First donation of 2008 nearly done

I thought I'd share a sneak peek of my first donation for the year 2008 - in fact, aside from a almost-unpublicized medallion donation last spring, I think it's my first donation in many years!

Erin Corbett's Hearts N Horses live show in Portland, OR on February 16, 2008 is the recipient of this first donation. It's a smaller show, so it's for the raffle, and I kept it pretty low-key: it's a G1 Stablemate Seabiscuit, painted to a simple golden palomino with minimal markings. I did do a lot of fine detailing, painting on wrinkles, eyebrows, veining, and individual hairs, because I felt this enhanced the simple sculpture. His face sports an uneven star and tiny, hairy little snip, and he is softly and subtly dappled. At this point, only his eyes, hooves, and chestnuts have yet to be painted.

I chose to support Erin's show for two reasons. First, it is a specialty show, featuring mini halter and performance only, and I believe that specialty shows are really the wave of the future in this hobby. Occasional larger shows with all divisions are great, but too often showholders try to hard to have everything at the expense of a really well-planned show, and often can't get enough good judges for all the divisions. That brings me to the second reason, which IS the judges - Erin got some of the best of the Pacific Northwest, including Tracy Eilers, Melanie Miller, Robin Lee, and her own performance expertise. She clearly took care to choose really experienced judges, and I applaud her for that!

The horse will be available at raffle for show attendees. Unfortunately, Erin will not be able to sell raffle tickets except at the show, but if you know someone in Region 1 who will be attending and you're interested in the horse, I encourage you to ask them to buy raffle tickets by proxy (as Erin suggested). I don't want anyone interested in this piece to miss out! He will likely be my first completed horse of 2008, and I can't wait to post finished pictures.

Fun new mini Nahar in the works

Commissions have been swimming along at quite a nice pace lately, so in between their layers of paint and primer drying I've been working on a horse for me, who will eventually be for sale. I am really excited to share this mini Nahar, as his paintjob is based on (but not exactly copied from - I tried something a little different on the belly) a horse I met a couple years ago at the Equine Affaire and have been wanting to paint ever since! Click here to see Magnum Spatz.

I am experimenting on this one, too - doing his markings in oils instead of acrylics. It's a big slower going, but it actually feels like it may take fewer layers than acrylics, and blending the pink muzzle will be a snap! The pictures are a little grainy, and yes, his tail definitely needs some more work! He also will have a lot of Bend'Or spots (you can sort of see them in the pictures of the real horse).