Latest Commission - Carragh

Here is my latest commission Carragh. She's a Thoroughbred x Shire and this was a really enjoyable painting to do, a slightly different pose to usual and certainly a different size painting, this painting is 20x30".

Things are getting really busy for me right now. I've had to select which of my paintings to submit to the Society of Equestrian Artists annual exhibition this year and have just sent off the CD with the images on for the preliminary judging. I will find out during June whether these have been accepted and then we all travel to London to hand in our paintings for a second judging and get the final yes or no as to whether they will be hung. It's such a different format to most exhibitions but there are so many entries and so much variety that they are extremely stringent so it's always extremely exciting when your paintings get accepted.

I'm also nearly ready for my first tradestand in June at the Three Counties Show in Malvern. I've just ordered my fine art cards to be printed and then it's just the final touches needed for my tradestand and I should be set. I imagine there will need to be lots of improvements to my stand over time to make it more appealing to customers and to have more stock but I'm looking forward to learning about the in's and out's of tradestands and fingers crossed I sell some things! Don't forget to come and visit me!!

What a week!

This has been a week of highs and lows. At the weekend we were at a friend's wedding in Ireland, having a great time catching up with friends from around the world. We all met 10 years ago in a hostel called the Ozi Inn in Perth, Australia and it's such a privilege to still be friends with these wonderful people after all this time.

Sadly, however, when we got back from Ireland late on Monday night, we found out that our 18 month old boy cat Dan was seriously ill. He'd been fighting kidney failure for 4 weeks after eating a shrew or vole that contained a bug that attacks cats kidneys. At his age he should have fully recovered but sadly, his body couldn't cope with the toxins in his system and on Tuesday morning we had to make the extremely heartbreaking decision to put him to sleep as he was never going to recover. Luckily we still have his sister Izzy and she's certainly making the most of having all the attention.

Onto business matters, two more limited edition prints have been added to my shop, these are Alert and Meandering.

Have you got June's edition of Horse & Rider magazine yet? My website has been chosen as one of their favourites of the month on page 8! How exciting is that?!

Also this month I am taking part in an exhibition about Animal Art at Parkfields Gallery, 4 High St, Ross on Wye. It is running from 26 April until 2 June and I have 6 paintings on show. If anyone is in the area, please pop along.