Be sure to keep an eye on their site for updates! MuralMosaic.com/Cadeau.html

For my part, I chose panel #164 - a one-tone purkle panel. (Yeah, that’s not a typo, I like to be goofy and say PURKLE for purple. hehehe) I envision a magnificent black stallion galloping headlong against a stormy backdrop sky. It will be titled “Storm Chaser”, after a personal passion of mine for storms and horses. Yep!

Here is the panel as it came to me:

Stay tuned as I post a work in progress as I begin painting on it!

Buy it here:
Ebay

11″ x 14″ pastel on medium grey suede.
“Rebel Yell” - rearing black stallion (of course!)

So anyhoo, I’ve been itching to get some painting done, but every time I go to the easel, I sit not knowing where to begin.

Methinks I’ve gotten used to too many mediums now that I can’t make up my mind which one to work in!

I’ve also been battling with the “why bothers” of some of the paintings I do….not all of them are me. So I get bored with them quickly. So I have to think to myself often…why on earth am I painting something else other than what pleases me anyway?

So anyhoo, here is one of those ME paintings that literally blopped itself out onto the canvas in about 20 minutes. Yeah, 20 minutes! Took all day to think about doing it, wanting to do it, and then finally forcing myself to sit down and just DO it! Now, granted this is just layer 1 of many to come, but I don’t wanna overwork it either. So I’ll post it in stages.

This is 16″x20″ acrylic on stretched canvas. Something I said I didn’t wanna paint on anymore because I paint the acrylics so diluted, like watercolor, that the canvas texture is usually annoying as all heck so I prefer the smoothness of masonite. But I just took a bigger brush and loaded it up with more paint this time, and voila!!!! Even in this gesture blocked-in stage, it captures the feeling for me. Hopefully I can maintain it as I do more to it!

I have a lot to thank whichever kid put this video together -

I’ve kept it bookmarked ever since I found it over a year ago now. Whenever I’m feeling down or need inspiration, it always perks me up. It captures all the moments in those favorite movies that inspired me all through my childhood and set my heart a’dreamin. I gotta track her down someday and send her a nice thank-you gift. It helped me remember all the things I always loved about horses. Whenever I’m out somewhere and bored, I always picture the Black prancing around in the background, doing these sorts of antics, rearing, pawing, snorting, shaking his head, all that stuff. I know, it’s not realistic, but it’s the things fantasies are made of, right? I’m a daydreamer by nature who’s been living way too much in reality. lol! That’s where the love of horses sprang from, and I still compare horses to The Black. That’s what I love about my horse, Tattoo….aside from his color, he is the Black to me. I could watch him move forever! Someday I hope that I can get the one-ness with him like Alec had with the Black.

December 10th, 2007 -

Spent about another twenty minutes on it just now…again, another “splotch” bout. Not sure where it’s coming from, but this painting is working quickly! I think it’s because I’m trying to keep it simple and ignoring that voice in my head that tries to tell me all the things I have learned over the years. Ya know, about composition, color usage, negative space, yadda yadda yadda. One can easily get so caught up in the Do’s and Don’t’s that one doesn’t necessarily end up catching one’s vision at all!

So here it is so far. More paint on it now to finally cover most of the canvas up on the horse. I used a #10 round sable this time. First time was a 3/4″ flat sable. Next bout I’ll use likely a #6 round sable to get even tighter, like on the mane, nostril area and highlights. And to really determine where that shadowed eye really is. Oh, I guess I should mention too, the colors used so far are only Liquitex French Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber. There is NO black paint used in this painting at all. I added a bit of white to the mixture for the highlights. As well, I’ve used some Golden glazing medium to help it spread easier too. I’m thinking, at this point anyway, that I’ll just paint the background plain white. I have a vision of a grouping of four paintings similar to this, to be displayed without frames, painted edges (gallery wrap canvas this is). We’ll see if I’m that ambitious.

