The McDermott/Scott Exhibit

Last post I promised a viewing of the small collection of Deb McDermott resins I've painted over the years. Oddly enough, after uploading them all to the blog, I realized they were all chestnut base horses! At least the new David in progress (see previous post) is a palomino. I've got another David, my final copy, I plan on doing in dapple gray. I've also got a Pearl (the 5.5" one) I'll paint something (still don't know what for sure) for a sales piece way in the future, and a customized Gomez I'm going to have a hard time parting with that will be a buckskin going gray. We'll see what else ends up in my "stable" in the future as well.

So the exhibit. I guess we'd better start with the horse that really started it all, a David painted homozygous tobiano. He was quite the topic back when I did him several years ago. I remember I had been struggling with dapples. I decided to try a different technique than the one I'd been working with at the time and I still use it to this day. Oddly enough, the David in progress took that technique one more step further in my quest to get amazing dapples. He was also the first horse I shot with my new camera and I was still playing with all those features trying to get a good shot. 

The next McDermott piece I painted was a Persuasion - the original big'un the little Pearls were modeled after. She was finished shortly after the David above. I remember being so jazzed with how he came out that I wanted to start another horse right away. Since Persuasion was my only other piece of Deb's at the time, I chose her thinking if I'd had such great luck with him maybe it'd cary over. It did. While it doesn't show the amazing quality of depth and color in the photos, this horse is probably my best chestnut *ever*. No joke. This is really a must see in person horse.  

Next up is another great chestnut. I warned you about the chestnut thing okay? This is Bint Soraya, another traditional Arabian mare. I do love the toasty color of this horse! I also remember struggling capturing that color on film. For some reason, with my usual neutral background, she was coming out orange in photos and   I just couldn't color correct it to where it should have been. So, she got a black bg and all was good. This mare was one that finished up quickly - a week! Some of these kids just go easily and without a fuss like that. Trust me, I wish they all did. 

Mini Pearl I won't post too many shots of since you already saw her two posts ago. This little gem is definitely the most recent McDermott piece completed, being just a few days old. Coincidentally enough, she is owned by the same gal as the Persuasion above. 

So, seeing as how I have so many chestnuts, I've got a new goal to paint more of Deb's resins so I can add some new flavors to the mix! :)

In the Works Wednesday

Silly title, I know. It's late. I decided not to post the new photos of the finished painted works because I'm *so* close to uploading the new website that I'll save them for there. The blog is more for the "in the works" stuff anyway. All those "in between" pictures of the piece before completion need a place too. This is it. So, in the spirit of that, here's some shots of some little misc. sculpture stuff I've been up to!

Remember those three sneak peek photos a few posts back? That's the Icelandic Horse hangin' in his second coating of rubber. All that good stuff is dripping down onto the Willy Remember Me portrait piece, who's in her first layer of rubber. Still lots of layers to go. I've been neglecting them too. The poor Icelandic, Baldur has been sitting in that first layer for over a month now. Mimi has been sitting there too, just sans rubber. It only takes me a half an hour or so to measure, mix, and apply the rubber to the two of them so I need to just set aside some time for them. 

I've also been experimenting with claybodying. For some time I've seen Darcy as an Arab, but never wanted to do all that customizing work in resin and Apoxie. Mud ponies provided the answer. :) 

I love it! Don't mind that back right foot. It's globby and will be sanded after she's bisque. I'm thinking fiery chestnut with chrome. Or a contrasty dappled rose gray. Not sure which way to go yet. The original Darcy bisqued is below so you can compare. 

New Sales Piece

So, I've finally completed the moderately customized Weather Girl! She's now up on AB! Click Here for her Auction. Remember AB links can be finicky so just hit the browser's back button if it doesn't work on first click.

And yes, those shoes are "forged" and not sculpted.

Honestly, it was fun to transform a horse into something that was still a Weather Girl, but at the same time completely different. I don't know if I'll suddenly switch from painting resins to completely customizing plastics, but it was a nice change of beat. I have a Valentine here in studio who I've done some slight customizing to. I want to finish her at some point. Maybe next month. Too many commissions I've got on the table to get completed this month to fit her in. :) There's also a Breyer Classic scale Hanoverian and a Stone Trad. Paloose that I have big plans for. I might even have to push Valentine down the line a little to make room for that Paloose. He's going to be something. :D

That's all you'll get from me for now. Back to painting and casting and cleaning and website updating! Oh my. 

Showing up

So, I'm hosting my first live show on Saturday and as usual have a bunch of little things to do as I come down to the wire. First order of business - firming up table and chair delivery to the hangar. Second, print ribbons, judges sheets, and extra show packets. Third clean/organize room (and the rest of the house!!) for guest judge's arrival so she doesn't run away. Four - finish plaques for trophies and buy raffle tickets for donation items.

