Paintings for Horse Rescue

If you are a horse lover, you know there are lots of horse rescue causes out there. There are many, many decent horses who wind up headed for slaughter that deserve to be saved. A few weeks ago, a ran across a very active group of horse rescue folks, headed up by Sharon Catalano-Crumb. They go to the weekly horse killpen auction in New Jersey and buy up horses and find them new homes.

The fundraising and networking is done on Facebook. Yesterday I posted some of my paintings on Facebook, and am donating 50% of the proceeds to this cause. If you are interested in participating, go to Facebook, search for me, Caren Goodrich, and send me a friend request. Also send a friend request to Sharon Catalano-Crumb and join the cause, NJ Killpen Horses...Horse Angels of Facebook.

Bear In Tree

Bear In Tree. 11"x14" acrylic on gallery wrap canvas

I haven't posted any new art in awhile. Yes, I've been painting, I just took a hiatus from the blog. But I'm back and here is a recent painting. I am really interested in texture. I'm adding lots of it via acrylic gels and mediums, makes you want to touch the painting, not just look at it!

Two Textured Horses

I just moved to a new house so I am behind in getting new paintings done and posted here. Anyway, this is a recent one, I am using a lot of Golden mediums to add texture, they are fun to experiment with. This painting has more texture that what appears in this photo!

Aspen Bears

Bear In Search Of Food
9"x12" mixed media with food label collage elements.

detail

This has been a summer of black bears here in Aspen, Colorado. They are coming into town in search of food. They are not in search of people to harm, they just want to eat. A couple people have been injured during bear encounters, and about a dozen bears who have broken into homes have been captured and euthanized. I am not in favor of euthanizing bears. I want them to be relocated. It's a bad deal. I don't have the answer.

Trial Size

4"x6" acrylic on watercolor paper

Trial Size. This is a 4"x6" acrylic on watercolor paper painting. I painted the blue, yellow, and red colors abstractly then "found" horse shapes by painting negatively with the light blue-gray color.

Running Horses Mixed Media Painting

9"x12" mixed media

This is a small painting that is a study for a larger painting I will be doing. I have some running horse images in mind as a departure from a lot of my more serene grazing horse paintings.

Action!

Horse Watercolor

16" x 20" watercolor/mixed media

Oh that's an imaginative title, "Horse Watercolor"....I should do better. Anyway, it's a 16" x 20" watercolor/mixed media on 300 lb Fabriano paper, a paper I just started using and I am probably going to switch to it permanently once my stock of Arches is used up. So goodbye France, hello Italy.

And did you notice I am doing some larger paintings? So many people have requested/wondered about larger works, and I don't blame them. I realize 16" x 20" is not large compared to some artists work, but I have been doing a lot of 9"x 12" and 11"x14", so 16"x20" is a step in the direction of meeting the needs of those with bigger walls to hang art on.

Horse Commission

16"x 20" watercolor and mixed media on 300 lb paper

This is a recent painting commission I completed that is going to Pueblo, Colorado. Thanks to Nancy, Karla and Gretchen!

Charlie Horse Commission

Charlie, 16" x 20" watercolor and mixed media on watercolor paper

This is a painting commission I did recently, it was commissioned as a wedding anniversary gift. The subject is Charlie, a really fine bay horse who lives in New York. It is 16" x 20", watercolor and mixed media. Contact me if you want me to paint your horse! caren16 at aol dot com

Grazing Horse Collage

9"x12" watercolor mixed media collage

I used collage paper to create texture in this simple composition. I love grazing horses, it is a peaceful subject. I like to visit my horse and watch him eat grass this time of year. Right now he is in hog heaven because the grass is fresh, green, and growing fast.

Bigger Rock Art

"Racing and Leaping"
16"x20" original watercolor mixed media

"I love your paintings, do you have any bigger ones?"

That's a frequent question I get. It's actually a goal of mine to produce larger works more often. I have so many ideas that I tend to do small paintings because I'm always experimenting and can do more in less time. But I admire large works and many homes have big wall space, so here is a 16" x 20". OK, that's not widely regarded as a large painting, but I promise to keep working upwards in scale.

Buy this painting on etsy.

