2013 is almost over, and it has been an eventful year for me, in more ways than one! I have been juried into East Coast Fine Art, a vibrant and beautiful gallery in Manchester. I just hung my first group of paintings, and I am looking forward to an exciting 2014 as a member of the gallery.

I started doing hand-painted Christmas ornaments this year, and they were a great success. They were so much fun to create, but after almost 50 ornaments, I'm ready to get back to paper and canvas! One of my first projects for this year is a large 18x24" snow scene featuring the orphaned Navajo foals being cared for at Live and Let Live Farm in Chichester. The babies had a blast kicking up their heals in the first snow and I hope to capture that excitement in my painting.

I'm also working on my new year's resolutions (how about you?). Mine is, of course, to spend more time on my art - not so hard to do! The other is to be more organized and keep up with the office work in the studio - this one will be hard!

Here's to a wonderful 2014. Thank you for following my art and for all your compliments and encouragement!

Wishing you all a very happy new year!

It's been a while since I've had a chance to post here. I've been busy painting, teaching, Facebooking, and setting up a Pinterest account. I wanted to write something today because I just read a very disturbing article....It is very likely that horse slaughter will start again in the country as early as August 5! The USDA has granted licenses to several plants despite that fact that the Senate and House Appropriations Committees amended their fiscal year (FY) 2014 Agriculture Appropriations bills to eliminate all funding for the inspection of horse slaughter facilities. I think I smell a rat. There is a law suit pending by several equine welfare agencies to stop the plants from opening...fingers crossed. However, the ONLY way to get horse slaughter stopped for good in the USA is for The SAFE Act (Safeguard American Food Exports Act) passed in the House and Senate. Please take a few moments to contact your representatives and senators and ask them to support The SAFE Act. Horse slaughter is never humane and will not solve any problems.

There is quite a lot of information available about horse slaughter and The SAFE Act. Just Google!

The illustrations for this post are paintings from my Auction Series. Some of these horses were saved from kill buyers by rescue groups like Pure Thought Horse and Foal Rescue. Others, like the horses depicted in Requiem, were not so lucky.

I thought I would post a few of my seascapes today as I spent a lovely girls weekend in Ogunquit, Maine with some friends. We had a lovely, but cold time. I love spending time at the seacoast and enjoy painting seascapes almost as much as I enjoy painting horses.

Happy Friday! I've been working on  an 11x14" oil painting of a couple of the nurse mare foals that were just rescued by Pure Thoughts Horse and Foal Rescue. I am going to call this one "She's Got Legs" - for obvious reasons! I am using a wonderful photograph taken by Tommy Huffstetler of Bella and Cooper. Thank you, Tommy! I will be donating the finished painting to Pure Thoughts Horse and Foal Rescue to help raise funds for the babies. I will also have prints available.

I wanted to show you the work in progress......Here's my initial sketch, two photos of the underpainting in progress, and the first glaze of color. I am planning on spending a good part of today in the studio working on this one.

If you would like more information on the nurse mare foal rescue, see my earlier blog posts or go to the Pure Thoughts website: www.pthr.org. The babies even have their own Facebook page. If you would like to donate help take care of these babies, you can do so at the PT website.