Latest Commission and Donkey!

Here is my latest commission, Archie, canvas size 14x18".

Archie was an absolute pleasure to paint. It was a great photo plus he's a very handsome horse. His coat had loads of interesting colours to put in including purples and pinks. You learn to pick up on all these different colours when you've been painting for a while. Also, their surroundings are often reflected in their coats, especially when working on full body paintings and you will be able to pick up on blues on their upper halves from the sky and greens on their undersides if they're stood on grass.

I also had a chance to produce this little donkey painting. I actually started it last year in the hope of making it into Christmas cards as I was going to add a bunch of mistletoe to the card hanging up in the top right hand corner but I never got very far with the painting. It's a small painting for me, canvas size 10x12" and it was great fun to do. Donkeys are so cute and a real favourite of mine so I might try and do some more paintings in the future. I'm also thinking of getting this painting made in to prints so keep an eye on my Limited Edition Prints shop. The original is now available for sale as well so if you're interested, please contact me.

Latest Commission

Well, I'm back at last! :-D It's been a while since my last posting on here but I had been really busy with a big painting only to completely forget to take a photo of the finished version! It was a painting for a wedding so I'm waiting to hear from the bride to see if she can get a photo of the painting for me, but of course she's on honeymoon at the moment. Meanwhile, I have just finished another commission, which is of William, another very handsome Cocker Spaniel. This painting was size 12x16". His owner won the prize of having his portrait painted in a raffle to raise money for Cockers Online which is a brilliant source of information about all things Cocker Spaniel and also a great place to talk with owners. Here is the painting of William.

Commissions are finally starting to pick up which is great as it's been a very quiet year with the recession and I had been worrying! Although bizarrely I still haven't had any enquiries about Christmas so I hope people aren't leaving it to the last minute! I also need to work on some of my own equestrian paintings, especially as I have been invited to be part of a permanent exhibition at the Ascot Jockey Club and I currently only have a couple of paintings they can display! I sometimes wish I could paint quicker but then I wouldn't enjoy it so much!

Latest Commission

Here is my latest commission, a big 24x20" painting of three beautiful Cocker Spaniels, Stevie, Misty and Jimmy. I had totally underestimated how long this painting would take me, giving myself just 3 weeks and in the end it took me a month but their owner is very happy with the finished painting and even I'm quite happy with it! As an artist, you always tend to pick on your own work so if you're even vaguely happy with your painting, that's a good thing!

I've also had a couple of one day shows that I've attended recently, the Monmouthshire Show and yesterday I was at the Frampton Country Fair. The Monmouthshire Show was held on a Thursday and although I have as yet not got any commissions from it, it was a really busy day with people constantly in my tradestand tent. I was working on the above commission whilst there and that seemed to attract a lot of people in as well but it still amazes me how much people underestimate how much time and effort we as artists put into our work and how that calculates as to what we need to charge for a painting. Not helped by the recession, I know, but it still amuses and amazes me at the same time.

Frampton Country Fair seemed to be an entirely different type of affair, with not as many visitors and definitely not as many interested in visiting the tradestands. But it's always interesting visiting these shows and working out which ones will be worth attending again the following year plus this year I actually had decent weather for both shows compared to last year's wind and rain! It makes a huge amount of difference to the number of people who turn up at the shows and also it makes a huge amount of difference to your own enjoyment of the experience!!

Latest Commission - Stan

This extremely handsome fellow is Stan and is my latest commission. I had the pleasure of taking the photos of him myself and he was an absolute delight to photograph as he just stood in the yard, posing away with no need for a head collar. He did need his treats being waved infront of him to get his attention but we managed to get this shot after just a few minutes. What a star! I really enjoyed doing the painting and am pleased to say that his owner is delighted with it.

My next commission is of three Cocker Spaniels and I'm very excited about it as it's a brilliant photo to work from that their owner has produced, plus it's going to be quite a big painting, 24x20". Some people reading this blog may not realise that I have another blog which is my work in progress blog. I don't link to that blog on my website as lots of my commissions are surprise presents so I need to be a bit more sneaky about them, but as my latest commissions aren't surprises, I thought I would mention my other blog. If anyone would like to visit it, you can find it at http://sallylancasterportraitswip.blogspot.com.

