Fur In The Paint

My Trip
I’m back from my visit with mom. We had a lot of fun and now I’m plumb wore out from all the running about we did. We went to a small local zoo where I photographed some critters. I’m hopeful I’ll get a new totem critter (coyote) and a small duck painting out of my zoo time. We”ll see when I get the pics back.

We also went to visit an artist friend of moms who I hadn’t seen since I was in high school, Dale Bendel. I am absolutely annoyed to not find much of anything online about him to show you because this guy is just all kinds of brilliant. Hey paints women with the same sensitivity that I paint critters. But he also incorporates mythology and metal leaf into his paintings and wood carvings.

I know thousands of artists and rarely am I as impressed with the genius this guy puts into his work. Not to mention he carved a huge carousal horse which sits in his living room. Yup it took all of my personal restraint not to climb up and ask om to take a picture. It was stunning. Oh and he’s a sous chef in his spare time. (yeah I know right?)

The good news was the ghosties remained silent for my visit so maybe the next time I go back I won’t be dreading it quite so much. Okay enough of my trip.

And when I got back I had a box of the latest issue of Apples ‘n Oats waiting for me. So as my usual I’ll include an excerpt for your reading pleasure. To see the whole article rush on out and get yourself a copy. OR just check out the Apples ‘n Oats website. Yup my article is there too. Just peruse the sidebar.

Those Clever Girls
One of my favorite memories of these horses was several years ago when I awoke in the morning to the tell tale signs (manure piles and dinner plate sized hoof prints) of horses having run amok in the yard. After checking to make sure my horse was safely grazing in the pasture, I immediately called my neighbors to tell them the girls were out.

We received a call back a few minute later to say that all their horses were in the yard paddock. “Huh” was all I could say to that.

The following evening in the wee hours, I was awakened by strange noises. As I looked out my living room window, I saw giant black shapes moving about in the darkness. The noises were the horses stepping on the cellar door and it groaning under the weight. They seemed to be intrigued by it as a few moments after stepping back off it, they would step back on. Frankly it a miracle it held them.

So with the dawn came a repeat of the previous morning, where I call and again the horses are all peaceably waiting by the barn.

After the second call my neighbors did a more thorough search. As it turns out after a closer inspection, the fence was found to be weak in one area. The mares apparently pushed on it and just stepped over. How the whole herd managed this is unclear. Whether one held it down for all to leave and all to return or whether each horse did the same maneuver to attain freedom is still known only to them.

Whatever the case, the end result was they frolicked and cavorted in our yard all night long (probably taunting my horse and sheep with their freedom.) Then just before dawn they’d return, sneaking back in the same way they got out. Only to be found standing around waiting for their breakfast grain ration looking bored and hungry. And if it weren’t for my ratting them out, they’d probably have continued doing it for quite some time.

Those clever, clever girls.

UPDATED: Okay so maybe it’s help if I spelled the guys name correctly. Dale Bandel. His artwork is awesome and I really got to say the photos on his webpage do not (at all) do them justice.

The latest Apples ‘n Oats is now available at all the usual locations.

Actually it’s been out for a couple of weeks now but I just haven’t been blogging as faithfully since my world has been all chaos and work.

Sadly, I have no article for this issue so once again I have failed to fulfill this years goals list by having an article in every issue. Who knew it would be that hard to do four horse paintings a year.

Weekend Fun
For the next issue I should give some serious though to a Percheron piece since this next issue will be at the World Percheron Congress and so will I.

Actually the very next thing I’ve got to do is a rodeo bull for the Rolfe Rodeo and Saddle Club Commemorative t-shirt artwork. So that’s my plans for this weekend despite a mountain of framing and preparation for the next art fair weekend after next. Hopefully I will get it done this weekend or very nearly so. (no pressure in my life at the moment)

I’ll post what I got (or lack thereof) tomorrow.

Isn’t he just the cutest little guy. Makes me want to squeeze his fuzzy little nose, followed by a kiss of course.

At any rate you know the drill. Either run out and get yourself a copy or get a subscription from the Apples ‘n Oats website.

Below is an excerpt from the article about my Spanish Gold painting.

An Excerpt
“Of course I was not alone in my adoration as Big Al was almost constantly surrounded by fans. I, however was by far the most tenacious, probably because I was there for a completely different reason than all the others. I was on a mission to get some seriously beautiful horse photos.

When I got my photos developed, it was very much like Christmas. I’d be carefully opening up the many packages and rifling through all that glossy equestrian goodness, all the while breathing in the deeply that hint of developing chemical wafting from the photos. Ahhh! All in all, I took around 800 pictures that weekend with well over 400 being of Big Al. Choosing on which of the photos to base the first painting, took quite awhile (like aound a year.) “

Let the Preparations Begin.
Well as it’s Sunday you might think I’d be working on my Buffalo painting but alas no. I am packing my artwork so I can deliver it tomorrow to the Redrock Art Center in Fairmont MN with my friend Barb for our joint show.

The reception is set for the 16th and I plan to take some pictures for the blog. I may even take a few of the hanging if I can remember the camera.

Have a great weekend ya’ll

After a brief period of being down the Apples ‘n Oats website is back up and running. The current issue is now available online but the archived past issues have yet to be made active.

At any rate for those of you wanting to read my current article about my Liberty painting or any other the other great stuff, you now can.

