Brushing the donkey's teeth.

Went in to the dentist the other day to get our teeth cleaned. You know the drill. While they have you tipped upside down in this chair, with their two hands and about four instruments in your mouth, they start to tell you their life's history or if you're lucky, you get one who tells you jokes and crazy stories.

Either way, it isn't easy for here's this person who's hands are in your mouth, scratching away on your teeth, and she's talking away. Common courtesy tells you not to ignore them, right? So you try to answer them, and you end up spitting all over them...what do you do?

They say in a bad situation to try to come away with something constructive. So what I learned from the dental hygenist is how important it is to have clean teeth. Same message they all have, so what?

Well my fertile brain took a big leap from my own (now very clean teeth) to how dirty Daisy's teeth are! Now I wouldn't try this on Pedro, he's dignified. He'd immediately take one look at that toothbrush and say "Ain't no way, Jose!"

Not Daisy, she's such a dork, she'll try anything once! So I proceeded to brush her teeth.... Salt and soda, like they did it in the old days.







Daisy was such a willing participant! And notice how Pedro snuck up there, a little bit at a time so he could watch...

A donkey can be more fun than a whole barrel of monkeys. :)
Donna

Donkey ears photos, which one?

The thing you love about a donkey is their ears!

I took photos of our Daisy's ears and got two I really liked. Now the problem is, I can't decide which one I like best. They are very similar.

The bottom photo gives you a hint of where her eye is, even though you don't see the eye. It also shows both of her ears.

But there's some reason, I seem to like the top photo better.

I wanted my photo of Daisy's ears to capture her softness, her fuzziness, her cute personality and the wonderful expression of her ears. The background color worked perfectly with what I wanted to convey..the colors matched the colors of Daisy, so they help to create a soft harmonious look.

In the top photo the one ear is definitely the center of interest. I think that's why I like it best.

What do you think? And why do you like one photo over the other? You can click the photos to enlarge them.
Donna Ridgway
Email Me if you have questions, or want to inquire about purchasing a painting or photo.

Remember, you can find horse art, Western art, Mule and Donkey art
wildlife art, cow art, and animal paintings, my Montana Photosfor sale on my website.

Donkey's Eating Candy

My mom was a good donkey grandma! She bought them the licking candy things. At first they didn't know how to use them! I had to go get some molasses and once the licks were covered with that a few times, the donkeys started right in working away. It's so cute to watch them as their eyes glaze over and they look like they're in slobber heaven!

On the art note, the panel I received is driving me quite crazy. I've spent a solid three days painting and repainting, trying to make it look right without losing what was on it at the beginning. But it's coming along and I should be able to show it to you before long.
Donna
Email Meif you have questions, or want to inquire about purchasing a painting.

Remember, you can find horse art, Western art, Mule and Donkey art
wildlife art, cow art, and animal paintings, for sale on my website.

Painting Pedro

My scan went a little bit crooked. But here's the start of my painting of Pedro, our new donkey. He's a very interesting donkey. My take on his actions is this, he had a wonderful home when he was growing up, then I think he was sold to someone who maybe wasn't so nice to him. We bought him from some people who were very kind to him so he doesn't totally expect the worst from you when you want to feed him pellets, or brush him down. But he's extremely shy and wary...very afraid you'll throw a bucket at him or hit him with it. He doesn't like buckets at all.

He doesn't like gloves either. So we hand feed him his treats and we don't wear gloves around him. He also jerks away from you when you try to lead him somewhere. Only if he doesn't want to go, or if he gets scared. Rest of the time, he leads like a dream. He's 10 years old so who knows how long it will take to get him to trust us.

Pedro let me brush him down the other day, he really liked it. I walked up to him carrying the dreaded bucket full of pellets under my left arm and the curry comb was in my left hand. When I reached into the bucket for pellets with my right hand, to get the pellets, he had to come close to the curry comb. He gradually accepted the idea of what I had in my hand. I knew he'd probably seen one before and he knew what they were for. It took about 15 minutes for him to decide I could brush his dirty little hide. But then he really liked it.

We're loving Pedro, he's very much a member of the family, along with Sing Song and Scarlet, and the wild rabbits and squirrels.

In this painting, I've just drawn his shape with my paint brush, onto the canvas and blocked in some forms behind him. I added a little burnt sienna to white to create the highlights on his form. I don't usually like the color that mixture makes, but on this painting, it's right because it is the color of Pedro.

Thanks for stopping by this blog and looking at my work in progress. Come back to see more! :) Donna