Photo of my 'Open Studio'

As promised, here is a photo of my 'Open Studio'. I tend to tuck myself into the back righthand corner with a painting that I should be working on, but normally sit there either talking to people or playing on my laptop! In my defence, acrylics dry so quickly that it's not worth painting whilst people are visiting me as I can't correct things and can make a mess of what I'm working on if I have to stop mid paint. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Today I'm giving my studio a tidy up. After spending the weeks running up to the open studio making mounts for my prints and getting everything sorted, my actual studio (spare room!) was full of bits of mount board, cardboard, paper etc so desperately needed sorting out today before I get on with my next commission, which is of a very handsome horse called Stan. I will be posting him on here once he's finished.

Open Studios

Well, I've just spent the last two weekends holding an Open Studio at my house, or should I say in my tradestand tent outside the front of my house. It was.... interesting and with mixed results. The first weekend had, sadly, a very poor turnout with only 3 visitors on the Saturday and 3 on the Sunday and these were all fellow artists so no sales or commissions. This weekend was a lot better with 10 visitors on the Saturday and 11 on the Sunday and in total, 3 prints sold. And this was even with the torrential rain we had on the Sunday! I would download a photo of my tradestand tent for you to take a look at but my girl cat, who was poorly this morning, has just fallen asleep on my feet and I haven't the heart to move her so I can go and get my camera! Yes, I know, I'm far too soft on my cats!

I have to admit that I don't think I will do an Open Studio again unless, perhaps, I ever get a proper studio. Sitting in my tent all weekend got very lonely at times, not to mention cold when the wind was blowing through! I just thank God that our wireless internet reached out there so I could spend most of my time on Facebook!! lol!

As promised too, here is the commission I finished recently of two beautiful Golden Retrievers, Barley and Meg. The painting has been sent to my customer and she's extremely happy with it and just waiting to give the painting to her husband for his birthday in August so I hope he's just as happy.

SEA Exhibition

I'm pleased to say that hand in day for the Society of Equestrian Artists exhibition went well and I got two of my paintings accepted, 'Denman & Kauto Star' and 'Tension', my racing painting.

Sadly, my painting of Oliver Townend on Flint Curtis at Badminton didn't get in but that does mean it's available to buy from myself. If you are at all interested, or know someone who may be, please contact me.

I met up at the hand in day with fellow equestrian artist Laura Barber-Riley and it was her first time submitting to the exhibition and I'm so excited to say that both her paintings were accepted. Congratulations Laura!!

The Society of Equestrian Artists exhibition is to be held at the Mall Galleries in London and is their 30th Annual Exhibition. It will be running from Tuesday 28 July until Sunday 2 August so please come along to visit.

I'm still here!

It's been a while since I posted on this blog so I thought I'd let you know I'm still here! I had a couple of weeks off and then worked on a large commission which I'm still waiting to hear from the client about but once that's sorted, I will post it on here.

Meanwhile, I have a couple of open studio weekends coming up on 11 & 12 July and 18 & 19 July which I have to get organised for. I've decided to do all the mounting of my prints myself this time to save money, but sadly it's a long and tricky job, plus I have a lot of printing of fliers, marketing material etc to get sorted. I have previously had a company to do the printing of my fliers but I currently can't afford to do so, so am desperately seeking decent paper to print them out on. If any artists out there have suggestions for paper or card for fliers, please let me know!

My open studio isn't actually going to take place in my studio however. I'm going to be putting up my tradestand tent outside the front of my house. This will make it more noticeable to passing traffic plus my 'studio' is infact our spare bedroom so we're not too keen on having strangers wandering through our house! I will be working on a painting during the weekend though, so you can still see me at work and feel free in asking any questions. Fingers crossed the weather stays dry, and if it's sunny I might forego painting for sitting outside the tent on my sun lounger!!

Oliver Townend Painting Finished

I managed to get the painting finished today and I'm very pleased with the outcome. I've never painted this kind of action painting before and really enjoyed it so hope to do more in the future. If anyone can see anything I've missed, please let me know as I tend to go a bit cross eyed by the end of paintings. And any other comments are always appreciated. Fingers crossed for getting it into the exhibition now! And also fingers crossed I can afford to get my paintings framed....

