and the winds of winter. The other horses on the ranch called him crazy because he was running and bucking his way through cold weather!An early fall blizzard came. The cattle were high on the mountain on fall pasture.The rancher knew he needed his toughest winter horse to bring the cattle from the forests where they held up-not wanting to face the storm.

Bucky and the rancher headed up the mountain and through the long cold day-they moved cattle down lower and lower toward the ranch and good piles of hay. It grew dark but Bucky didn't lose his way. He brought the rancher and his cattle home.
**********
Way way back when my mom was young, my grandfather's sister and her husband wanted a ranch. They worked in Billings, Mt at the telegraph office, saved every dime they had. When they had enough to buy another homestead, they'd send my grandfather the money and he'd go buy them some more land.Pretty soon they had land and cattle on the mountain, but they still lived in town. My grandfather went to their place and looked after their cattle and his own.A blizzard came, and there was no other way to get to the cattle at the other ranch, so my grandfather rode on his horse Bjorken, who was an Arabian stud, at that time, my grandfather wanted to raise Arabians. Bjorken was the start of his herd.He and the horse made it to the cattle and got them fed, but on the way home they almost froze to death. The horse saved my grandfather's life.
And that is a true story!
You can maybe see why I like stories, I grew up on them....

"Stars in His Eyes"

One night I went out into the pasture to visit my horse. As I came over the ridge, I heard him talking and more surprising to me-I knew what he was saying. He was talking to the moon and this is what he said,"I want you to start keeping your darn stars in the sky! You let them run wild and they fall on me! This one landed on my eye!" (He doesn't seem to like having stars in his eyes?)The moon replied,"I don't know why you are complaining-they don't hurt."

"I know they don't hurt," the horse spoke disgustedly. "But they annoy me!"So the moon said, "I'm sorry-it's something in the cosmos-they're very silly tonight. Why I have one with me now, trying to talk some sense into his head-trying to get him to behave himself. I can't spank them you know, the star police would be after me in a minute!!I walked closer to my horse. He saw me and stopped talking. The moon went silent and turned his back on us."If you will permit me...." I reached up and pulled the star from my horse's forehead. I pulled back my arm and threw the star like a frisbee-back into the sky where he belonged.My horse looked at me in star-struck wonder! He galloped round the field-grabbing fallen stars with his teeth-tossing them higher and higher!The stars shook star dust trails as they flew back into the sky. It became hard to know, which stars were falling and which were rising!I had the time of my life and so did my horse! The man in the moon nearly fell from the sky with laughing! And the stars...oh you should have seen them-glowing and happy in their stardust sky.
copyright Donna Ridgway 2015

I guess you can tell by now, when I create my "fantasy" horses, they tell me stories! I share them with you here, but please remember they are my own copyrighted work, the stories and the paintings.

Donna

Working on a painting of a goat with horns.

This is going to be called, I think, A Goat in Sunshine. I've got the front half of him blocked in, now to get the rest of him finished.  I think he'll look better all brown, I might not make his belly and rear end white as it is in the photo.

Once again, I'm not using my own photo, photo credit here goes to Angela Frank.

I don't trace my subjects, I like to begin painting and drawing with paint right on the surface of the paper.  I lay down some washes of paint, let them dry, then scrape out the form of the subject with a fairly dry brush.  After that, I begin to draw in detail after detail, working into finer and finer details as I go along.  Pretty soon, I begin to feel amazed that my painting looks like the subject at hand.

I'll post updates as this goes along.

Donna

She wants to be a star! Equine art acrylic painting.

"She wants to be a star"

9X12 inch

Acrylic on heavy paper

After working so hard to create my painting "Thinking of Cecil" yesterday, I wanted something fun and relaxing to work on today.  So I began to paint, and in my mind I'm asking this horse what do you want to be?  How do you want me to paint you?

She did not reply so I began painting blind, adding some colors, Creating some textures with my homemade stamp, adding some more layers of color....and all the time asking what this horse wanted to be!  

Finally I heard this little whisper, "I want to be green.  Bright green, I'm Irish you know."

Well that was a start!  "A bright green horse you will become," I told my painting.

Then I began to ask more questions, like ok bright green horse, "What are your hopes and dreams?"

Finally I heard a shout! "I want to be a star!"

What a funny horse this is...she takes forever to answer my questions, and when she finally answers I'm so surprised.  I thought maybe she'd want to become an Indian war pony, or a race horse...

No way, she wants to be a green Irish star!  So I made her a star, she's the star in this painting.

You see it never hurts to tell someone your hopes and dreams.  Speaking up and telling someone your dreams helps them come true!

Doesn't matter if you're a green Irish star of a funny painting, or a wild Indian pony running over the plains, it's your dream.

I hope all your dreams come true!

Donna

Thinking of Cecil, lion painting, watercolor, on Yupo paper.

"Thinking of Cecil"

9X12 inches on Yupo paper

Watercolor painting of lion

I'm in a group on Facebook called Paw Prints for Animals and in that group, there's a challenge to paint something depicting the sanctity of African wildlife.

I decided to paint a lion, using a photograph, which Heather Ward graciously provided. I was thinking of Cecil the lion the entire time I painted this and how his life was snuffed out for no apparent good reason.

It was a project that required all my concentration!  I slept like a log after I created this painting!

I hope you enjoy seeing it here today.

Donna

LIttle yard bunny, watches me in the garden each day.

Cottontails are interesting little creatures, those who live with us, will sit maybe six feet away from us and watch us carefully as we work around the yard.  They seem to love it when we talk to them.  They're very good listeners!

In the wild, average age for a cottontail is about three years, I'd like to think maybe ours live a bit longer than that. We do help them in winter when the snow is deep and they can't get to the grass.  We have rabbit feeders we put out under our camper.

