Warm Grey Horse Oil Painting

Warm Grey Horse • 18" x 24" • oil on canvas

After many layers of perfecting this warm beauty I have finished and do love the result. I can't wait to post it side by side with the cool colored Grey Dapple I posted on September 16, 2009.

Today I went to an old riding club to meet yet another grey horse. A quarter horse named Smokey who I will hopefully be leasing and riding through the hills and on the beach soon!

Windy October Sea - Change - Favorite Month

Windy October Sea • 6" x 6" x 3/4" • Oil on Canvas

October brought the wind to California. I was out biking my dog along the bay and I was literally blowing sideways on my bike. The sea was choppy. The clouds were little and floating. I was studying the choppy waves trying to find a pattern. I couldn't see with the wind and ended up painting this from a beautiful memory. I love the color of the sky and the light on the rocks. The fresh air blowing on my face whipping my hair in my eyes and freezing my hands. October is my favorite month. The air is clean, the lighting is clear and vibrant and the smell of the air changes from crisp to warm to fire. One day it is 100 degress the next 68, or raining. From summer to fireplaces burning, the leaves changing and blowing. Life, movement, color, light texture... October! My favorite month.

Spike • 4" x 4" x 2" • oil on canvas

Everyone loves a black and white kitty. I have one now, her name is Tasha. This portrait reminds me of a long hair cat we had named Spike. He bit through the computer wire of one of the very first apple computers. His tongue got fried and it hung out of his mouth from that day forward. He couldn't put his tongue in which really made him adorable. He also drooled all over and we had to have a second comforter and pillow on the bed he liked to lay in so we didn't have to lay in his drool at night.

I ran into my friend yesterday and she told me her 18 year old black and white cat passed away this week. It was a coincidence that I had just finished this painting.

Artist tip: I used no black in this painting only alizaren, red, yellow, blue and white. I put a lot of thought into using complimentary colors.

Evening Ocean and Cliffs Oil Painting

Evening Ocean and Cliffs • 6" x 6" x 2" • oil on board

I love to study the ocean sunset with the sunlight turning into a moonlit sea. The sound of the waves crashing, trapped between the cliffs, soothingly rolling over the sand toward my feet. The kids climbing on the cliffs lit by the moonlight. Laughter in the night air. The smell of the ocean and bonfires. People scurrying across the sand, others laying in the sand and watching the sky, listening to the sounds of the sea. The California sea, an amazing place to be.

Dapple Grey Horse Painting - cool colors

Grey Dapple • 18" x 24" • oil on canvas

I painted this stunning grey simultaneously with another canvas in warmer colors. I finished this one quite a few months ago and put the warmer version aside. Everyone has been enjoying this painting and complementing it. Yesterday I went to my studio and put another layer on the warm version, today another. I am not looking at this painting or the photo, yet, they are similar. It will be interesting to compare the two paintings side by side. Tonight I pulled this one up and it was interesting to see the areas I've been struggling with without a reference photo.

Tomorrow I will be riding a 17 hand grey warmblood so he has been on my mind. My daughter looks great jumping on him. It will be my first lesson in about 7 years. I have been lifting weights, running and doing yoga to get ready. It will be quite a different feeling than galloping through the beautiful California hills bareback.

Cupcakes Challenge, Wills Birthday

Wills Birthday Cupcakes / 09-09-09 • 8" x 10" • oil on board

I always say I am my nephews square root. My birthday is 3-3 and his is 9-9. I decided to paint 3 cupcakes for him on his birthday; little did I know, it would take me 6 days. I started the painting on a very smooth surface with a layer of purple and blue outlines and shadows. Next I started working in the colors; I only used red, yellow, blue and white on this painting. The frosting is painted extremely thick using layers with a lot of shadow build up on the board. I saved the confetti for last and had a hard time applying the yellow and green without the white frosting and background mixing into my fun, bright colors. Of course, I dotted the i in Lori with a confetti candy. On the chocolate cupcake in the top right I left the white board showing along the paper wrapper so the viewer could see the original surface and the build up of paint elsewhere. What a challenge! I couldn't stop painting this and to make it nine I may have to paint it two more times. Happy Birthday Will! I love you.

Texture, Color, Light and Technique - Horseback Riding

Wild Horses • 48" x 48" • Mixed Media on Canvas • Available as Giclee Print

As I was painting my cupcakes, which I will post tomorrow, I was thinking of my Wild Horse painting with swirls of color and light. The bright colored sprinkles I added to the cupcakes are similar to these colors. My strokes of color around the image are also a technique that I have always used but is not in my abstacts and plein aire paintings. Wild Horses has a lot of texture as does the fronsting on the cupcakes. When creating this painting I also added sparkling clear fiber strands and drew with oil sticks. I started this painting by outlining the horses in black on a white canvas. It also brings to light my work as a designer, as it is very graphic.

I will be taking my first riding lesson in about 7 years at my daughters hunter/jumper barn this week. I haven't ridden in a few months and it is going to be quite different than the way I've been riding, which is mostly on trails and some dressage work in the arena. I will be riding the sweetest 17 hand warmblood and I have been riding horses under 16 hands. Quite exciting!