Plein Air

This plein-air I did last spring.  Unfortunately oil painting has become seasonal for me. 

I stay very busy with caricatures in the summer / fall and have more time to paint in the winter. 

Below is a photo taken of me in January at a paint-out in Grand Marais MN. It was COLD!

Funny Fish Illustrations

More Illustrations done with the Cintiq 12WX and Photoshop.

Digital Caricature

Cintiq 12WX

I recently purchased a Wacom Cintiq 12WX.   It's a pressure sensitive tablet that allows you to work directly on the screen so it has a very natural feel.

This is my first digital painting, it took about 20 hours but a good portion of the time was spent  learning how to work  the Cintiq.

Digital painting has some advantages  over traditional painting. It is much faster and easier to change your image which is ideal for illustration work.

It is exciting to be involved in the traditional oils that has been around for hundreds of years and a brand new style of painting. 

However I have no intention of replacing my traditional oil painting with digital.

A computer screen does not compare to my french easel, paints and brushes and being outside on a beautiful day. You cant beat that!

Photo shoot

We took about two hundred pictures yesterday some of them I will use for painting references.  

I think the light coming threw the dust is a really interesting effect.

The first photo is of my mare Duchess we are practicing a sliding stop.

The other photo is of my trainer Kate Lehman "in the cowboy hat"

This October has been excellent riding weather.

Daisy Duke

I met Daisy Duke "Catherine Bach" yesterday at Fond- du-Luth Casino

In Junior High I absolutely loved watching the Dukes of Hazzard! 

The casino hired me to pre draw these cartoon background that Daisy and Cooter would sign.

Then I would draw in the persons caricature on the left side of the paper.

Caricatures in Hayward

This summer I have been drawing caricatures downtown Hayward WI, near Anglers restaurant.  Its always fun meeting new people,this little girl is only 10 years old and can really sing. check out her music at http://www.youtube.com/leahmarlenemusic

Shirt Designs

These shirt designs I did for a company in Hayward WI.
They were drawn out on paper and then colored in photoshop.

Palomino Filly

This is an oil painting  of a yearling filly I own named Holly.

I just love the way her mane moves and catches the light.  A nice thing

about  painting palominos is that the sky plain reflects nicely off of them. 

Notice the reflection of blue on her back and mane.

Of course keeping palominos clean is another story.   To keep her main and tail bright white

like this  Is very high maintenance.  It can go from gorgeous to looking like a mop in no time at all.

Grand Marais paint out

The first week of February I joined a group of sixteen artists in Grand Marais, Mn. for a paint out.

Yes,  that's right,  painting outside in the middle of winter! 

We stayed at Camp Menogyn, a YMCA facility. 

The Art Colony put on a show in Grand Marais at the end of the week, they did a great job.

To view more photos and paintings of the week check out this link.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59166013@N04/sets/72157625857347195/

The paintings I produced up there are still at the Art Colony,  you can view them at the link above.

These  two winter studies I did in preparation for the paint out.  Making sure all my winter gear was warm enough. 

I painted the same white pine from different angles,  this trail borders our property, so it's nice that I didn't have to walk very far.

Mall Doodles

This December I have been drawing caricatures at the mall in Rice Lake  Wisconsin. 

When there is no customers I  keep busy with these life sketches.    You always start  fast because you never

know how long your model is going to be in that position.  " usually not long".   Most of these drawings are finished from memory.

There is a new trend with teenagers.  they can stand around and text for a long time and remain perfectly still!  for an artist that can be a good thing.

Two minute sketch

In school we always started life drawing class with one minute poses.  Sometimes up to forty of them. It is an excellent way to sharpen your drawing skills.  

Now I make it a point to do warm up sketches before I start oil painting.

However this is a little difficult if you want to sketch horses,  they just will not hold still!

But if there is a will there is a way,  I set the slide show on my computer for 60 seconds .

If I am sketching a horse and rider,   like the one above I will set the slide show for two minutes.  It works great!

I still  find it very help-full to do oil sketches out in the pasture for the color and value information,  but I believe the photo's work better for shape information.

This is a quick oil sketch is of my mare "a Hollywood Duchess " and a local trainer Zeek Zacharias.  

The photo shoot went really well,  they look great together and the lighting was perfect.

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video from customer at Wilderness Walk

Rachel- Thanks again for the caricature drawing at the Wilderness Walk! Here is a link to the Time Lapse video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsM8fAsW9VE I also included a link to your blogsite :) Thanks again! Miss Kelly http://www.youtube.com/misskellyoj

This September I joined Kate Lehman, Jana Lehman and Barb Larson on a riding trip in North Dakota.
We rode the Maah Daah Hey trail. It is a little over one hundred miles long, we where gone ten days.
It was very rugged, adventurous and fun.
We used my horse Summer as a pack horse. She is carrying only about 120 pounds that's less then the other horses.
It looks like more because of all the sleeping bags in the top pack.
I have never gone so long without hot water!

Studio Ranch Video

This video is of three of my four horses, I put it together in iMovie. I absolutely love the energy in the music!
My goals with the Studio Ranch is to raise good looking reining horses, that will also be my oil painting models.
I hope to sell one or two foals a year I am expecting two this spring.

Drawing Caricatures at the MN State fair was great. Its long hours but well worth it .

It's so much fun to work with other artist. All of us have been drawing caricatures for at least ten years. It's a very talented group.

From left to right is Van Jackson, Jason Anhorn, Paul Dimaria, Me, Steve Bateman and Chris Rommel.

We are doing some very fast work, you have to especially when you are drawing kids and impatient adults.

With a lot of coffee my color doubles where taking about twelve minutes.

Ironically the faster I draw the better likeness I usually get.

Art Beat of Hayward

Art Beat of Hayward has accepted six of my plein air paintings. They are all 6 X 8.

My husband made the frames, I think the simple wood frames really look nice on the landscape paintings.

This is a small 6 x 8 of white pines. The farmer stopped by to see what I was doing.

That's cool, it happens all the time. I just accept it as part of outdoor painting.

Plus it's a great way to meet your neighbors.

Cow's, I love painting cows, I just wish they would stand still!

I assumed that the laying down cow would be a safe bet, and it was for awhile until another cow came and stood right in front of it. I took some photos and tried to add in a few cows later but it looked odd, so this will remain a large practice study 12 x 24.

All in all it was fun and will make my next 6 x 8 of non moving objects seem easy.