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!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
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!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Aspen Bears
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.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Trial Size
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.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Running Horses Mixed Media Painting
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!
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Horse Watercolor
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.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Horse Commission
This is a recent painting commission I completed that is going to Pueblo, Colorado. Thanks to Nancy, Karla and Gretchen!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
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
Monday, June 08, 2009
Grazing Horse 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.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Bigger Rock Art
"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.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
The History Of Horse Racing
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.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Earth Day 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Rock Art: Tax Revolt Day
Here is my artistic view of today, April 15th, which is Tax Revolt day. Attend a Tea Party near you if you can!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Slipped Through On Rail
Continuing my rock art series inspired by ancient petroglyphs, this is another lighthearted look at horse racing. I used watercolor and collage elements.
Monday, April 06, 2009
Blue Monday
It's actually sunny and warm here in Colorado today, but here's a horse I call "Blue Monday".
Friday, April 03, 2009
Rock Art: Dead Heat At Saratoga
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.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Rock Art: The 5th Race at Saratoga
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.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
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.
Monday, March 16, 2009
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.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Double Duty
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.
Monday, March 09, 2009
Painting Faster
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.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
A Look Back: Manatee
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Another Primitive Rock Art
Another primitive rock art painting. Despite it's free form fun, I do get anxious when painting these as the first two I ever did are my favorites, and I fear future rock art paintings will never be able to live up to my expectations.
My concerns include:
-Having a pleasing composition with a focal point and range of values.
- The horses should look primitive without being too cartoon-like.
-I add dashes of color (purples, etc.) beyond my brown rock colors but don't want to deviate too much from the earthtone browns.
-I also fear I'll never be able to "find" any more of those horse shapes I seek after the first paint wash has dried, because these paintings are only partly planned beforehand. A lot of the imagery develops after the first paint application.
-Oh, and with all that in mind, I need not forget to have fun and enjoy the process, and hopefully the paintings will look as if they just "happened"!
My concerns include:
-Having a pleasing composition with a focal point and range of values.
- The horses should look primitive without being too cartoon-like.
-I add dashes of color (purples, etc.) beyond my brown rock colors but don't want to deviate too much from the earthtone browns.
-I also fear I'll never be able to "find" any more of those horse shapes I seek after the first paint wash has dried, because these paintings are only partly planned beforehand. A lot of the imagery develops after the first paint application.
-Oh, and with all that in mind, I need not forget to have fun and enjoy the process, and hopefully the paintings will look as if they just "happened"!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Buckskin Blues
I don't often have good (or any) titles to my paintings, but in this case I thought of the title first and then proceeded to do a painting that lived up to it. Hmmm...this could spark a title-inspired series.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)