A Teaser
I just received my box of the latest issue of Apples ‘n Oats magazine. (Ahhhh . . . love that new magazine smell.) So I’m assuming they are now available at the usual locations, which of course includes my place. Or as always, you can subscribe by contacting Carol Eilers (the editor.)

But for those of you with no access to the magazine here’s a teaser excerpt, until the whole articles gets posted to my website

Tall, Dark & Studly
My model for this painting was a young stallion that I photographed last Fall at a farm in the Cedar Rapids area. He had come over to investigate me. And after finding me completely unremarkable (and treat free) he started ambling away when a breeze caught his mane and sent it swirling. The title Liberty is in reference of him being “at liberty.” Free to wander as he would, unhindered by the desires or devices of man.

When I entered the broodmare field they all gathered around to have a good snuffle at me. I scritched a few noses and whispered softly to each how beautiful they all were. After a few minutes, they began to wander off in ones and twos, their curiosity satisfied that I was not bearing gifts.

This works well for me because it is notoriously hard to get a good photo of a horse that is in my face and slurbering on my camera. So it was at this point, I was able to take the type of photos I like best. Which is of horses just being horses. I was hoping for some playful cavorting (to be clear, I was hoping for some cavorting from the horses. I haven’t “cavorted” in decades.) but mostly I got peaceful grazing shots.

It is yet another testament to the breed that the barn manager had allowed me to go into the pastures alone. It was a lovely afternoon and I was in my bliss to be able to spend it surrounded by a herd of these equine giants.

The latest issue of Apples ‘n Oats is out in all it’s glossy horse magazine goodness. In this issue, I write about Chicory and the creation of the new Soul painting.

Oddly enough, a good part of my story came from blog posts. I’ve included an excerpt from my article. (pretty much the only part that hasn’t already been in a blog post.)

If you want to read the whole thing you’ll have to run out and pick up a copy or better still, visit the website and subscribe. (or wait and eventually it will get posted to my website.)

Knee Deep and Belly High
At the moment Chicory is a deeply contented horse. With the unusually high amount of rainfall we’ve had this spring and summer, his pasture is quite literally belly high. It was also freshly seeded last fall so the grasses are particularly tall and lush.

I take great pleasure in watching him so deeply absorbed in his snacking. If he sees me watching he will pause, bob his head slightly and nicker. He then waits to see if I am planning on bringing him in for something. When he sees that I am not, he continues on. Nibble, chew, step. Nibble, chew, step.

The latest issue of Apples ‘N Oats is now out and available. The magazine seems to grow a little bit every issue. Of course this is the big one that goes out to all the horse expo’s.

I’ve included the excerpt below from my article in this issue.

Equine Paparazzi
However, it is the random quiet moments that go on behind the scenes that hold the most allure for painting. It’s in these moments that occasionally, if I’m very lucky, I catch a bit of magic that will later work itself into art. I wander the barns breathing in the heady aroma of fly spray and horse. The sounds of creaking leather, jangling chains and whinnying horse fill the air.For the most part, people are so busy bustling about in preparation for the event that they take no notice of me.

This is also the point that tends to “weird people out” a bit. I mean they are used to having photos taken when they participate in these things. But when I find an animal that I think I want to paint, I take an obscene amount of photos, wildly snapping pictures as if I were some sort of strange equine paparazzi.

I just received the winter issue of Apples ‘N Oats. Guess which horse painting I talked about in this issue’s column?

Aw . . . come on, take a guess. Here’s a hint, I talked about him (yet again) in my last post. Here’s another hint, look below. (subtle huh?)

Okay, so Colton was not a big surprise, especially since he is the only horse painting I did this quarter. (Egads, the next deadline is only 2 months away!)

Carol Eilers hasn’t yet got the new issue up on the Apples ‘N Oats website, (speaking of a woman with allot of irons in the fire.) But it should be happening any day now. Until then you can always peruse the last issue, which I ashamedly didn’t get an article done for. It has loads of good horse related stuff in there.

There wasn’t a whole lot new added to Colton’s story for the column that you my faithful friends haven’t already read here first, but I thought I’d include an excerpt of something “new.”

Of Pigs and Panic.
On the way out to the pasture where the horses were, we crossed a grassy pen where two pigs were kept. Karla warned me that one of them was quite friendly and would probably come out to greet us. Her warning did little to prepare me for the sight of a full grown pig loping across the pen full tilt, squealing and grunting excitedly.

She had assured me he was harmless. But something very primal happens in the brain at the sight of a largish critter charging wildly towards you. My logical side said “don’t be silly” all the while I was having flash backs to a story from my childhood. I grew up in farming country, where stories abound about children gone missing in pig pens . . .”and all they ever was found was one shoe!”

Of course there was no need for concern, he just wanted a quick snuffle to see if we had brought any treats, (alas, we had not) and a quick scratch on the nose.

Catch - Water soluble pencil 15 x 18 1/2
Copyright by Mona Majorowicz

Well the latest issue is out. So, if you just can’t get enough of my writing, check out the latest issue at Applesnoats.com Or if you’d rather get your own hard copy you can always subscribe.

This issue is all about Catch and includes a lot of stuff not mentioned in the blog. Click here to go directly to my article in Applesnoats.

And speaking of magazines . . .

Notice anything familiar about the latest issue of Apples ‘n Oats spring 2008 issue?

Here’s a tiny hint . . . the horse painting

Yup! you guessed it. Carol Eilers the editor/publisher, has once again generously put one of my paintings on the cover of A&O. Thank you Carol. It looks great. I am especially lovin’ the red.