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.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - February 2019

During February, visits to this blog were received from the following countries and other jurisdictions:

The following is a summary of weather for the month:

The dry season continues to continue. Three months in a row without any rain. At one point, there was a prediction of rain but nothing materialized in our area. On one day, there was a record high temperature for the year but it was mitigated by low humidity.

Costa Rica is subject to trade winds, also known as Papagayo ("Parrot") winds. On several days in February it became quite windy. But, the winds were subject to fits and starts. Dead calm for a period of time would be followed for another period of time by relatively strong winds and even stronger gusts. Occasionally, Papagayo winds can be quite brutal (like throwing stuff around on a patio) though not life threatening like hurricanes and tornadoes. Most of the time, they have a refreshing cool down effect.