Oliver Townend

I've made a start on the final stage - the tack. It's when I start to paint in the final areas that I can see bits that need tweaking, such as areas that haven't enough shading.

Oliver Townend

Here's todays update. I'm really pleased with my progress, having nearly finished Flint with just his head and then all the detail such as veins etc to put in. Then it's on to the tack which ties the whole painting together.

The photo I've taken of the painting doesn't quite show the colour as strong as it is in real life but I don't tend to worry too much about getting a good photo until I've finished the painting. I was also a bit handicapped when taking this photo because one of my cats had perched herself on my shoulders!! Not helpful.

Oliver Townend

Here's my latest update on the Oliver Townend painting. I'm still not entirely sure I'm happy with the background, mainly due to my aversion of putting in backgrounds, but it is making Oliver stand out quite nicely and I'm also pleased at how much I've managed today, after the last painting taking me so long! I've three days left to work on this painting so please keep everything crossed for me that I manage it!

Racing Painting Finished and Next One Started!

I've finally finished! I'm pretty happy with the painting but it's so different for me compared to the type of paintings I normally produce that it's taking me a while to get completely used to it. I can't wait to get it framed though because that's when paintings look like proper paintings to me.

I've also made a start on my next painting for the exhibition. It was taken at Badminton this year and is of the winner Oliver Townend on Flint Curtis. The photo was sadly not taken by me, with my photos turning out to be unusable, but instead taken by Richard Yarnell who is the boyfriend of a friend and happens to take fantastic photos and has kindly given me this image to use. The detail in the photo is incredible and as you might have gathered, I love detail but let's hope I don't get too bogged down in it and let this painting take me ages to do! I also normally prefer not to do backgrounds as I find them really tricky to do but I don't think this painting would work without the background to give it grounding. Although I'm not sure if my background has turned out that well so I might change my mind and paint it out!!

Racing Painting

So very nearly there!! After yet another full day working on the painting, I still haven't quite got it finished but it's very close to the end. Just the mane and jockey left to go. Today was bridle detail day and I decided to change the bridle as on the original photo, there was a fleece cover over the cheek piece which I found quite distracting so I've painted it without. I really struggle to paint things that I can't see so it's taken a lot of looking at other photos to get a picture in my head and to also make sure I get it right. If anyone notices anything glaringly wrong, please let me know!!

Racing Painting

Hmmm, didn't get quite as far today as I'd hoped, even after putting in a full days work. I had hoped to finish it today which now seems quite amusing when you see how much is left to do! Fingers crossed I'll get it finished tomorrow as I still have two paintings to do and a week Friday is when I need to get them done by as we're taking the next two weeks off for a much needed break from our work. Give my eyes a rest!

Racing Painting

Here is the latest stage of my racing painting. It's not coming along as quickly as I'd hoped, partly due to me procrastinating and finding lots of other jobs to do but this wasn't helped this morning by having a long power cut. The weather was terrible so it wasn't even light enough to paint by the natural light so it looks like I'm going to have to be a bit more organised tomorrow and try to get a lot more done.

The paint on the horse's neck was still wet when I took the photo so has more glare than usual on it.

Racing Painting

Here are a couple of updates of a racing painting I am currently working on. I'm hoping to do two and submit them for the Society of Equestrian Artist's exhibition this summer but it's been a last minute decision to do them so I'm up against it timewise as the submission date is 15 June and there is also another painting I want to do for the exhibition as well!! The photos for my racing paintings were from racing photographer Tracy Roberts and she also provided the photos for my previous painting of Denman and Kauto Star.

Here are the first couple of work in progress photos. The horse at the back is being painted slightly out of focus, it's not your eyes or my photography!

Badminton & Latest Commission

On Saturday I was very lucky to go to the cross country stage of Badminton Horse Trials. The cross country is my favourite stage and even though this is my third time to watch it at Badminton, it never ceases to amaze me how talented (or crazy!!) these riders are. The fences are HUGE! I was lucky enough to go with another equestrian artist, Laura Barber-Riley and we made the most of our time, taking loads of photos, spending the entire day out on the course. Unfortunately, my camera which is excellent for portrait photos, isn't up to the job of movement photos so my photos haven't turned out to be usable for paintings, probably also not helped by the photographer! But Laura has got some great photos and I'm hoping to sneak a couple from her to produce paintings from. It's also spurred me on to go to more horse trials and, if I ever get the spare cash, to buy a camera that can cope!!

