Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Feeding Horses in a Storm

Red Pyramid


The storms and tornadoes continue. Spending quality time in the cellar nearly every day. And the water OMG.

I have fed theses five horses through some weather but last night was the scariest feeding time I have ever seen. I waited and waited for the storm to ease up but it didn't so I went ahead and started with the wind howling, heavy rain and lightning. It looked like a hurricane. My old mare Missy wasn't bothered too much and went in her stall. I left the door open. The lightning would crack and the other horses were reluctant to come in the barn.

I waited some more. Missy finished eating.

The rain eased up. I decided to feed them all near the door and spread out the other four dishes and started them all at their own dish. A gust of wind would blow the rain in and they all spooked. I was focused on staying out of the way. They switched dishes.
Lightning would crackle, they spooked and went back to a different dish. Repeat. I tried to keep up with who was eating what but the constant spooking and moving in the dim light made it impossible. All the dishes got emptied but one and I picked it up and threw out the food. I would rather them have too little than one get too much. I practiced my dancing skills tring to dodge these fast and frequently moving horses.

Ready for some sunshine!!!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Moon Joy

Moon Joy
sold


We have been getting some rain and storms and although it is great for my fledgling little garden it has cut my riding time to zero.
I have just listed Moon Joy is sold but have more art on my website here.

The commission is almost finished. This is where I am now.
I should have it all done and ready for approval tomorrow.
We'll see.....

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Peeling Apples Commission

I am working on a commission this week. I did a pastel of this photo a long time ago, like 15 years or better. The daughter of the lovely lady I did this for tracked me down and wanted another as her sis and her both wanted it after the loss of their mother.
We decided to do a painting this time. The subject is her great grandmother.
I love the photo and have been enjoying revisiting this grand lady.
At this point I am about halfway finished. The forms are starting to take shape but a whole lot of finishing left to do.


It would be going faster if the weather wasn't so perfect. I am spending every morning I can riding Miami so I don't even start working until after lunch. Rain is moving in tonight so that should speed up the painting. :)

Monday, April 11, 2011

How Not to Bury a Possum

Bliss

My sis and I were hanging out in my little barn apartment the other night with her grandson. We noticed Tonka doing something in Missy's stall. We could see from my door as Missy's stall in right across the barn aisle from my stall.
 He was burying something which is not unusual at all, but it was taking him an awful long time. So we got to watching him and saw he was burying a possum. He'd get it all covered up and it would start moving. He then dug it back up, bit on it until it stopped moving and buried it again.
Repeat.
We started laughing.....
Repeat.
We laughed some more.
Not wanting the possums at the barn cause they can make the ponies sick I called my stepbrother to come and shoot it cause the playing possum act looked like it was working pretty well with Tonka.
He gets up there and I scoop the critter up with a shovel and carry it out back.
He shoots it and shoots it and shoots it.
How many lives and burials does this possum get???
After about ten shots it finally dies.
The neighbors are calling by now thinking we are having a gun battle.
Thinking burying him has already been done I cremate him.





Thursday, April 7, 2011

Forgetting to Turn off Your Car Lights Is Not the Only Way to Drain Your Battery

There is so much truth to this article and it reminds me of so many things I have done in my life I thought I would share it. I hope you enjoy it.



Forgetting to Turn off Your Car Lights Is Not the Only Way to Drain Your Battery


by Carolyn Henderson





This article is by Carolyn Henderson, the managing half of Steve Henderson Fine Art. She is a Regular contributing writer for FineArtViews and her freelance writing appears in regional newspapers, online magazines, and her humor blog, Middle-Aged Plague.











If you are old enough, or drive an old enough car, it is likely that you have at one time left the lights blazing away while you devoted an entire winter afternoon to browsing happily through a yarn shop.







Okay, so maybe not a yarn shop. But I'm focusing on the "leaving your lights on for a long time in the middle of arctic winter" part. By the time you return -- animated, energized, laden with packages -- your battery's dead.







So much for animated and energized.







Under the right -- or rather, wrong -- conditions, batteries drain quickly, and what can happen in your car can happen to you as well, if you permit people with the wrong way of looking at things to wield too much influence in your life.







I call them battery drainers -- friends, relatives, colleagues, enemies, acquaintances, strangers on the street -- in whom you confide your plans and aspirations about being an artist, and who in return deplete the life force from your soul, leaving you feeling listless, without hope, defeated, and scared.







They're not always obvious about this -- "Are you kidding? What a stupid idea!" -- and actually, most of the time they are, wittingly but generally unwittingly, more subtle, oftentimes expressing a sense of concern and caring that makes your knees hurt and you're not sure just why.







"There's such a recession going on now," one will sigh. "Many established artists are finding that they need to get second or third jobs -- I heard of one who was pumping gas."







"So sad."







Others feel a need to point out to you the painfully obvious, as if, for some reason, you had never thought of it before:







"So few artists make it to the top you know," this with a sage nod. "You're not planning to quit your day job or anything?"







Or,







"How wonderful that you won first place in that national show! Of course, you have to realize that this won't necessarily make you. Lots of people have won prestigious awards and they haven't fulfilled their desire to be full time artists."







I'm sorry -- I'm missing something here. Does one of the sub-definitions of "artist" include terms like "naive," "irresponsible," "childish," and "delusional"?







Years ago, we sold our house in town and moved our family flock to a renovated barn in the middle of untamed land. Our plans were to build a modified timber frame home, which we would pay for as we went along, and pay off the land as well -- this, all on one modest income and one whacking quantity of sweat equity.







We told very few people of our long term plans, and, indeed, many secretly thought that we had totally lost it -- but after all, what can you expect of a Norwegian Artist and a Polish Writer? Those poor children of theirs . . . and why did they have so many?







There was one acquaintance in particular with whom we avoided sharing the . . . particulars, namely because he made Eeyore look like an optimist. Only when the house was fait accompli and we were all settled in did we mention what we had done:







"That was really risky," he said, shaking his head and pursing his lips. "You know, if your house isn't up to code, you'll never be able to resell it."







What is it with these people?







Through the years, some of the things we have NOT shared with certain people include bicycling to South America, homeschooling the kids, birthing the aforementioned kids at home (with a midwife, okay?), and, most recently, making our livings as an artist (Norwegian) and a writer (Polish).







As far as the particulars of our business plan, only the Norwegian Artist and I know what we're up to, and the only other people privy to the details are our progeny, who, having been born and raised with us, share some genetic DNA thing and internalize the concepts of working hard, plugging away, keeping your hopes up, trying new venues and avenues, picking yourself up when you fall down, and celebrating every single little step forward -- the girls prefer cake, the boys go for exotic fruit.







For those out there who think we haven't thought of this, we do tap into other people's expertise and experience; we read; we ask questions; we research -- we just don't spill our souls onto the sidewalk where they can be pierced by stiletto heels and ground into the pavement by boots.







By all means, find your confidantes and confide in them. It is good to have companions close by, walking alongside of you.







But choose them carefully.





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Monday, April 4, 2011

Raven Dance

Raven Dance
available here

The spirit of the raven has been on my mind and in my heart. The power of the wind and healing as my friend's daughter is going through a serious and scary surgery.
This is my prayer to the wind.