The Many Faces of Bellator

Shanghai Spring, 4 x 6 watercolour and ink, Christine Trevino

We had our best turnout yet for a pARTy with this March edition - now you can see what took me so long getting them up! Thanks to all of our participants, and to our handsome model, Bellator. Hope you all had fun!

Artists - I included the "specs" on your piece and a link for those I had - I didn't have time to go searching this time. Send me an email and the pARTy address if yours is missing and you'd like me to add it. And if I've missed someone, please let me know!

Yvonne Todd, 6 x 2.5 oil

"Bellator in Winter," 14 x 10 watercolour on coldpress, Dora Sislian Themelis

"Why The Long Face?" 16 x 8 oil on canvas, Linda Massey

Sue Kroll, 10 x 8 acrylic

"Fuzzy Ears," 7 x 5 oil, Marilyn Sadler

Miriam Hughes

Mary Agarwal

Lisa Guarino, 4 x 3 watercolour pencil

Linda Ward, 3.5 x 2.5 (ACEO) pencil

"Vertical (Bellator)" 16 x 8 acrylic on canvas board, Kim Santini

Kathy Roeth, 14 x 10 gouache and watercolour on coldpress

Karen Thumm, 12 x 9 oil on canvas board

Karen Bowden

"Just a Bit of Blarney" 6 x 4 acrylic on coldpress watercolour paper, Linda Martin

Judy Johnson, 6 x 4 watercolour

"Nice 'N' Cozy", 6 x 6 acrylic, Elizabeth McCrindle

"Hay?" 11 x 4 oil on canvas, Diana Lancaster

Charlotte Tanner, acrylic on cardboard

"Bellator #2" 7 x 5 oil on shellaced masonite, Linda Shantz

February pARTy Paintings!

We had a great turnout for our Feburary pARTy. Thanks again to Kim Santini for providing the reference image of the Curly horse! Artists - I have tried my best to include information for everyone with their image, but if yours is missing (or incorrect!), just send me an email or make a comment to the post and I'll make the changes.

Thanks so much to everyone who took part! Without further ado...your pARTy pARTicipants! (in no particular order!)


Kim Santini, "Up Close(Percy)" 6 x 8 acrylic on board


Catherin McMillan, 5 x 5 acrylic on canvas panel


Catherine Gillespie, "Percy"


Lois Primeau, 5 3/8 x 8 oil on gessoed masonite


Sue Kroll, acrylic

Lisa Ward-Guarino, pastel


Candy Simchik, "Hello" 5 x 7 acrylic on canvas board

Kate Dardine, "She Really Didn't Need a Man on Her Back" 6 x 6 oil on canvas


Kathy Roeth, 9 x 7.5 watercolour and gouache on coldpress archival watercolour paper


Linda Martin, "Snow Globe" 4 x 4 watercolour


Marilyn Sadler, "Snow Pony," 5 x 7 pastel


Linda Massey, "Winter Reflections" 3 x 20 oil on panel


Diana Lancaster, "Wild Dawn" 6 x 6 acrylic


Linda Ward, "Mardi Gras Pony!"


Linda Shantz, "Up Close and Personal with Percy" 10 x 10 oil on gallery wrap canvas

January pARTy Paintings - Mares and Foals

Well, here are the paintings from the latest pARTy! We had good participation, and some great work. I always like to see what different artists come up with.

Though are pursuits as artists are often solitary, a recent comment by friend and fine art photographer Juliet Harrison was a good reminder that we don't, however, create in a vacuum. We can't help but be influenced by each other, and that's not a bad thing, as long as we continue to develop and maintain our own style and individuality. These pARTies are a good example of that - even though some of us went with a very similar crop of the reference photo, our styles remain unique.

In the same vein, these pARTies began as a fun challenge of sorts, between myself and Kim Santini, last year. When other artists began to show interest and we opened it up, what developed was not a novel concept. My first exposure to this sort of exercise was on Wet Canvas, with the weekly Weekend Drawing Events. As a result of that, our own Equine Art Guild has done similar projects. And a great blog with a weekly drawing/painting challenge is Karen Jurik's Different Strokes From Different Folks.

Okay - enough yaking! Here are the paintings.

First, from your pARTy hosts:

Kim Santini, 4 x 16 acrylic on Raymar panel (above, top of post)

Linda Shantz, 6 x 8 oil on Raymar panel

Now, our participants, below. If I have any latecomers, I will edit the post and add them later! Thanks to all who played.

Delia Pacheo, "The Foal" 4 x 6 acrylic

Judy Johnson, 8 x 8 watercolour

Lisa Ward-Guarino, pastel

Linda Snider-Ward, prismacolor on Stonehenge

Linda Massey, "Playground Encounter" 11 x 14 oil on board

Kathy Roeth, 5 x 7 watercolour and gouache on 140lb watercolour paper



Linda L. Martin, "Afternoon Pasture," 9 x 12 watercolour

Wait Right There!

Well, I said I'd be done by 8pm, and it was shortly after that when I finished the Derby pARTy painting. Took a little longer for me to make it here! I made myself wait to look at Kim's painting, because I knew she'd be done much earlier than I. I found it interesting how we chose different sides of the canvas, and picked a similar size to work with! Once again, this is 16 x 12 oil on canvas, available for $565.00 (plus shipping). If you're interested, just email me. A portion of the sale will go to LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement, which finds new homes for retired racehorses.

I take in-progress shots of my work by habit now - it's just part of how I work through things. I'll include a couple of them below. You saw the first stage - after that I worked a bit more on establishing some basic tones before I started with the colour. I often work from a limited palette of Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Red Medium, Yellow Ochre and Titanium White; for this painting I also used a bit of Naples Yellow, and some Unbleached Titanium. I work backwards sometimes from how you're "supposed" to work in oils; I got the filly well on her way before I started blocking any colour into the background. After that, I went back into her and worked up the detail a bit, and the last thing I did was add more colour and contrast to the background to give the painting a bit of drama.


I thought *I* had a bit of an advantage, as this is one of my photos, and I know this Thoroughbred filly very well, raising her from birth to about 18 months. Her name is Clever Peaks, and from day one she was very friendly and inquisitive. If she saw people approach the fence, she'd come right over, so this was a very familiar site to me!

Preakness pARTy? Absolutely!