And this is my latest commission, Daniel, 14x18" canvas. He is the brother of Charlotte, a previous commission and was great fun to do. I don't get to paint many people so really enjoy them, especially kids as they have such beautiful smooth skin and great smiles. Just wish I could get more to do!

Ain't the sun great!!

Yet another lovely weekend where the sun made an appearance. My mum came to visit this house for the first time and we made the most of the weather, Saturday visiting a country fair in Monmouth and yesterday going to visit the Point to Point races at Andoversford. The country fair was still a bit windy and chilly but a fun day out, bumping in to fellow Equestrienne artist Nikki Moore. The Point to Point races were lovely and sunny but no quite as successful as a day out as we didn't realise the racing didn't start until 2.30pm and my mum's train was at 3.10pm! So we never managed to see any of the racing, instead opting for a lovely lunch in a nearby pub.

My latest commission was of a beautiful Beagle called Parson.

He was a fantastic painting to do thanks to a very interesting and beautiful photo to work from. I love the breed, hounds being very handsome with particular characteristics that are fun to make sure you've got them just right.

Also, excitingly, I have just sold my painting 'Alert' which recently won the Director's Award with Art Horse Magazine and I sold it to.... Juliet Harrison who is the lady who awarded the Director's Award! It was such an honour to receive the award in the beginning but to then have her wanting to buy the painting is just incredible. I still keep pinching myself!

Artists Galore

I now have a photo from my trip to Wales of us artists and my hubby. From left to right we have Sarah Theophilus, Nick Beall, Me, Chris and Melanie Phillips. And once again I'm the shortest... :-D

Easter

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter. It was great to have a few days off and for it to also be sunny! It's been a long time since that's happened in this country!

On Saturday Chris and I went to visit fellow artists Melanie Phillips and Nick Beall in Wales, who also happened to have another portrait artist, Sarah Theophilus visiting so there was lots of art talk going on which was great, it's always excellent getting to exchange ideas with other artists and discuss the business side, how tricky it can be to make a living out of it etc. They've all been artists for far longer than me and have very established careers so it's great inspiration for me. Mel and Nick also have a beautiful cottage so it's given Chris and I motivation to get our cottage in better shape!

Monday we spent sorting out the top part of our garden. We've a big garden which goes down in several steps as it's quite steep but it's also in desperate need of some attention so we're starting on the top part and working our way down. Most of it needs taking out and starting again so let's hope for a continuing sunny summer to help get us out in to the garden.

Today I've a commission to finish and then I need to put some hard work in to marketing, which can get missed out when working on paintings. I also need to start thinking about doing some original paintings, especially as I want to increase the number and variety of prints I have for sale. I'm not doing the big tradestands this year, which is where most prints tend to sell, but I am holding an Open Studio at my house over 3 weekends in the summer plus hopefully attending a couple of one day Country Fairs. I will be posting details of these on my website nearer the dates so if you're able to come and visit, it would be fantastic to see you.

Latest Commission and News

This is my latest commission, Clover. She is quite a local commission and was a present for the daughter's 18th birthday. I really enjoyed painting her as she's such a pretty horse.

I feel like I'm constantly painting at the moment as I'm trying to catch up after having a bit of time off and also because I need to get the money coming back in! So much do I need to get the money coming back in that I have been looking for a part time job and have just applied for a job in a local holiday park which, working Mondays and Fridays, would fit in perfectly. Fingers crossed!

I've also been getting a bit behind on the paperwork side of things and need to update my accounts but as it's my least favourite job, it's last on the list! It's amazing how many little jobs can be found to do when accounts are looming.

Latest Commissions

Here are my latest two commissions, Paris at the top and Bea below. Paris was a fun commission to do due to the different style, the inspiration taken from a previous painting of mine. The owner had a fabulous photo of the beautiful Paris cantering across her field and wanted to recreate this with a more contemporary background.

