The creation of Destiny

I started painting Destiny at a horse event. He had several background colour changes along the path to his creation!

 Here he is early at the event.

This was how he was at the end of the demo at the horse event.I quite liked the pale background but felt he didn't have enough impact.

Here he is at home and I'm experimenting with backgrounds.Suzie had shown me another painting with a background she liked so I was guided by that but altered things a little to suit Destiny.

I liked this one but felt he needed a bit more oomph..

I asked my partner what he thought of this versions background and he said he liked it and it was classy.For once I took his advice and decided to email Destiny through and see what Suzie thought. My partner has an irritating habit of being right even when I don't agree with him! LOL's

Suzie didn't like the background . She thought it was a bit too stunning , in your face  preferring a subtler one although she did say that other people could love it.

Here is the finished Destiny. It isn't just a case of changing the background colour as its colour affects the whole of the portrait. When you change a background you have to incorporate subtle colours from the new background throughout the portrait so it works as a whole.I also continued refining , doing his eye and getting a good likeness.

Destiny

35x 35cms image size

Framed Oil.

Framed

All's well that ends well..

The guy just came around to get the calves body.I hadn't turned it over but he had a look and said he thought it had died of natural causes and the dogs had come after and had a feed.
So the cows stay on , Zeuss has his mates and hopefully with Z + cows more assertive the dogs will give us a wide berth! Lol's.

Mondays portrait

My portrait group painting was almost frisbeed today! LOL's..( thrown across the room).
I was painting onto a piece of canvas taped to a board and when I wet it it rumpled up into big ridges..I had forgotten to take extra masking tape down to tape it firmly so I ended up having to paint up and over hills and valleys in the canvas.. amazing what you can do when you have to! Quite frustrating at times. Here's an early pic of the portrait to show you what I mean!

Argh!!!

At the end of the 2.30hr session.

 

Poor Zeuss

Poor Zeuss..here he is in heaven surrounded by his new mates..They now have to be quickly taken off. 

Last night I could hear a cow mooing loudly and just assumed it was the bull next door who's seen the new cows.
I came out this morning and realised one mum was agitated and seemed to have lost her calf. I thought she had just misplaced it when I saw a little one separate from the group.I tried to shoo her down towards it when I stumbled over her calf- dead missing and eye and half it's nose..It's a big one too.bummer what a way to start the day.
Looks like the dogs that were stressing Zeuss have got it.He's seemed calm lately and we hadn't seen any so I thought they had gone.
We don't want to lay baits but I think it's the only way.It was a large calf so now I'm a bit worried for Zeuss.
I just spoke to a local chicken farmer who said he'd seen a yellow feral dingo/ cross dog around.It's probably the culprit.Hopefully if we lay baits it will only get it as I don't think the dingos come onto the place.I just hope the foxes don't take any as they keep the rabbits down.
Poor Z..The one that was taken is the one just to the right of Zeuss so it was a fairly large calf.

 I've asked if the bloke can put a larger cow on the place permanently to keep him company.We don't know yet if that's possible. 

Later today -

Revenge of the animals...I looked out at the paddock and one of the local dogs had decided to come and pay a visit..Zeuss and the cows galloped after it and sent it packing! LOL"s

Gresford - Allynbrook - Gresford cycle

My partner had a day off today and as it was a bit cooler today  we went up the valley and did a cycle ride. It will soon be too hot to ride so we're making the most of it.
The Hunter Valley is looking great after all the rain .This ride has several river crossings on fords and I went for a quick fully clothed dip as it was pretty humid and warm .It worked out well as I was still damp at the end so I didn't notice the heat.
I'll make the photos larger so you can see them better.

Heading out from East Gresford

 

River at Allynbrook

 This is a photo taken back in 2009 to show the first ford where I had a dip to the left of the picture.We went the opposite direction  today.

General views at Mount Rivers

View to the right of the previous photo

The road was gravel for about 5kms here and a bit dodgy .You had to be careful to stay in the smoother bits although it is still a 2 lane road. 
Recommend mountain bikes with suspension.Go early in the morning and the roads are very quiet . The Lostock Rd can probably get a bit busy in peak hours at weekends ( maybe get a dozen or more cars).LOL"s Today once we got off the road to Allynbrook we saw one truck carrying hay bales and one car.

Swing bridge property car entrance over the river.

Taken in 2009 - to show the general river scenes on the way back

The road winds around the hills. This is  going back towards Gresford.I am standing on one corner and there is a km or more of winding road before this pic. My partner is the tiny white dot.Some great downhill runs..& some uphill grinds ..zzz

I have a habit of whinnying at any horse I pass.I don't know what I say but they usually whinny back and run around. This little guy put on quite a show!

Once I was bushwalking with a group on Barrington Tops and the brumbies were nearby. I did my whinny thingy and the stallion got all excited and started to come over. My fellow walkers told me to stop it as they were scared of what he'd  do..LOL"s

It was a lovely cycle although I'm tired now..I don't feel like packing the car for tomorrow's dog show but I better get into it.

Shelby

I ran a competition on my Sue Linton Artist page for a photo to use as a demo painting for this Saturdays dog show. Anne Marie won with Shelby.
 I'll post some progressive photos of her as she is created.
Here is the photo- she is going to be an 30 x 40cms Oil on gallery wrap canvas so she can be hung unframed.

Isn't she cute?

Here is the start of Shelby. I've just drawn her up very quickly with paint on the canvas.

A bit further along - I've reduced the size of her paw and corrected a few other things..I constantly correct things as I go along.I decided to have her hanging over a plank or wall in the foreground.

Here I'm at the dog show and want to give something for people to look at as quickly as I can.

Here I'm almost finished for the day.I think I might have done a little bit with her eyes but I ran out of time.

The finished portrait

Shelby

30 x 40cms

Oil on Gallery wrap canvas

For Sale

$750
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A portrait makes a unique heartwarming gift!

I still have a bit of space for Christmas portraits so if you have a friend who is hard to buy for and loves their pet , horse or spouse a portrait makes a gift that is hard to match!
If you get a few friends or family to put in you can have a large stunning portrait for their house.If they have lost an animal a portrait can really help them remember the good times and ease their loss.

Grr..If things keep going the way they have been there will be some kangaroo steaks on the BBQ soon..

I love the roos and usually they are no problem but the male hormones are going off at the moment and they are cornering the females under the front verandah.
Other than being woken up by the bashing , grunting , clucking and growling they have demolished my prized Cycad ( wrong place at the wrong time and trampled and broken).They also got carried away and tore out half the small front garden bed..grr
We'll have to fill in the area under the verandah so the girls can't go in there. Meantime I'm on the war path and I'm yelling and chasing them away from there whenever I'm around.