Black on Grey on White

Waow what a week-end! Wanted to blogg this great piece of news on Friday... anyway here goes... My latest piece for the EAG show "Together Alone" has been selected Editors Choice by Mike Sibley (no less) on his Starving Artist webiste.( www.starving-artists.net ) Yep Editor's choice. Fandabidosy....!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so honoured and very very speechless...just absolutely GREAT! It is so nice to have this piece perceived the way I was hopping it would be. Started my new piece, this time for the CAG Muse show coming up in March. Also organised all I need for starting with colour (more specifically pastels) will try and keep a daily up-date here on my progress once I've got started.

I realised after reading my entry yesterday that I don't have all of Remmi's art work displayed. So here are all his portraits. Moments of action and elegance as well as a close up of his eye. Still walking down memory lane....

Finished another piece, this time for myself (yep!) An entry for the next EAG online show. It was a trip down memory lane. Thank you for this show. Thank you for making me go down this lane. It was the closure I needed.. Together Alone is the latest portrait of my greatest muse: Rembrandt Borbet. Remmi and I became friends back in 1993 when I went to work for top German dressage rider Nicole Uphoff. The choice of a muse for this show was hard. When one spends a lifetime with horses they all become very special. However, there seemed to be no doubt that Remmi would be the star once again. He was the muse for my first commission as well as the start of my career. I have drawn no other horse as often and with as much feeling as I have drawn Rembrandt. Now for a little background info: who was Rembrandt Borbet? To cut a long story short, he was one of the most successful dressage horses of all time. Under the saddle of his owner/rider Nicole Uphoff , their performances were legendary: win...

Ok, so I've still not quite got the skills to get ahead of time but I'm not too far off. Here are the two last (yipee!) Xmas commissions. All done before the dead line which is a great relief because it allows for quality corrections and "tweeking" as we like to call it. One is a black cat: Dani , and the other a little white dog: Honey. Both drawings are pure graphite no charrcoal was used. Seem to be going through a charcoal-less phase...! They were difficult to do as the ref photos were not good and low on detail. Done it! Learned a few things and I'm pretty happy with the result. Blogging off now for a few days; mabe week. Speaky soon and a very Merry Xmas to you all!

The year is drawing to close, the festive season is in full swing and time is just not giving us commission artists any slack...! Nearly finished the last of my commissions (actually getting ready to a little night shift...). I am strangely enough quite enjoying doing them as they are totally different to what I normally do: a little white fluffy dog and a cat who's as black as the ace of spades. As so very often, the reference photos are not much help and certainly not detail rich...Funny how one really learns the hard way not to relly on the photograph but to use ones own knoweldge of the subject matter. Will wrap this little entry up by saying....will be posting finished work before the 20th...oh yes... Will get ahead of time... One can only try!

I hate it, working to deadlines...stress, just pure stress...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Time just runs away even faster... The great news is: that I have 2 more orders done and accepted! Brilliant news. They were quite OK to work on and always a beloved theme...a horse in action over a fence. Beautifull athletic horses who absolutely adore their work. Sucha joy to portray. I focused on detail as always and used only graphite no charcoal. This took me a little more time but I felt in control throughout the entire protraits. Well back to the drawing board, have a littel white dog to draw and a very black cat. Speaky soon.

Still in a state of shock, heard yesterday of the death of a friend that has really shocked me. She was never ill, always so full of energy, vibrant, outgoing. She took life straight on. She was was one of these people who you can only picture bubbling with life... Not someone dying of cancer. Don't really want to philosophy on life on death right now. One thing I will say though is that her death has affected me quite strongly ... a real deep sadness has been at the front of my mind since I heard of the news, it just seems so unbelievable and unfair...