Bea's owner had previously commissioned me to do a painting of a friend's horse so after helping me at that photo shoot, she was able to get some fabulous photos. Old age sadly took over and Bea is no longer with us but this painting will hopefully be a wonderful tribute for years to come.

Equestrienne

Well, after a bit of a break from my art it was back with a bang last week as it was the Equestrienne exhibition that was held by myself and 5 other equestrian artists in Cheltenham. The Private View on the Wednesday night was quieter than we had anticipated as we invited a lot of people but on talking to people from Cheltenham, the locals tend to stay indoors during the Gold Cup racing festival and the racegoers tend to head straight to the pub after the races. Still, it wasn't a bad attendance, with Desi Dillingham, the president of the British Horse Society opening it for us. Because we rented the gallery space for the week, we had to be in attendance and it was great meeting the customers and hearing everyone's thoughts. Not many originals were sold but I did sell a few prints and cards which is always a bonus. We're hoping to hold other exhibitions together and our next venture might be at the racecourse for The Open in November so I need to work on producing more racing paintings this year to target the right audience. All our art was very different from eachother but worked extremely well together and we received many complimentary comments throughout the week. I look forward to our next exhibition together and hope to see you there!

Sad news

Very sadly my dad died on Saturday night. He'd been ill for several years with dementia and at Christmas had had problems with some new medication so we thought the year would be a tough one for him. Just over a month ago he ended up in hospital with what was first thought to be a urinary infection but later turned out to be cancer. By this time he hadn't eaten much for a few weeks, was very weak and because of the dementia, unaware as to what was going on so he didn't suffer too much during his last weeks. My mum and I were with him when he died and see it as a release for him as he'd been so ill without much quality of life. We prefer to celebrate his life and remember him as he was before the illness so look positively at what has happened. Rest in peace Dad.

Denman & Kauto Star

I finished the painting of Denman and Kauto Star this morning and am very pleased with the result. I had used the black background to start with as both photos I was working from had them looking out from their stables so their necks blended into shadows but I absolutely love the dark background as it's made them stand out so well.

I've also received an art blog award from two wonderful artists whom I admire greatly, Laura Hardie and Lene Daugaard so am very excited to receive the award.

I have been asked to list 7 things I love and then pass on to 7 art blogs I admire. The 7 things I love are...

1 My hubby Chris, he's extremely supportive and has been great over the past few months

2 My cats Simon and Izzy. I would go slightly mad being in the house all day on my own if it wasn't for their strange behaviour that keeps me amused

3 The hot summer sun on my skin, it wakes me up and makes me feel alive

4 Home & Away and Neighbours, some call them a guilty pleasure, I openly rave about loving Australian soaps!

5 Travelling, I have a long list of places I want to visit

6 Wine

7 My friends, and yes they know I love wine before them!

The 7 blogs I will send the award to are:

Peggi Habets

Alecia Underhill

Jason Morgan

Jenn Pratt

Tracy Hall

Gayle Mason

Cat McMillan

Denman & Kauto Star

Nearly at the finishing post. Sorry, that was a terrible racing related pun!

Denman & Kauto Star

Please excuse the light reflection to the left again!!

Time Management

It took me a while but last night I finally picked up my favourite book called I'd Rather be in the Studio by Alyson B Stanfield which is full of brilliant advice for artists. I started reading it last year but life took over and this book was replaced for a while by self help books galore! I'm now in a much better frame of mind to take on board and implement her advice plus I now have a larger work space in which to organise myself, my administration and my art. First things first is to organise my time and I have decided to produce a weekly planner and actually write down when I will do certain things instead of my usual get up in the morning, catch up on emails and paper work and then muddle through the day. I gave myself this morning to go for a long walk whilst the sun was out and there was still snow on the ground. It's a common mistake of artists to not give themselves any 'me' time and spend all day every day painting and dealing with the business and this can end up making them resent what they used to love doing plus not getting out of the house regularly is very unhealthy for both body and mind. I'll be the first to admit that if the weather is grey and miserable, such as yesterday, that implementing these ideas and getting moving is the last thing I want to do, the first thing I want to do being sit on the sofa and eat my weight in chocolate, but I will try to keep to my routines and hopefully this will make my motivation easier to come by on the cold wet grey days.

