A Bevy of Burros

I haven't done any mustang paintings in awhile, so recently I visited the online adoption gallery of available horses on the Bureau of Land Management's website. I go through a lot of photos to find the few that 'speak' to me. I look for lighting, for emotion, movement, color, something that will work well in the formats I like to paint in. I went through all the horses, saving a few aside, and then.....there were burros! Lots and lots of burros. Unfortunately most had their photos taken in flat light (either a cloudy day or after the sun went down, so no shadows, nothing to suggest form). That is fine for potential burro adopters, but not so great for me, the painter.  I did find a few, though. Their cute furry burro faces lend themselves well to paintings, don't you agree?

The first, a jenny. Photo reference for this and the next one are courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management. Their description of her is "#4558 - 6 yr old gray jenny, captured 10/2011, from outside an HMA, California". Outside of an HMA-Herd Management Area means technically she is not protected by the Wild Horse and Burro Act, but she has found her way to a facility anyway. I am not sure exactly how that works, though. 

The second painting, this time a jack. His description is "#3952 - 4 yr old gray gelded jack, captured 11/2010, from Cibola-Trigo HMA, Arizona".  Both these, and many other burros, are available for adoption throughout the Bureau of Land Management's Wild Horse and Burro program

Both of these paintings are 8X8 in soft pastel and are not currently for sale, I am building up inventory for a show at the end of July. After the show any that are not sold will be made available here and elsewhere.

Fat Tuesday

Fat Tuesday (February 12th) will be the day of Tiny's release, finally! It seemed appropriate that such a large little guy have his big day on Fat Tuesday. My idea for the mold worked and he will be cast all in one piece with the resin being poured into the mold via his left hind leg/tail, so he will be super easy to clean up for shipping with no need to fit the base and deal with hoof pegs or a belly vent. I'm passing this time savings on to my customers by keeping the price at $75.00, even though he is larger than the average stablemate scale horse. He's in scale, he's just a big horse! 

There are a few new mustang paintings, too. I have found a few photographers willing to allow paintings to be done from their photos, as well as BLM photos which are public domain. The more paintings of mustangs I do the more I want to help, even though it will only be in a small way, it all adds up right? A portion of each mustang painting sale will go to mustang charites, starting with a local group that advocates for our local mustangs by raising awareness, purchasing and setting up safe mustang handling corrals and chutes, and working with the Forest Service to eradicate noxious weeds, maintain fences, and keep the watering holes cleaned out. The first three mustang paintings are in the giclee print process pipeline as I type, with my goal being a 2014 calendar this fall, as well as various sizes of prints and possibly other items like note cards being available.

This guy is not quite finished, I need to add his auction tag, but he's one of my favorites. Photo reference provided by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM):

Branching out to 'on the range' paintings with this one titled "On the Edge". Photo reference provided by TJ Holmes who has a wonderful blog about our local mustangs. This is the stallion "David":

 

Here's the most recent painting, finished just yesterday, "Aspen of Spring Creek Basin" from another one of TJ's great photos:

Obviously this painting thing is becoming an obsession. Painting AND horses AND the west...I think I'm doomed.