December 10, 2007

I guess today was a really good painting day. Spend another 30mins or so on it and I think it’s nearly finished! At least, it’s at a point where I know I should leave it alone for awhile before I overwork it. hehehe If I find anything that bugs me after awhile, I’ll go back and fix it. But for the moment, she is done!

16″x20″ acrylic on canvas
used only French Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Umber, and Titanium white. Some glazing medium. 3/4″ flat sable (not 1/2″ I mis-typed it above), #10 round sable, and #6 round sable for finishing.

There’s a little glare off the canvas, I’ll scan it for better detail later on. But overall, this is what he looks like…

So begins this journey. I took an 18″x24″ piece of 1/4″ hardboard, triple gessoed and sanded by myself, and began with a light wispy wash of the acrylics. Literally a wash. I brushed in the main dark areas, squirted the board with some fine misty water to make the colors flow loosely on the board. I rather liked how the paint handled and will have to bank this technique into my memory for later use in other paintings. The colors used at this point are just burnt umber, raw sienna, a little warm white and a wee bit of ultramarine blue mixed with burnt umber that I used to create a form of black. I brushed it all on with a 1″ brush.

Here is it after the first stage, with about an hour’s work done to it in all:

Then I went in with a second layer of washes, only slightly drier this time, blocking in more of the main chunks of darks and lights, along with splashes of the sages and reds I can see in my references. Nothing is defined yet, it’s all very loose. I like how it’s coming together so far. Used the same colors as above, with an added touch of burnt sienna. The blue is a mix of the above colors in a slightly different way, with a hint of titanium white. I’m working off the same stay-wet palette of Liquitex acrylic colors laid out from before.

That was last night’s progress. Today I spent another hour on it drawing in the pronghorn and putting in the beginning layers of color to define his body shape, and to cover over the background washes that showed through him. This is all still very loose at this point, although you can see I got a little more than a beginning layer done on his haunch. hehehe I couldn’t resist! Again using much of the same colors, with varying mixes of each to get the peachy tan shades for his hide. The black is actually the UB/BU mixture mentioned above. I brought out a couple of smaller round sable brushes for working on him. Size 6 and 4 rounds.

Now comes the fun part….doing more layers with tighter details in each subsequent layer. This is when the changes become less noticeable and it’s sometimes discouraging to see how little you come in such a long time. So far there’s only about 3hrs put into this piece, and it seems to have come so far. But from here on in it gets tougher and slower!

Sunday: Spent another hour or so on it, detailing the pronghorn more and adding a bit to the background around him to help define his edges. Still using the same palette as before. The second photo shows it where it sits after roughing in the shrub that he is laying behind.

Saturday, Sept 8: Spent about an hour this afternoon working on the background, and I spent another hour or two the other day working on details on the pronghorn himself, although it wasn’t enough noticable difference to bother shooting a picture of it for you. Today though there’s enough change that you can see. The pronghorn is for the most part done now, with the odd bit of touch ups here and there that I will most likely add to him later. But right now I’m focussing on the background…the landscape portion of the painting. Building up the foreground values, defining the grassiness under the pronghorn himself, building up the branches of the small shrub on the right. There’s lots more to do yet!

Friday, Sept 14 Spent some time this evening working on the background. It’s almost to the point of being called “done”, although I know I’ll likely do some tweaking on it yet once I’ve set it aside for awhile to come back and look at it through fresh eyes in a week or so. I did a lot of tonite’s work standing up, holding the brush at the end and dabbling the paint on here and there, trying not to work too tightly.

Tuesday, Sept 25 The painting has been sitting on my easel for a couple days, waiting to see if I was “done” with it. I think it is. I’m quite happy with it. Takes a bit of getting used to working looser like this though, a part of me wants to go in and add details, but I’m reminded of how too many details can be distracting. Yesterday when I was out hiking in the woods with my horse, I photographed what looked to be many nice scenes in the autumn grasses and trees. But the photo grabs too much detail and doesn’t let you see the simple beauty that is the richness of the colors and the light. So, an artist taking that beautiful scene and keeping it simple enough for the viewer to enjoy, there is definately something to that.

