Another Bitty Bosco

You may or may not recall the last Bitty Bosco (Morgen Kilbourn's mini version of her El Embosco resin) that I painted. He's been winning like crazy for his new owner. When I bought him unpainted, I actually bought two of the cute little buggers. For the longest time I've been planning on painting the second one to a lightly dappled, flea-bitten grey. I'd even base coated him in a nice warm white when I came across a picture that I'd forgotten all about of a bay tobiano Half-Arabian with cat tracks and a bit of roaning. Artist's are so fickle! That was the end of the grey idea and here's the outcome of roving inspiration:










He's available for offers, with time payments available.

One custom slot available

I've had a few productive weeks and am very nearly finished with all of my backlogged custom orders, so I've decided to open up my books for just one more horse at this time. I've had several requests, so to be fair to everyone, I'm just going to put the slot up for bids on eBay. All the details are covered in the auction. Here's the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230371244675

"Cold Snap" a new medallion

This may not come as a surprise, but August in Texas is miserably hot. This time of year makes me long for winter, and not the 70-degree-highs-in-February type of winter that Texas gets. Oh no, in my heat induced delusional state, I find myself wishing for the below-zero-for-weeks-at-a-time-in-February kind of winters that I grew up with in Michigan. Over the course of this hot summer I have knitted a lovely, thick, bright yellow scarf that I'll probably never get to wear and I sculpted "Cold Snap" a medallion that celebrates the first blush of winter.



I made "Cold Snap" just a tiny bit smaller than my other medallions in the interest of keeping him affordable. He measures 4"x4". He'll be cast in-house and limited to a two mold run in unpainted resin. I hope to cast him in ceramic as well in the future (more on that soon) and designed him with this in mind. At this time, pre-orders are being taken only on the resin version. He is priced at $25 including shipping within the USA. Shipping outside of the United States will cost just $5 extra. He's available to purchase on my website:

http://eponastudio.com/coldsnap.html

(The scarf though, is not for sale. Sorry.)

Ravenhill and a new/old technique

The Pre-Raphaelite painters of the Victorian era were known for the way they made the skin of their subjects seem to actually glow with life. I've always been more than a bit fascinated with the art of this period, and in the course of my research, found that they achieved this effect by painting on a "wet, white ground". No one is certain exactly what that ground was, but the common belief is that they would press the excess moisture out of white oil paint and lay that down on the canvas before beginning to paint. The science behind the technique tells us that the paintings seem to glow because light passes through the upper layers of glazed paint (more on glazes here), hits that white and reflects back through the same upper layers.

I find I can get a similar effect by using a cream colored base coat (the cream gives more warmth to horsey browns than would white) on my model horses. On the horse I just finished, Tumlinson & Hurley's Ravenhill, I took the idea one step further. Whereas in the past, I would create a copper chestnut by using (surprise!) metallic copper paint, I've come to feel that the look is too garish for the modern show ring and it's preference for very soft colors. Ravenhill has a coat of very pale gold metallic paint just on top of his cream basecoat. There are very few places where you can actually see anything metallic though, all of the upper glazes hide it...but they glow.

I'm offering Ravenhill first to my blog readers and yahoo group subscribers, before the world at large gets a crack at him. He's available for best offer of $1400 and up. Time payments can be arranged, so don't be afraid to ask. Email cara@eponastudio.com for more information.

16 Aug 09 - Current high offer $1400 with terms - Pat M.

Big wins!

I love hearing how my horses are performing for their new owners. I've had two customers write to me recently to report some very impressive show wins. I'd like to share them in their own words here:

Hi Cara,
Here's a couple of photos...but I am not the best at composing these shots...small horse and large rosettes...lol!
But hopefully these will be useful to you. He really is gorgeous and in three shows he now has 5 NAN cards, judges love him!

This show was Tucson Mountain Live on 7/11/09 and his placements were:
AR Mini Mustang 1st
AR Mini Stock Champion
AR Mini Overall Champion
Best in Show (against all sizes!)

Anyway I think he's great (can you tell?!) and I am thrilled to own him.

Hope summer is going well!
Macy



Hey Cara,
I just got home from Northwest Congress and thought I would send you a report. Jaw Breaker cleaned up! He took his class, his division AND his color class. I have two beautiful rosettes for him plus 2 NAN cards. I don't show at NAN but the Workmanship card means a lot to me. I didn't expect him to do anything in the over all since resin competition in the region is stupidly tough. He's my pride and joy and it was nice to have someone else give him props, ya know? He could never go to another show and I'd be good with that...

Pat

No rest for the wicked

I'm on vacation visiting family this week and really thought that I wouldn't be working on art at all, but alas, I lack that kind of self control. I brought a half-finished resin on the plane with me and have finished her here at my mother's house. This involved the purchase of a fair amount of art supplies since most of what I use isn't legal to take on a plane anymore. She's done now though, and has been posted to eBay so here I am with over half of my vacation left and nothing to paint. I guess I'm stuck having to relax or something...*sigh*.

Here's my traveling companion (Tumlinson's Mini Scarlett) on her eBay page:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230355733925

Pardon the bad photography, I'm without my lighting and photography set-up here, just a piece of paper and the northern sunshine, such as it is. I guess it's an improvement over the Texas sunshine which would have melted poor Scarlett in the ten minutes it took to take the photos.

The best resin name ever

Well, I've finally finished another piece for eBay. Sales pieces have been on the back burner somewhat lately while I work through the last of my overdue custom orders (I just finished four more of them! There's only a small handful left to go, so if you are still waiting, fear not, your horse will arrive soon.) but I did manage to sneak this guy in. His sculptor, Debbi LerMond, calls him Peasant Stomper which has just cracked me up since the first time I heard it. This guy is the extra-hairy miniature version. If you want to see pictures, they're on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230354584742

but here is a teaser shot showing off his teeth which I'm very proud of:



In other news, about half of the New Orleans Mule medallions have now been shipped. I'm waiting for the next batch to arrive soon from Mountain View Studios so they can be gotten out to their new owners. I've decided to go ahead and have a second mold made after the first sold out so quickly so there are still mules available for purchase.