More tribal, southwest horses paintings.

 

War Horses Welcoming Spring

Mother Earth is bursting full of spring and beginning to shower the meadows with flowers and spring colors of new grass and plants. This painting is 16x20, it is unframed, but it's on a half inch wrapped canvas so you can frame it if you wish. I have a wide golden frame here and this painting looks fantastic in that frame. As of December 5, 2021 I've got it listed in my Etsy shop.

"One Herd, Many Colors"

Horse herd racing across the prairie, many horses, of different colors, but all one herd.

This painting is 22X28 and is on a flat piece of masonite. It would require special framing. It's available in my Etsy shop.

"She Carries Light to her Horses"

What is this world without light? It helps us see, and it makes things grow! Mother Earth is doing her job.

This painting is small and is in my Etsy shop.

All three of these paintings are available as of Dec 5, 2021. I won't update this post as things sell, but all links go to my shop, so you might find something you like there even if these are gone.

I also have paintings represented by Equis Art Gallery, Red Hook, New York, and Paris Gibson Museum, Great Falls, Mt.

Horse paintings going to Equis Art Gallery

Another box of paintings is heading out today to The Equis Art Gallery in Red Hook, New York. These paintings will be represented by Juliet Harrison at the gallery so all inquiries go through the gallery. I'm honored to be in her "stable" of artists.

 

War Ponies

Meet N Greet

Horses of the Plains

Three Black Buffalo Runners

One Purple Horse

If you're near Red Hook, stop in and see the gallery!

 

Here are some of my latest paintings. This one is named, "On the Cave Wall".  It was represented by the Equis Art Gallery in Red Hook, New York and is sold.

"Carrying Sunshine to her Horses"

"She Reaches out to Many Things but Only Touches the Horse"

This is how some of the paintings begin. I painted the canvas black, I added a thick layer of white paint.  I drew and scribbled into the white paint, threw water on it and picked up the wet paint, and I dropped India Ink into the surface. That created the black and white image you see above.

"Oh How They Danced When The Horse was Created"

When I began to add color, I noticed those wild figures dancing in the background. This kind of reminded me of the days when I was in high school and I loved reading Greek Mythology. One figure is kind of devilish with horns and a tail but I left him in there as some horses are kind of full of mischief and devilish, they're not all perfect, lol!

When I'm painting, I have learned to step myself back and let a painting become what it wants. They just about always let me know. A day or two after I've created a painting, I can not recall the process of painting it, it feels like someone else must have done it.  It's hard to explain what happens when a painting is being created. The process takes over and I'm just a conduit.

"Thank You for the Blessings of the Horse"

Through much the same process a painting is created, the horse came about and Mother Earth loves her creation.

If you happen to come across this blog, I hope you enjoy it. It began many years ago and has a lot of posts.  Take a minute to look back on some of them! And thank you for being here.

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

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

Buffalo Hunter, horse painting.

Buffalo Hunter

8X10 inch

Acrylic and ink

'

Close up detail of Buffalo Hunter

I really liked the colors in this painting, nice soft earth tones appeal to something within me. And this painting came together very naturally, without struggle.  It's kind of fun when that happens with a painting.

It is for sale in my Etsy shop.

Moonlight Sonata, horse painting, moonlit sky

Moonlight Sonata
Sold

7X10 inch acrylic painting with inks on mixed media paper, an original painting.

Here's a horse singing in the moonlight.  Happy doodles and flourishes adorn the night sky.  He's very happy and content.

I recently joined the http://dailypaintworks.com, come by and see all the paintings there for sale! There's something for everyone.

Donna

Calling for Peace, small painting of a white horse.

Calling for peace, in a world where signs of battle are all around...

The thunderbirds are rising, the spirits are dancing...

5X7 inch acrylic on watercolor paper

Sold

I took the plunge and joined the dailypainters on dailypaintworks.com.  I've thought about doing this for years so you could say I didn't do this lightly! Lol.

This was the first painting I posted on their site. I do realize it might not always be this way, but this painting sold the first time it was presented on the site.  So it was reaffirming to join and have this happen.

Check out their site and see what you like there!  There's a painting there for everyone.

Donna

Having the time of my life, painting horses.

Have you ever had a revelation?

Well I just had one. I felt like I just learned the most amazing things! www.youtube.com/watch?v=S092EZ0L6bY by watching the Mimi Bondi videos.  It is so wonderful to have artist's who share what they have learned over time, with the rest of us.  You never know when something you see will strike a chord within you.  I feel like I've been turned out of the corral to run around the pasture!

I don't need a reference photo to create an equine painting any longer.  Just sit down and paint what comes straight from my heart.  It feels so good.