So here is the final painting, posted and ready for your perusal. If you would like to see it in person, it will be shown at the upcoming Reflections of Nature wildlife art show in Saskatoon, Sask, from October 12th to 14th, 2007

“Autumn Splendor”
24″ x 18″ acrylic on masonite
Available for Purchase - $1000 - Inquire

View Details Here - http://www.blackhorsedesign.com/pronghorn-painting.php

“Phases of My Moods”
24″ x 36″ acrylic on masonite
$1,500 - Sold!

My Palette included (but might not be limited to) these colors: Burnt umber (background), white (wolf and snow), ultramarine blue (wolf and sky), creams (wolf and snow highlights), greys, cobalt blue (sky), earth greens (background), purple (snow highlights), and a few other local colors as you may see in this picture. I work fairly all over the place, bouncing to and fro, and I usually pick my palette by eye, and save the pastels aside while working on a project, so I can quickly change from one color to another without having to remember “Which one did I use for this???”.

Below is a link to a step by step description of this painting as it progressed, written after the fact so forgive me if I don’t remember everything. I took photos of this painting in various stages along the way, sometimes at night, sometimes during the day, so the lighting will vary from photo to photo. Also, the board is laying at an angle on my drawing board so it is a bit skewed compared to the final piece which was photographed at a proper angle. But aside from that, I hope you will find it helpful to you in your pastel journeys.

To view this instruction page in full, click on the link below -
How to Paint an Arctic Wolf

The model for this pose was Sable Morgan’s Knight Kruiser, who’s father was the very epitomy of The Black in the flesh. This beautiful line of black Morgans capture the spirit and look of the Black Stallion. My own horse, Tattoo, shares this bloodline and is a half brother to Kruiser.

Enjoy!

My Best Friend
16″ x 20″ acrylic on canvas
$900 - Inquire to sheri@blackhorsedesign.com

View details of this painting here

Dharma is a sweet alpha female arctic wolf belonging to Skylar Breton of Wolf Echo Valley, A Wolf Adventure. This large pastel painting captures a placid moment as the wolf pauses for a sip from some spring runoff in the tundra. You can learn more about Dharma and her wolfy friends at A Wolf Adventure.com

“Tundra Queen” - 19″ x 25″ pastel
Original Painting is Available, fully framed - $1,100

View more details about this painting here

Inquire to sheri@blackhorsedesign.com

I grew up around cars and hot rods all my life. Recent discussions over on the EAG boards, reminiscing fondly of childhood memories bonding with special horses and other animals. The topic came around to how modern kids are missing out on some of that in lieu of other common mechanical replacements for horses. Well, of course I had to pipe in with my own life experiences as I was one of those kids who grew up with “steel and rubber” more so than flesh and blood companions.

Yes, I did bond very much so with some of the cars we had, and even cried when our dear old Nova was totalled in a car accident. The car that I had grown up with and had known longer than I knew even my own siblings….bought brand new in 1975, when I was only 5yrs old. My dad was t-boned with it when I was 14….without missing a beat, soon as I heard about it, I cried for the car. I knew Dad would be fine, it didn’t even occur to me to be worried for him. (My dad is one of those invincible drivers, you just know they’re never gonna get hurt.) And I was jealous of the car he bought after it, to “replace” it with….I wanted him to fix the Nova back up, to “make her better” again. So I hated that Malibu with a passion. As though it was a living creature, yes, lol. I eventually got over it, but I still miss that Nova and if I could ever find it again, I’d snap it up in a heartbeat. (He did have it fixed back up and sold it but it would never be as solid as it had been prior to the accident) When I got the Phoenix, which is basically a Nova in a different name tag, it tied me with one of my past loves. So yes, you CAN become VERY emotionally attached to just steel and rubber.

