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!

Ex Arte Equinus II - Art Horse Magazine Competition

For the first time ever, I have had the privilege of receiving comments from the judges regarding my paintings. It's a rare thing to hear what other artists and judges have to say about your work so it's very exciting to read, and a great way to learn how I can improve or what I'm doing right! You tend to get very little feed back as an artist so all comments are greatly appreciated!

Here's what they had to say:

Director's Selection Award: #155_1: Alert, 2007 -This painting embodies all that I had hoped to see in this competition. The technical ability in using the medium is unquestionably expert. Although I am generally not drawn to work of such photo realistic expression, Ms. Lancaster has in this piece, and in fact in all of the pieces that she submitted, used the distortion in the photo reference to convey the expression and temperament of this horse in a way that is undeniable. In doing so, she has stepped way beyond what we expect in equine portraiture. I commend and celebrate her boldness, as well as her achievement.

Judge's Comments:2nd PLACE, #155_1: Alert, 2007, Acrylic on canvas, 18x14"-- The artist has created an interesting and innovated composition in "Alert" that shows a strong confidence in their use of medium and craft. I feel a disturbing element in the painting and can sense the horse's alarm at something that is out of the frame or is it maybe the viewer who is alarming this horse? The artist's use of negative space and use of a skewed viewing angle adds to the drama of this stellar painting.

7TH PLACE #155_5: The Stare, 2008, Acrylic, 18x14" I love this one. How often I have seen this very view of my horses! Sometimes after falling off! The image is well done. This artist is very confident of his/her medium and has great drawing skills and an interesting take on composition. I loved all the work submitted by this artist! This artist has something to say.

:-D

Art Horse Magazine - International Equine Art Competition

I took the decision earlier this year to enter lots of competitions and it turned out to be a good idea! A few months back I entered some of my paintings into the International Equine Art Competition held by the Art Horse Magazine and today I found out that my painting of Alert won the Directors Choice Award, it also came 2nd in the painting category and my painting of The Stare came 7th! They're also going to be including my painting of Meandering in the book that they publish after the competition and my images will be in their magazine!! Very exciting!! Click here to go to their competition page and also see the other amazing artists that I am very humbled to be amongst.

Still here!

Once again I haven't been posting on my blog in ages. I've been busy working on my Christmas commissions which I, of course, can't post on here.

What else have I been up to? I've currently got 3 paintings in an exhibition at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists which is running until 24 December. Then I will be starting preparations in the New Year for future exhibitions, including one that I will be running with some fellow equestrian artists in March during Cheltenham Gold Cup race week.

We have also recently moved house which did upset the painting for a couple of weeks so I'm desperately catching up, but hopefully will be done in time. Slowly settling into the new house although we did have to settle for a house which doesn't have an outside workspace for a studio so I will have to wait until next year some time before I can properly build and set up a studio. Meanwhile, any visitors coming to stay will have to make do sleeping in amongst all my art stuff in the spare room!

Busy Time of Year

Oops, I hadn't realised I'd left blogging so long, it's been nearly a month! I haven't been able to post my latest commissions on here as they've all been Christmas or birthday surprise presents but I've been busy working away on them all. And I'm excited to say that we're finally moving into our own home next week. It could have been better timed but luckily I've figured in the move into all my commissions so it will hopefully all work out okay. We've rented houses for years so I can't wait to be a home owner but fingers crossed things don't start to break once we've moved as we'll no longer have a landlord to pay for repairs!

I'm also hoping to put some paintings into some exhibitions that are coming up so once I've found out whether they've been accepted, I will post about where and when the exhibitions are.

2008 Canon and Art Business Today “Print & Win” competition

I decided recently that if I want to get seen I should start entering competitions as well as exhibitions and after winning the acrylic paints, I got an email yesterday to say that I was one of the 25 shortlisted artists for the 2008 Canon and Art Business Today “Print & Win” competition! I put forward the image of "Silhouette" and as one of the 25 shortlisted, I have been invited to participate in a special exhibition at Canon’s prestigious London showroom on 20 November. For further information about this event click here. I'm going to start entering more competitions as this has given me a lot more confidence!