The History Of Horse Racing

"The History Of Horse Racing" 11"x14" watercolor mixed media collage

I call this one "The History Of Horse Racing" because of the "then and now" juxtipositions. This is part of my Rock Art series inspired by ancient petroglyphs. When observing petroglyphs here in America, I was charmed to see riders depicted with their arms straight out so I picked up this idea for my own Rock Art series. That was "then"....the "now" is the collage element of contemporary racehorses and jockeys.

Earth Day 2009

Polar Bear 11x14 watercolor

In 1970 for the very first Earth Day, my friend and I plotted to ride our horses to school. Back then one of the big issues (especially in Los Angeles) was smog. So we were going to do our part and ride our horses instead of riding in an air polluting automobile or school bus. We did not ride our horses to school on Earth Day, but it was a fun idea.

Other big environmental issues in the 1970s were oil spills, pesticides, wildlife extinction, overpopulation, and "global cooling"! We used to call the whole movement "ecology". What ever happened to that term? Does anyone remember the ecology flag? I embroidered one on the back pocket of my jeans.

In the 1980s, there was a big focus on recycling. I don't remember what the issue was in the 1990s, maybe we were all too self absorbed that decade to worry about the environment.

In the current decade it's global warming. But I wonder, what ever happened to acid rain? Did we solve that problem? And what ever happened to Zero Population Growth? Nobody even talks about the population any more. I don't get that, as the Earth sagging under the ever increasing weight of new humans is the root of all environmental problems.

I guess it's a work in progress that will never quite be solved. So do something today, do what you can tomorrow, because really every day should be Earth Day.

Rock Art: Tax Revolt Day

"Tax Revolt" 9x12 original watercolor

Here is my artistic view of today, April 15th, which is Tax Revolt day. Attend a Tea Party near you if you can!

Wild Horse Watercolor

This one's on ebay.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everyone!

Slipped Through On Rail

"Slipped Through On The Rail" 9x12 watercolor/mixed media

Continuing my rock art series inspired by ancient petroglyphs, this is another lighthearted look at horse racing. I used watercolor and collage elements.

collage detail

Blue Monday

9"x12" original watercolor/mixed media

It's actually sunny and warm here in Colorado today, but here's a horse I call "Blue Monday".

Rock Art: Dead Heat At Saratoga

"Dead Heat At Saratoga" original watercolor collage, 9" x 12"

Here is a dead heat at Saratoga, way back in the day before there was the photo finish camera. I think Marylou Whitney might have owned one of these horses.

Rock Art: The 5th Race at Saratoga

"The 5th Race At Saratoga" 9"x12" original watercolor collage

The primitive rock art horses are off to the races. I was going through my stuff the other day and ran across a program from the '08 Saratoga race meet. I was getting ready to toss it then decided to use pieces of the program in a collage. So the new horse racing series of rock art is born with this painting.

Rock Art Horses

This is a fun one. I've been studying the art on Newspaper Rock in Utah and the horse and rider in this one was inspired by some of the ancient drawings there.

Which One Of Us Is Purtier?

"Which One Of Us Is Purtier?"

11x14 original watercolor

I made an Art For Sale photo folder on my Facebook page. I will be posting some original paintings there, just as an occasional alternative to selling on ebay and etsy. If you want to be my Facebook friend, please look me up. This painting is currently in the For Sale folder. I won't be slamming a lot of art there, probably just a couple a week.

Double Duty

Warm and Cool Horses. 11" x 14" each.

I painted a warm and cool version of the same horse, worked on both of them at the same time. This is one of my ideas for getting more painting done in a day. Do a two-fer.

Painting Faster

"Appaloosa Rising" 9"x12" original watercolor

Since my last posting, I took a trip to Florida, very enjoyable but did not get any painting done during that time. So I'm back and here's another rock art painting inspired by ancient petroglyphs. The title to my blog entry is "Painting Faster", which is wishful thinking on my part as I really do want to produce more paintings than my current pace and have been thinking about ways to ramp it up a bit. Since these rock art paintings have become a familiar process for me, I think I can increase my output on these as I use similar colors every time, and don't have to think too long and hard about what colors to use or how to get started.

A Look Back: Manatee

I painted this back in 2003. I just did a new manatee painting and didn't like it, so I decided to post the one I did years ago instead.