I hope you enjoy these paintings too. The originals can be purchased by inquiring at donnaridgway1@hotmail.com or as prints, laptop skins, phone skins, tote bags, shirts, skirts, leggings, etc on my Red Bubble site.

Donna

Dreamtime, a horse collage.

Prairie Madonna

Dreamtime

I've been working with prints of my paintings, to create new works which are created with many found objects.

All of them have egg shell on them, in honor of the first art teacher I ever had.  She was my grade school teacher, she taught me in 4th, 5th and 6th grades.  There were three people in my class, I went to a small rural school.  Each teacher taught three grades at once, except for the "big room" teacher, who taught 7th and 8th grades only.

This teacher loved art and she was a good artist.  I was the teachers pet for sure, I couldn't get enough of what she could show me about art.

For one of our projects, she had kids in her classes gather all the egg shells we could.  Our moms saved and dried hundreds and hundreds of egg shells.  When we had enough, our teacher crushed the shells, colored them, and had us glue a twine onto a board in the shape of a bird.  We filled in the outline with different colors, and created the wings, beak, and details of the bird.

So in her memory, you'll see egg shells on my collage work!

These collages are entered into the all member show of the International Equine Artists.  When the show is live, I'll let you know!

Good Medicine, Horse Totem

Have you read about totem animals? If you gaze at this image, and powerful feelings overwhelm you, the horse could be your totem animal. With study and meditation, you might discover this amazing animal wants to teach you many of life's lessons.

This image can be purchased  here as a framed print, giclee print on canvas or as notecards and posters.

Horse art, photos of Stormy

You probably haven't seen enough photos of my horse yet.  :)  So here are a couple more.  The top photo is Stormy in a winter storm, in the bottom photo, she's enjoying warm weather.  Her coloring is so unique, she makes a perfect photo subject.

If you like nature photos, of horses and other animals, see my Fine Art America site, on this link below.  

donna ridgway framed prints

Do you have a "purple passion" for horses?

Silly title, I know.  I had such fun, turning this palomino horse purple while thinking about what a passion some of us have for the presence of a horse in our lives.

I speak as some one who's only spent a few horseless years in her life.  No matter what problems come along with horse ownership, I'd rather have one than not.

Stormy came into our lives last summer.  She was a rescue horse, saved from the Billings Livestock Market.  I found her on Craigs List, and her photo showed her with her head lowered over a child who was painting on her face.  The child was turning Stormy into an Indian pony.

Stormy has become such a part of our lives, we can't imagine what it was like, to live without her.  I'm learning to teach her tricks.  She'll stand still while I walk around her with her bucket of pellets.  She drinks water from my hand, and I'm working on other "tricks" as I dream them up and see what kinds of things she's interested in doing.

We built a barn for her, but she chooses to stand out in the storm, no matter how the blizzard rages around her.  Her name sure fits her personality!

 And in case you're wondering what she looks like....ta da!  Here she is!  She's our "purple passion" :)

Isn't this rabbit cute?  He came out from under the post pile at the ranch to chew on some grass and I took his photograph.  He posed so well!

 One of the foals at the ranch had such a beautiful mane.  There's nothing so soft as baby fuzz on a foal.  And do you see the perfect cheerio circle there at the top of his forelock, next to his left ear?

These two are some of the older horses on my cousins' ranch.  Bunch and Murphy.  They spend many hours in summer, just scratchin' and being scratched.

We went to the ranch to clean the calving barns.  We always take our four wheelers and this year, my son met us there, so we had the added bonus of his delightful company.  We went fishing, took a tour of Swift Dam, had some great meals with friends and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly!

You can find these and other photos in Donna Ridgway's Gallery of Photography and Art on Red Bubble.  My Red Bubble gallery is a place where you can purchase my images in cards, giclee prints and a few t-shirts.  Their prices are friendly and shopping is easy!  You can also include framing with your orders.

I hope you're staying cool this summer...
Donna

Appaloosa in the Snow

We spent Christmas Day with my cousin and her family, near Swift Dam, west of Dupuyer, Montana.  On the way to her house, we stopped to take photos of this beautiful horse.  I liked the way his colors contrasted with the snow and the blue of the mountains!

You can purchase this image here on my Red Bubble site, Appaloosa in the Snow

St Paddy's Day horse. You guessed it, he's green!

Thought I'd paint you a green horse today, seein's it's St Pat's Day! Here's how I started out....

This next image is about half way done...

And here's the green horse! (below)

You can see a bit of my easel on there, on his face. Down at the bottom. Outside of that, he's wishing you a Happy St Pat's Day!
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