Hawks and coyotes hunt here, so we do see bits of fur in the yard at times.  It's sad to see but it's also nature's way.  Hawks need to eat too.

Our garden boxes are about 3 feet high, so the rabbits don't get into my produce. :)  Otherwise, I'd be limited on what I harvest!

Hope you enjoyed seeing this little guy.

Donna

Ledger art, new to me, been around for centuries!

Ledger art, I've always loved it, but didn't know it had an actual name and was an art form. It has a fascinating history. One of my friends told me my latest paintings reminded her of this form of art, so I had to look it up and learn about it.

I thought you might enjoy seeing it also.
,
Taken directly from Wikipedia, description of Ledger art:

• "Historical precedents[edit]

  
  

  The Sand Creek massacre as drawn by eyewitness Howling Wolf(1874–1875).
  Ledger art evolved from Plains hide painting.^[1] Among Plains tribes, women traditionally paint abstract, geometrical designs, whereas men paint representational designs. The men's designs were often heraldic devices or visions painted on shields, tipis, shirts, leggings, or robes. Before the Plains tribes were forced to live on reservations in the 1870s, men generally painted personal feats in battle or hunting.^[2] Plains ledger art depicted communally acknowledged events of valor and tribal importance in order to gain status for the individuals who participated in them, and their band and kin. Plains pictorial art emphasizes narrative action and eliminates unnecessary detail or backgrounds.^[3] Figures tended to be drawn in hard outlines and filled with solid fields of color.^[4]
  These were all traditionally painted on animal hides – particularly buffalo hides. When buffalo became scarce after eradication programs encouraged by the US federal government, Plains artists began painting and drawing on paper, canvas, and muslin.^[1]

  New materials[edit]

  An increasing supply of ledger books and other paper came from traders, government agents, missionaries, and military officers.^[5] With these came pencils, ink fountain pens, crayons, and watercolor paints.^[6] These new tools allowed for greater detail and experimentation than the earlier tools, such as bone or wood styli dipped in mineral pigments, had. The compact ledger books and pencils were highly portable, making them ideal for nomadic lifestyles.^[7]

  Fort Marion[edit]

  
  

  Drawing by Black Hawk (Sans Arc Lakota), c. 1880 depicting a horned Thunder Being (Haokah) on a horse-like creature with eagle talons and buffalo horns. The creature's tail forms a rainbow that represents the entrance to the Spirit World, and the dots represent hail. Accompanying the picture on the page were the words: "Dream or vision of himself changed to a destroyer and riding a buffalo eagle."
  The most celebrated ledger artists were prisoners of war at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida. In 1874, in what became known as the Red River War or Buffalo War, a group of Cheyenne, Kiowa, Comanche, Arapaho, and Caddowarriors fought the US Army to protect the last free herd of buffalo and to assert their autonomy.^[8] In the harsh winter of 1874 to 1875, many tribal camps were forced to surrender to various Indian agencies, and the supposed leaders of the Red River War were rounded up and sent to Fort Marion.^[9] From 1875 to 1878, the 71 men and one woman were under the command of Richard Henry Pratt, who used the opportunity to give the Indians a Western education.^[10] He provided the prisoners with basic art supplies such as pencils, ink, crayons, watercolor paint, and paper.
  Twenty-six of the Fort Marion prisoners engaged in drawing. They were younger Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa men.^[11] Some of the most prolific and well-known artists include Paul Caryl Zotom (Kiowa); David Pendleton Oakerhater or Making Medicine (Cheyenne); Tichkematse or Squint Eyes (Cheyenne); Wohaw (Kiowa); Howling Wolf (Cheyenne);Etahdleuh Doanmoe (Kiowa); White Bear (Arapaho); Koba (Kiowa); and Bear’s Heart (Cheyenne). Tichtematse, Howling Wolf, White Bear, and Koba all continued drawing after their release from prison.^[12]

  Subject matter[edit]

  Battle exploits dominated ledger art. Other traditional themes such as hunting, courtship,^[13] and religious practices were common subjects. Ledger artists also documented their rapidly changing environment by portraying encroaching European Americans and new technologies such as trains and cameras. Many ledger artists worked with ethnologists, by documenting shield and tipi designs, ethnobotanical information, winter counts, dance customs and regalia, and other cultural information. Dreams and visions inspired ledger art just as they had inspired earlier hide paintings.^[14]
  The artists creating ledger art today often reference pre-reservation lifeways, historical transitions, and social commentary. They use this style to illustrate cultural continuity between historical and contemporary Native life.^[13]

  As fine art[edit]

  
  

  The warrior "Low Dog" by Red Dog, 1884 ledger art
  Missionaries, anthropologists, and tourists eagerly collected ledger books in the late 19th century. Carl Sweezy (1881–1953) (Arapaho) and Haungooah (Silver Horn) (1860–1940) (Kiowa) both established professional careers as ledger artists.
  They inspired the Kiowa Five or, as they are increasingly known, the Kiowa Six. These artists painted with more sophisticated materials and met with international success when they exhibited their work in the 1928 International Art Congress in Prague,Czechoslovakia.

  Today[edit]

  Numerous modern Plains artists create ledger paintings. Many seek out 19th-century documents on which to paint, creating ironic juxtapositions between the printed text and the paintings. Dwayne Wilcox (Oglala Lakota) uses the style of 19th-century Lakota painters to express humorous views of modern realities for Lakota people. Arthur Amiotte (Oglala Lakota) builds upon the collage aspect of ledger art and combines text, photography, naturalistic painting and stylized Plains pictorial art in his work.Dolores Purdy Corcoran (Caddo/Winnebago) is a female ledger artist who uses bright colors and female figures frequently in her work.^[15]"

End wikipedia text