I have some photos here of just a small sampling of some of the cars my dad owned over the years. Fond memories of each one. The lime green Chevy II, known as “Foxy”, was the first racecar I remember him having. It was supposed to have been painted Corvette yellow, but the body shop screwed up on the paint order and it ended up lime green, but somehow it suited the car. He raced Foxy for many years and it became identified with him. (Much like my Phoenix is “me”. Folk know my car almost more than they know me, ha!) Then he sold it to some “kids” who trashed it while drinking and driving. We all felt as though our beloved rehomed “pet” had just gone to an abusive home. It was such a loss. (You don’t wanna know what that 1962 Chevy II SS would be worth on the books nowadays!!!)

And then there was Night Stalker, a ‘69 Chevelle with a unique paint job on it that it came with. The paint scheme came out of an old issue of Hot Rod magazine, on a Dodge Duster. But the scheme really looked a lot like a wheat ear on the side, so a lot of folk nick-named it the Sask Grainery car. I have many a fond memory of cruisin’ with my folks in that car…us 4 kids riding in the back as “ballast” over the rear tires for extra traction.

And Muffy was one of many racecars that came and went over the years. A little Vega, it sported a large V8 engine and at the time we bought it, BIG slicks (tires) on the back that stuck out the sides so much that my mom said it looked like it had earmuffs on. Thus the name “Muffy” stuck.

And then one of the last racecars my dad had while I was still living at home was the Spirit. A ‘69 Camaro with beautifully airbrushed murals on it. That car had such a raunchy cam setup on it, that I remember sitting in the back seat at an idle, and when you spoke your voice sounded like it was talking through a fan. You know, that reverbing sound you get when speaking through a big window fan? About like that. hehehe Cept this was from the sheer vibrations of the car, it was such a powerful racecar. But this one suffered hail damage and the insurance company wouldn’t pay to repaint the murals so my dad eventually ended up selling it.

And of course, I owned 5 cars before I ever had a license, LOL! My first car was a $50 Vega, which my dad sold on me while I was at school one day, for $250. So I kept buying/selling cars working my way up to a nicer car each time. (Well, my dad did on me anyway, lol) I finally ended up with a handsome 76 Parisienne ….a big boat by all standards, but it had a handsome ruggedness that I fell for. I was getting within weeks of getting my license by this time and I used to sit in the car for hours, just imagining what it was going to be like to be able to take my own car out cruising. The freedom! That car had a personality, I swear. Reminded me of the movie “Christine”. But dammit Dad went and sold it on me and boy was I pissed at him! Grrr.

Ahhh bliss. But now I have my Phoenix, and have had her for over 8yrs now. She’s my baby and she ain’t goin no wheres. If she rusts, I will rebuild her. So yes, you CAN get VERY attached to sheet metal and yes, their food is fuel,and their vet is the mechanic.

Ya know, I really oughtta be doing some car paintings with how much they’ve inspired me throughout life and the fond feelings I still hold for them.

Anyhoo! With all this going on, I’ve been making frequent trips out to the farm to check on him and we’re actually enjoying a special bonding time throughout all this. Today was one such day, and after feeding him his medicine, and grooming him and just being generally cuddly….I went and grabbed my new pastel pochade box, plunked myself down on a stool in the straw of the cow shelter we have him holed up on for resting. I began sketching out the scene in front of me, where he was dozing and I could see him through the fence rails. But wouldn’t ya know it, by the time I got the boards and sky blocked in, he moved! Soooooo I ended up finishing it without him in it. I’m calling this one “Donkey’s Point of View”, as they do have a little miniature donkey out there at the farm, and I was sitting at about her eye level.

Donkey’s Point of View 8″ x 8 1/2″ pastel

Afterwards, the sun was still shining bright - gotta get used to these longer days now that spring is finally here, yeah!! So I went out for a hike in the woods and plunked myself down in the melting snow right about here, and while my husky and the farm dog were busy out carousing around not far from me, I was busily sketching away. Here is the result of about an hour’s time sitting in the warm sunlight…didn’t even need a jacket today!

Spring Thaw 10″ x 12 1/2″ pastel