Oh what a beautiful morning ...

Hey everyone, be sure to scroll down and see the work-in-progress and close-up detail pics I've added since I first published this post.


Warming Up ©2009 Karen Mathison Schmidt
6 x 6 • acrylic on Gessobord
SOLD • private collection, Berwyn, Alberta, Canada

A while back (and when I say “a while” I mean years) I attended a horse show where a friend was riding in competition. I went with her early in the morning and took a lot of pictures. I was watching some of the riders warm up in the arena, when I turned around and saw this scene a little distance away. The perfect light, the color of the horse, the attire of the rider, the stately oak ... it took my breath away, literally. I zoomed my lens in and began shooting. I took hundreds of photos that day at the horse show, and this is my favorite. In fact, I might go so far as to say in all the pictures I’ve taken in my entire life, this is in the top 100. And seeing as how I’ve taken probably a zillion photos all told, that’s no small honor.

Today I finally decided to make a painting of it. And here it is.

And here are the work-in-progress photos:

The initial sketch. Hmmm ... the horse looks rather cartoonish, but I’m not worried.



Block in the large areas of color. Still not worried about the horse. OK, well, kind of concerned.



Getting frustrated with trying to add the dapple to the horse’s coat (man, I’m never gonna get this horse right! I don’t know what I was thinking!) so I decided to paint it all gray and work backwards by lightening around the dapples.



Whew! That’s working a lot better. Here I’ve started adding some color to the lead line that the trainer is holding. I’m not worried about it looking too thick, because later I can make it thinner by painting in the negative space around it. I do the same thing with the tree branches, defining the shapes by painting the space around them.



See? The lead line looks thinner now. I’m starting to add layers of color to the foreground.



I love this stage ... adding color details to the tree and also developing the foreground. Starting to shape up the figure of the trainer by adding some highlights.



And here are some close-up details:

Knee Deep in the Good Stuff

Tres Amigos ©2009 Karen Mathison Schmidt
6 x 6 • acrylic on Gessobord
SOLD • private collection, Attleboro, Massachusetts

These handsome fellas were hanging out in the pasture just on the other side of our fence a few days ago. I used a super zoom lens to capture the scene, but you’ll notice that the one on the far left has spotted the paparazzo. Even though technically we’re in the dead of winter, the day was so spring-like I just couldn’t resist adding the merest suggestion of blooms here and there in the painting.

And after I finished the painting and walked out in the yard with Trixie just a couple of hours ago I saw that today, while a lot of the country is still waist deep in snow, the paper whites out in the pasture have already started blooming.


Yeah. That’s what I love about the South.

Oh, and just to top off this wonderful day, I just got an email from a good friend letting us know that her brother, who has been on a waiting list for 2 years for a liver transplant, has received a new liver and will be having it installed tonight at midnight. Praise God for answered prayer! (Just to show you the sense of humor my friend Mona has: the subject on her email was "LIVER!!! (but not with onions)." That really cracked me up. And that's one of the reasons we've been friends for 20-something years.

Lest you think I forgot, here are the ever popular work-in-progress photos of today's painting:









And a few close-up details:

Equine Encounter

AUTHOR’S NOTE: After I finished this post and previewed it, I thought to myself, Hey, this is kind of in the style of some of The Pioneer Woman’s posts. OK, so it’s totally in her style ... I hope nobody thinks I’m ripping her off!

Just now my husband sat down to look at it, and said, "Hey, you’re totally ripping off Pioneer Woman!”

I said, “I know, I know! I didn’t mean to!” I really didn’t mean to. I love Pioneer Woman.

Oh well. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? And maybe if I put enough links to her blog, she won’t get miffed. Right?

This old guy, retired from his horsely duties, hangs out in the expansive pasture across the road. Sometimes he'll be way off in the distance, sometimes right by the road, sometimes by himself, sometimes in a group of other younger horses - he’s even been known to mix it up with the cows from time to time:


He spends a lot of his free time munching yummy pasture grass, taking a break now and them for some freestyle frolicking :


and sometimes he can be seen just standing contemplatively under a pecan tree while a breeze blows his mane around his face.


Yep, he’s a real renaissance horse ... a horse for all seasons.

Yesterday on my after dinner walk with the dogs, here he was, right by the fence, dramatically backlit by the setting sun and all, so of course I had to stop for an impromptu photo shoot.


Hey, whatcha got there?


Is that a CAMERA? Are you gonna take my PICTURE?


Hold on, let me go over here and strike a pose!


Here’s the noble steed, bravely preparing to valiantly carry the White Knight courageously into battle!


Am I handsome or what?


Hey ... um ... could I get some 8 x 10’s of that for my grandkids?