The Big Reveal!

I can now reveal my latest painting commission because it has been gifted to the recipient and is no longer a closely held secret. Word is that “they love it”!

Some months ago, my long time friend Judy commissioned me to paint a picture of Taylor riding her pony Sebi in a horse show. Taylor is one of the triplets that Judy is grandmother to. The painting was to be a present for Judy’s daughter, mother of the triplets.

Judy and I have been friends since high school in Ottawa, Canada. There are several of us - all horse crazy - and we remain friends to this day. So many great memories of hacking out, horse shows, pony club days - recently we have been sharing these memories and photographs. Obviously this love of all things horses was transmitted to Judy’s daughter and grandchildren.

Here is the finished commission - “Taylor and Sebi” - acrylic on canvas board:

Here it is after Judy had it framed:

And here it is in its new home in Ontario, Canada:

A couple of progression photos:

This painting was a pleasure to work on because the two subject matters were just too cute! There are rules and regulations on what a child wears while riding in a horse show. The stirrups, for example, are breakaway - designed to prevent the rider from dragging and injury. The little girls wear braids and colourful hair ribbons. So I tried to show everything as correctly as possible.

Photo reference courtesy of Anneli Tapanila;

 https://annelitapanila.wixsite.com/photography.

You can see my art work here (my own art web page) and also here (Kyo Gallery, Alexandria, Virginia, USA).

Totally unrelated to my art, today we experienced very strong winds - called the papagayos. I made a short video of our coco tree blowing around in our back yard.

Moona Lisa Goes Home

This is Moona Lisa:

She is one of my paintings, acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas, 35”x35”. Moona Lisa was consigned to Kyo Gallery in Arlington, Virginia. I kept the painting in our house.

Our friends Linda and Clifford (who live in Washington State) were visiting us last summer and Linda fell in love with this heifer. She said she was going to talk to Clifford about purchasing it but I heard nothing more. Much to my surprise, last fall I received an email from Clifford addressed to me and Kyo Gallery. He wanted to buy it as a surprise present for Linda, who had a milestone birthday coming up in April of this year.

So we had a big secret to keep for about six months. Clifford used his dad’s credit card so Linda wouldn’t see any charges to the gallery and I shipped the painting to one of their friends. To further add to the fun, I posted on Facebook that Moona Lisa had sold to a hereford breeder on the east coast. Linda said “no! I wanted that painting!” I apologized but, well, a sale is a sale, he who hesitates and so on.

With so many people involved in this subterfuge, it’s amazing that Linda never found out what we were up to. 

The birthday party was recently held at a restaurant which displayed a number of paintings, including my own. However, before the party began, a white cloth was thrown over Moona Lisa with the excuse that it was covering damage to the wall and patrons wouldn’t want to look at it. The party started at 4:00 pm and it wasn’t until well after 5:00 pm that the big reveal happened.

It seems that Linda was really surprised:

And here is Moona Lisa in her new home:

Happy birthday, Linda! I’m delighted that your wish came true! And thank you also, Clifford, for making it happen.

Kyo Gallery, Arlington, Virginia, U.S.A.

My cattle and equine art work is now represented by Kyo Gallery, Arlington,Virginia. They have an actual gallery and also promote artists virtually, which is where I am situated.

You can see my work here and also explore around looking at other artists’ work. 

I also have an art web site.

In the meantime, here’s a sample of my work: