Every day my cat Taz climbs up on the window sill and sits, sometimes for hours at a time, watching the going-ons of the world. No dog is walked, bunny rabbit hopped, or bird flown without being monitored by my little lookout. This painting is a tribute to her tireless vigilance.
In early 2014, the barn was host to a litter of kittens. After long days of their playful antics distracting me from my work, I decided to try to capture that bouncing energy by making a motion study. The result is these four pictures of a kitten I called “Little Brave” stalking her brother and sisters.
Prints and other products featuring “Cat Study” can be purchased at Society6.com
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A small 5″x 7″ watercolor sketch, “Sabino and Grulla” is an illustration of two unusual, yet striking, horse colors. On the left we see the grulla (or grullo) grazing with neck outstretched. Also known as mouse dun or blue dun and caused by the dun gene on a black base coat, this mare shows all the classic grulla traits: black dorsal stripe, zebra marks on her legs, and even a shock of silver in her mane…
On the right and looking to the side is the sabino mare, with lacy white splashes blending into her sorrel base coat. Working on these unusual colors was very fun for me as an artist to show the whole range of the equine pallet!
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Sometime around May of 2014 a young female goose waddled onto our farm and made herself at home. For the next four months, “Gertie,” as she came to be known, was a fixture at the barn. Arriving vehicles were greeted with raucous honking, driveways were pooped on, and stock tanks were in ever-present danger if her personal pool was not kept fresh. Alas, as autumn closed in, the difficulties of keeping a lone goose with no real pond to swim in became overwhelming. Gertie was transferred to a neighbor’s farm with a large pond and many other geese and ducks to keep her company.
To commemorate her stay with us, I painted a portrait of her. As a subject of painting, birds present some fascinating opportunities and challenges. Feathers. A lot of them. It was fun to study the way the feathers folded into her wings and spanned her breast, as was working with her subtle, pebble-toned coloring.
If you like this painting and would like one of your own animal, I am available for hire! Watercolor Animals Portraits are available for purchase at etsy.com!
I am available for animal portrait commissions! To hire me to paint your pet go to LaurelAnneEquineArt on Etsy!
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“Daisy Chain” is a fanciful painting I made around March to capture the essence of spring. The background of this painting uses a very loose technique with lots of bright, fresh colors. The bay horse nibbling at his buddy’s flower wreath is the inspiration for the whole scene, and provided a great opportunity to practice drawing new horse expressions! The bay horse is based on Felix, a horse at my barn who can never resist a snack!
Prints and other products featuring “Daisy Chain” can be purchased at Society6.com Daisy Chain
Today marks the end of the Saxonburg Festival of the Arts as well as the Saxonburg Fine Art Show. Every year the art show chooses a theme, for 2015, “country life.” Nothing says country life, especially in late summer, than a hay field. Especially, a hay field that’s newly baled, on a fresh morning full of crows or blackbirds gleaning for whatever goodies have been uncovered in the grass.
Prints and other products featuring “Hayfield” can be purchased at Society6.com–Hayfield
Unlike some of my other pictures like “Quiet Summer Wood” or “Maiden and Unicorn” that take weeks of painting, thinking, and revising, “Mother’s Love” was completed rather quickly, in just a couple of hours one afternoon. The main inspiration for this painting for me was the opportunity to play around with the appaloosa coloring: the dark spots on white, the white spots on dark, the roan-ish blending between the bay and white areas, and the speckling around the mare’s muzzle, were all exciting for me to work on. However, the main draw for people who see the painting is the interaction between the mare and her foal, reaching around to gently reassure her baby, a tender moment that seems to transcend species.
Prints and other products featuring “Mother’s Love” are available for purchase at Society6.com Mother’s Love
Sitting here tonight on a hot late-summer evening seems like the perfect time to look back on “Summer Night,” a painting completed around this time of year in 2014. Three horses under the full moon, quietly grazing and bonding in a tall meadow full of fireflies. Crickets are chirping, horses munching, and the soft breeze blowing through the grass cools the evening air.
Prints and other Products featuring “Summer Night” can be purchased at Society6 Summer Night
Completed in the summer of 2014, “Quiet Summer Woodland” (or “Quiet Woodland”, or possibly “Summer Woodland”, the name seems to keep changing) is a representation of a little patch of trail that is one of my favourite places to ride. The wood is open, like a cathedral, under the canopy of widely spaced trees and the ground carpeted with vegetation, much of which is wildflowers. Our trail meanders, cut by the deer that often rest here in the afternoon, their fawns hidden in the under-story. Sunlight filters through the canopy and illuminates patches of wildflowers like stained glass. Burgundy bee balm, golden buttercups, or creamy Queen Anne’s Lace, depending on the time of year. The mist of a hazy summer evening often settles near the ground and the song of the wood thrush echos from the tree-tops. Truly a magical experience.
Prints and other products featuring “Quiet Summer Woodland” can be purchased at Society6 Quiet Woodland
Laurel Anne Equine Art 