CHRISTMAS DAY OFF

Instead of trying to clean,(I didn't get it done) cook, entertain and write I thought I would just put out some photos I happen to like. And Happy Holidays to you, too.

                                        Mitchell (pup)

              Who knows? Looks like Mitchell's collar, however.

                                   Rescued Llama

The Mama Raccoon who raised her children and havoc in our attic one year. Eventually they were "removed" by a Pro. She is on top of our roof in this photo.

One of my most favorite International Kennel Club show photos.

Quiller pretending he really wanted to go swimming in Lake Michigan with me. (He hated every second of it, but was a good sport.)

                           Keeneland Race Track at dawn.

                                  A chicken. If you needed
the written information, consider getting your eyes checked soon.

Polar Bear with Ball. There is an entire series of him in the pool with the ball and trying to get it out of the water.

                What a Happy Quiller looked like, in his prime.

"Uh hi, I just moved in next door and was wondering if I could borrow a few of your sheep?" (A stray BCollie at work.)

   Quiller, puppy. He never let go of that leash as long as he lived.

                          Quiller at Gettysburg Battlefield

    The Park Forest Aqua Center. Must have been a slow Day.

                                           Llama

"Hey could you open the book to the Chickadee page?" Little Beemr, putting in some time studying in case she ever gets out the door.

Happy Holidays to everyone.

WHILE THE REST OF YOU CLEAN AND COOK

Today I start cleaning and cooking. Mostly cleaning. My bed is not even made because I have been working on a painting and wanted to finish it, one little detail I have had to change, altho if I did it over(and I may--this is on paper canvas and I may re-do it on the real stuff)and so the first thing this morning, I was up and squeezing paint onto my paper plate palette...
The subject, instead of my usual landscapes, are horses: a team of Percherons in the farm classes, altho these two were clearly used in the hitch classes as well, spotless, manes roached, hooves polished---

This is the photo I took. And this is the painting I wanted to do. That they lost in translation is a given. I am disappointed that the tremendous power of these two gorgeous animals was somewhat down-sized. Something about them defied my brush. Also I did the painting at home, in home lighting, which is very poor, I admit. This was the first rendition:

As you can readily see, a grave difference. Looking at them the next day I had a horsie thought: why is one wearing blinders and the other is not? At the horse show itself I took hundreds of photos and set them up to run on the computer in a loop, so that the handlers and owners coming into the Hospitality Suite could see their horses on the screen. One handler stared a long time at a pair of farm team horses and then said "Why does he have a crupper  on one of them and not the other?" This is the kind of detail horse people see-- a crupper is a piece that runs from the harness under and around the tail. No one had an answer of course, but I felt the same way looking at my painting. I looked at the photo:

Because, obviously, I had left out the second set of blinders. DUH.
So in they went.

 Then a REAL artist looked at it and noted that the throat latch wasn't quite right, and so this morning, I changed that. Now I think I am done but maybe not. Paintings are so often works in progress and sometimes the progress extends for years....I have known artists to see one of their paintings in a show and correct something the next day when no one was around. Hardly anyone notices except the painter.

Fini I think altho making the far horse a little darker might not hurt.
It was fun