Spike, a buck deer, ACEO card. Ridgway.

"Spike"
This little buck deer has a story behind him. Robert and I stopped one day to photograph a herd of deer. All the deer herd except one, woke up and stood up to run. One doe was sleeping so hard in the warm sunshine, she didn't wake up as we watched them and I photographed them all. This little buck, went to the sleeping doe and reached out to touch her on the cheek with his nose. She was sleeping so soundly she still didn't wake up!

He then reached out and nudged her with one front hoof. It was the most amazing sight and I have the sequence of photos on my computer. When this buck nudged the doe with his hoof, she woke up, she had such a sleepy look on her face. She realized there was danger and she jumped to her feet and she and the buck joined the rest of the herd. This painting is of the buck as he ran off.

I'm in the position of needing inventory for a show, so I'm not posting much on ebay at the moment. In fact, the Christmas cow sold last night and I was especially thinking she'd be nice for two upcoming shows. I sure can't complain when I sell something though! So if you see something you like, don't hesitate to let me know.

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Thanks for stopping by!
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.

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

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

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

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