Jack the Donkey

I was very honoured last year to be asked to do a memorial painting of Jack, the much loved pet of the Bowman family in Ontario, Canada. Here is the final painting:

It is acrylic on canvas panel, 18”x24”. Photo reference: Jack’s owner Kim Bowman. I received final approval yesterday, have signed it and will be applying two coats of varnish. When I am confident the varnish is completely dry, Jack will be leaving Costa Rica on his way to the Bowman family.

So how did Kim find me? I follow Farmer Tim on Facebook. He is a dairy farmer in southern Ontario and shares the daily life of a farmer and promotes the Canadian dairy industry.

Once a year, Farmer Tim dedicates a post to his followers thanking them for their support. If you have a business, product, charity, etc., this is your chance to advertise for free on his Facebook page. His posts reach over a million people each month. So I took advantage of this offer and posted the link to my art website which is here. Thank you, Farmer Tim.

Kim saw my link and contacted me, asking if I would paint Jack and of course I said yes. Her reference photo was at an interesting angle. As the painting progressed, I felt I was getting to know Jack and I wanted to smooch his soft velvety nose!

Thanks so much, Kim, for trusting me with your Jack.

Click on image to enlarge.

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.

Horse Day Memories

Recently, myself and long time friends Lizz, Linda and Judy have been sharing memories of our horse and pony club days from our youth. We all lived in the same area of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and went to horse shows together, trail rides, sometimes boarding together at the same stables, and so on. We did so many crazy things - some of which were quite dangerous on looking back.

Today Lizz shared this hilarious memory - she’s a great writer. You can visualize the scene just by reading her words. Comments in square brackets are mine.

“The Claassen family that lived across the street from Woodburns [a farm where we boarded our horses] managed that farm of milking cows. They were from Holland and were all, or at least some of them, artists by night. Especially Hans, I think. There seemed to be lots of dudes, not so many gals, although the ladies could have been interested in other things.

At that time they were working on how to add light to rocks in a river [on one of their paintings]. Diana had something she wished to convey to Hans, so since we were already mounted she decided we would simply ride over. Which we did. Becky and Fred [Becky was my horse, Lizz owned Fred] had previously been there a gazillion times. When we arrived I just sort of reached for Becky's reins, but Di casually tied them to the push lawn mower. Now if there was a horse on this planet that you could tie to a push lawn mower, Becky was this horse.

Alas, apparently there is not.

Something set her off as Diana, having completed her mission, emerged from the house in conversation with Hans. Becky’s head flew up. She darted this way. She darted that way. She ran around a tree. Fred's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. I hastily backed him out of what seemed to be Becky’s circle of panic and he went back to sleep. Really.

Becky got herself wound up into a western spin, where the butt remains planted and the rest flys around. She had the mower flying horizontally sideways.

It was actually hilarious. Diana and Hans and I mesmerized by the low flying machinery, Becky apparently pleased with herself that could create such a fuss, and Fred snoozing on the sidelines. What a scene that must have seemed to a casual observer.

Saturday night at the farm...”

A memory photo courtesy of Lizz - me on the left front on my horse Drum - Ottawa Valley Hunt.

Tuffy Update

Remember Tuffy? He's the cat who moved uninvited into our Cloverdale, B.C., house about six months before we moved to Costa Rica. We became attached to him and he to us so we did not want to just abandon him when we left.

We were bringing our cat, Genny, with us but had no wish to bring a second cat. To the rescue - my niece and her husband in Toronto, Ontario. We air shipped Tuffy to them and he adopted them as his own in no time.

An interesting aside to the Tuffy story - we were convinced Tuffy was female but it turned out he was not!

Here is a recent photo of Tuffy living the very good life in Toronto, Ontario. Thank you, Stephanie and Dave.

Photography: S.J. Kalinowski

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Playing Tourist

We are currently entertaining VIP visitors, my sister and her husband. They arrived last week from Carlsbad Springs, Ontario, Canada.

Today we went to see the Poas volcano.  This volcano is a post in itself so I'll just say for now that it is well worth visiting - so amazing.

Lance checked the weather at 0530 and declared it a perfect day to see the volcano - clear skies. We were on the road just after 0730. We recommend getting to Poas by 1000 before clouds come in.  Lance was correct - the volcano was clear of clouds.

After the volcano visit, we drove to  Restaurante Chubascos for lunch. Restaurante Chubascos is 1 km north of Fraijanes and about 20 minutes from Poas. The setting is lovely, they have cabinas for rent and the food is excellent - they serve typical Costa Rican food. The portions are large and the fruit drinks delicious.

The cooler elevations of the Poas area support strawberry growing, dairy farming, lots of coffee plantations, cheese making and the views are incredible. We stopped along the side of the road and bought flats of fresh picked, juicy red strawberries and balls of the local white cheese. A large flat of berries cost 2,000 colones and the cheese was the same price.

Also recommended: use a GPS! We do and it makes things so much easier - most of the time. "Jill" steered us wrong a few times, leading us to a washed out road that was impassible.

Patacones rellenos.

Yuca appetizer

This soup was delicious, filled with good things.

Come Fly With Me

Tuffy is now an Ontario cat. The last report I had on her was yesterday and she was eating and using the litter box but, as my niece says, "Swiffering under the bed". She is being kept in a quiet room for now to get used to new people and surroundings.

She was a good girl about riding in the carrier to the airport - lots of complaining but she settled down somewhat. I felt bad leaving her with the agents but they were ooohing over her so she was in good hands. I hope the flight was smooth for her. Here's a picture of the exact moment when Tuffy touched down in Toronto:

For a stray cat with a broken fang, torn ears and fight scars, she is so fortunate to have a wonderful family right across Canada. Numerous relatives of mine offered to adopt her/considered adopting her so here's a big shout out to everyone in my family - you are champs! And thank you Steph and Dave for taking her in.

Interesting observation: our cat Genny seems happy to have the house to herself again. She was unusually active and affectionate yesterday!