I also realise that this year I need to focus on marketing and selling myself as an artist and the first thing I will be starting on is creating a good Artist's Statement. If I can write down how I view my work, how it's created and how I want others to view my work, it will make it easier for me to speak about it. This is all in preparation for the big Equestrienne Exhibition I'm going to be part of in March as normally exhibitions are held by galleries and the artist's have very little to do with them but this exhibition will be run by us 6 artists and I need to learn how to be more confident with the people viewing my art. Fingers crossed!!

Denman & Kauto Star

I've finished Denman this morning and am happy with the result. I might make a start on Kauto Star this afternoon but it's so cold I'm not sure my hands will co-operate. I wear fingerless gloves and a scarf on a normal day so what with all the snow we've had today and the single glazing in the spare room/studio, it's bloomin' cold in there!

Snowed in again!

Here's a short video of the snow coming down in our garden this morning. We weren't forecast any snow, in fact, just watching the national news we're not supposed to be getting any snow right now, but there it is and it's coming down hard and fast! We're now wishing that we had moved to a village with a shop as we're running short on food.

Denman & Kauto Star

Amazingly, even though we had loads of snow last night and therefore my hubby couldn't get to work, I didn't drag him outside to build lots of snowmen and have massive snowball fights with anyone who walked past our house, instead I sat down and painted. It could, however, be something to do with the short amount of time I have left to work on 3 exhibition paintings plus my commissions and I am worrying that my exhibition paintings might not have time to get framed before going on show.

We did manage to go for a lovely long walk in the snow this morning and I've some great photos as it was absolutely stunning out there. I live in the Forest of Dean and we walked around Soudley Ponds and then up into the forest.

Our cottage is over to the far right of the picture.

Soudley Ponds

Me attempting an arty shot!

Fresh virgin snow, untouched until we tramped through it!

So pretty!!!

Exhibition Piece - Denman & Kauto Star

This painting is for the exhibition in March during Gold Cup week. It's of Denman and Kauto Star who were the last two years Gold Cup winners and also stable mates at Paul Nicholls yard. There's currently a bit of light reflection to the top left of the painting and the background is actually all the same colour tone. I found setting them both on the canvas quite tricky as they've come from separate photos so I hope I've got the sizing as near as possible and that one won't end up looking a lot larger than the other!

Shimmer

At last I can start posting my commissions on here now that Christmas is over. This painting is of Shimmer, a lovely young black lab and she was supposed to be a surprise Valentine's present but my customer was so thrilled with the painting that he couldn't wait and gave it to his wife on the day of opening the parcel! It was a lovely painting to do, helped by Shimmer being extremely cute and I worked with my customer to find a pose that was different to a normal head portrait as I felt such a young and vibrant labrador should be shown as such.

I'm glad to say I have some commissions lined up as I'm very worried about the coming year as portraits are a luxury item and many won't be able to treat themselves as they normally do. I'm going to concentrate on my originals this year too, incase things go quiet commission wise and also look for part time work, although I'm very picky as to what work I do due to my very short attention span - I get bored very easily! However, I have a big exhibition that I'm part of with 5 other equestrian artists in March so need to do a few more paintings for this. It's being held during Cheltenham Gold Cup races so I wanted to do at least a couple of racing paintings and, as my skills at photography are zilch, I've been searching for images from racing photographers to use and it's taken me ages to find some that I find interesting and not your normal racing scene. Also, to buy images from photographers can vary greatly in cost so I had to find someone who had interesting images plus was in my budget! I was lucky to find Tracy Roberts who has been able to provide me with some lovely photographs so keep an eye on my blog to see what I manage to produce over the next few weeks and also for further information about the exhibition.

Happy New Year!

I know I'm a bit late but I thought I should finally wish everyone a Happy New Year! I've had a slow start to the year thanks to the weather (I'm definitely a summer person!) but it's starting to pick up now, I'm underway with my commissions for this year, planning for a big exhibition in March during Cheltenham Gold Cup week and also thinking about how to further my art, producing more originals and finding yet more exhibitions and competitions to enter. I hope this year has started well for everyone and that it only gets better!