Quick Sketches, charcoal and pastel.

When I haven't drawn anything or painted for a while, such as when I spent time at the Charlie Russell show....I like to get into the groove again by doing some sketching. These are some images I sketched out, maybe spending 10-20 minutes on each one. I don't try to make them perfect, I just play. It puts me in the mood to do something more serious!

The hands are fun. I start out by doing them. The Betty Edwards, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain thing! Don't look at your hand as you draw it. Sit so you're facing away from your paper and draw your hand in different positions. They look so funny when you're done, but they look just like your hands! It's amazing. Each time I do this, I think what fat, arthritic hands I have! :) Oh well, they still work, that's all I care about.

Donna

Sled dog, Polebridge, MT, charcoal sketch

My dad gave me some reams of paper. He found lots of paper. So I'm doing some quick sketches to begin using it up!

My fire went out in the studio last night, and it got cold. My fingers were getting stiff as boards over there and my coffee was like ice in the cup. So I came back to the house, waiting for it to warm up over there! The pellet stove we put over there is working good but I turned it to the very lowest setting and it went out. I guess you can't do that with a pellet stove as they don't seem to like it. Why put that low setting on them if you can't burn them that way? :)

This is one of the sled dogs I photographed at Polebridge when we went to the sled dog races there. I've never seen so much intensity before! Those dogs are psycho to run. I hope I catch some of their personalities in the sketches and paintings I'll be doing.

I'm starting with a lot of sketches to get more familiar with the dogs and the shapes of them. They aren't like pet dogs in the fact they're so lean, and muscled. Also this intensity of expression they have....I'll draw them until I feel I'm getting somewhere with them.

If you've never been to Polebridge, Mt you need to find it. There's an old store there, been there since the 1800's. They bake bread and the store smells wonderful! The bread is out of this world.

Polebridge is North of Columbia Falls, up the North Fork of the Flathead River.
Donna

Equine art, online show.

If you love seeing horses in art, you'll love the new online show over at the Equine Art Guild.

In our member forum, we began a discussion, looking for ideas for an online show. It came to us, out of all the horses we paint, we seldomly paint our own. We're to busy, painting everyone elses' horses!

It also came out in the discussions, how, if we were free to do portraits of horses in any way we wished, how would we paint them? So we turned ourselves loose with our mediums and brushes and away we went. The show is extraordinary and full. Full of emotion, full of images and full of talent. I feel so honored to belong to this group of equine artists.

Click the link above and see the show, you won't want to miss it.
Donna

Charlie Russell art week, Great Falls, Mt

During one week in March, Great Falls, MT becomes the Western Art Capitol of the world. There are art shows in some of the hotels, at the fair grounds and other places around town.

The Studio 706 Artist Guild, of which I'm a member has a member show in the back room of the History Museum. This year the museum invited some of us to a museum show that will be ongoing for two months. I was honored to be one of the artists chosen. Of course I'm doing the happy dance all around the farm....

Three of my paintings were chosen for the show, "Her Ears are Up", "I'm Coming", and "Girls Night Out".
Donna

The Old Herd Bull, Angus bull, beef bull.

Maybe you raise beef cattle, or possibly you're a city folk and you've driven down country roads to see one of these old herd bulls walking the fence line, staring at the neighbors cattle. Their eyes always look like trouble, they've usually got foam stringing down from their mouths from all the bellowing they've been doing.

If you're a rancher and you need to move the bull to another pasture, you know they might be on the fight when they look like this. Anyway, this old bull made a good subject for a painting! He's 8X10 and painted on a gessoed mdf board with oil paints.

For sale for $50.

Thanks for stopping by, thanks for sharing this blog and my work with any of your friends that might be interested.
Donna

The Warrior's Vision, Medicine Hat Horse

This horse came to a young warrior as he sought his vision. The Medicine Hat horses are treasured for their courage in battle and the wisdom they possess. The colors of this vision were the colors of Mother Earth. This Indian brave will fly across the prairies and be protected by the earth and this horse.

This painting is 7X10" on gessoed mat board. For sale for $200, professionally framed, $350.
Donna

Scarlet (yellow cat) and Sing Song (black cat)

I have been teasing my cat. She knows I don't like for her to sit upon my desk, next to my computer. She sheds so much hair, the keys are clogged. :) Some people would hate that, I just brush it out every once in awhile.

She's sitting on the very edge of the desk, her rear is on the desk, her front paws are hanging over the edge. I'm tickling her paws and her neck with the tape from a clear baggie. (one of those clear bags you place your artwork in) As she tries to grab the tape, she almost looses her seat on the desk and goes overboard. She makes me laugh. I think she's laughing to as she looks at me with this little squint eyed glare that dares me to tease her off the edge. It's a good game.

This is why I paint animals. They've been comfort and solace, furnished me with humor and wit, taught me responsibility, and made my heart bleed when I lost them.

I've had people tell me animals have no emotions. As I was laying in bed this morning, awake but not yet moving, the two cats came up on the bed. Sing Song was first. She walked up my body like she owns it, starting at my feet. She wants me to know she's coming and I'd better be ready to pet her when she arrives next to my face. She doesn't like any firm touches. If you pet Sing Song and expect her to stay with you, you pet carefully, like she's made of the finest spider webs and she'll come apart at any hard touch. So I was petting her the way she likes, and she was rewarding me by licking my hand every other stroke.

Then along comes Scarlet. These cats are so jealous of one another. Say they don't have emotions and I won't believe you. Scarlet tries her best to horn in on the petting session by bluffing Sing Song to leave with an evil eyed stare. I put one hand on Scarlet and push down on her shoulders. She lays down like a good kitty and stops giving Sing Song the evil eye. She knows if Sing Song was there first, she has to leave her alone, even though she doesn't like it.

Once we've established this fact, both cats sit and purr together in a love song that beats all others. Luckily, I have two hands one for each cat. It's been a good morning.