I've just come to terms with the fact that nothing "work wise" will have a snowballs chance in hell at getting any attention this week. On the plus note, the painting for the plaques by Kitty Cantrell are painting up really nicely. I've got the three Arabian Stallion plaques done (woots):

And am 2/3 of the way through on the Arabian Mare and Foal plaques. These things are about 7 1/2" tall and are so so nice to paint! I've already told Kitty that they are going to become an annual thing for trophies for my show. They're just too perfect not to use. And frankly I'd rather have one of these than a rosette. Kitty does sell these two if you're not attending my show and still want one. They are $50 PPD I believe - see them on her website: http://www.kittycantrell.com/

Cookies and Customs

So, I've been wanting to do a medallion forever. I had a first attempt with this guy a few years back:

And I had an idea pop into my head while hubby and I watched a movie for a second one. A little foal hiding behind mamma's bottom and peeking through her tail. A few hours later I had my piece! Meet Peek-a-boo!

Worlds different from the first one, huh? Peek-a-Boo is roughly 2" wide by 4" tall. I'll probably be selling a few of them later, but she's not high on the priority list at all.

Next up is the custom part. I meant for that to be plural too, as the tittle suggests, but I forgot to snap a photo of him finished so I'll just plant in a little teaser description and let you look forward to him later. Here's the Weather Girl custom I'm working on with a much nicer, and much less orange background. ;) She's *almost* ready to paint but still needs some tweaks here and there. I will hope to have her up for auction next week on AB. I abhor bases in all fields - sculpting them, painting them, looking at them - so I went with a thin acrylic rod on the front hoof instead. She's quite sturdy even for being narrow.

 Can't wait to be able to put that bay paint job with chrome on her! Yum! And that teaser I promised. I have a stunning Gomez by Deb McDermott that has been in the works for a while. As with most of my own pieces they usually don't get worked on unless I have left over stuff that needs to be used. So, while cleaning resins, any surplus of Apoxie mixed went towards the customizing of Gomez. Nothing in terms of position, but a lot in terms of decoration and hair. His tail is customized and was shortened, which meant an acrylic rod to support him. Then I took off his mane on the one side and added a double french braid to the neck so he's got those gorgeous locks on both sides now. I couldn't stop there. I'd been eyeing all these fancy Spanish parade horses and of course was inspired. So, to that gorgeous thick Spanish hair, I added roses and ribbons. The end result is AMAZING. So much in fact that I'm going to keep him in my own personal collection for a while. That's no small thing. I never hang on to horses any more as I can't afford to keep my own work. If I keep it, that means I'm loosing the money I could have made from a sale. I currently have one horse in my personal collection right now and this boy will make it two.

The Weather looks good!

So, I'm doing something I have not done since my early teens. I'm customizing a plastic model. There is something about melting plastic and chopping off heads that just oozes nostalgia for me. I'm assuming, but I think *all* painters and sculptors start out doing this. By taking that beat up body and playing Dr. Frankenstein on it. But the end result is amazing. It's almost mind boggling to me that we can take these horses and totally remake them into something else.

I am seeing that the trend in the market right now is for customized plastics. My guess on why that's the case is because it's a wide open market that has not been oversaturated yet. Not with really good pieces. As mentioned, it's more of a novice field still. But, wanting a change, I think a lot of the top artists are going back to their roots. Especially now that we have such wonderful bodies to work on. Also, they are cheap to get a hold of. Cheap compaired to a $200-$500+ resin anyway.

So who's my victim? Breyer's latest plastic - Weather Girl.  She'll be what I would term a "moderate custom" when all's said and done; which means that you'll still guess she started life as a Weather Girl, but she's had a *lot* of work done. My inspiration? A photo of an Arabian hunter pleasure horse. Here's where I am so far:

She's sitting on my drafting table and only able to stand right now by leaning on something - in this case a jaringly orange and distracting box of Baking Soda. The right elbow is still bothering me. I think it needs to be moved back towards the body some more. The angle to the shoulder isn't helping so I'm actually going to fix that first and see if that's the whole problem there. Besides being straightened, the left front leg hasn't been touched. The left hind leg works where it was (woots) and there wasn't too much to do on that back right hind. I did straighten the canon as it was really messed up, probably due to a mold flaw. Her tail, when attached will look something like the drawn in one: braided with the extention for some crazy length. I'm hoping it will be enough to support her so I don't have to add pegs or a base. Her mane will be a running braid (french braid) that will enhance the shapely ness of her neck. I love how regal and feminine she's looking already! Despite the fact that I don't like them, you'll never see a top level hunter pleasure Arabian go in the ring without pads and weighted shoes. So, I'll be adding them as well. To finish her off I'll add an absolutely glowing dappled red bay paint job with golden highlights and lots of chrome. That will be the part that's most fun to me. :D

Bint Soraya

Just finished this lovely lady and posted her up on eBay! Check her out!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140496033664