At liberty

Got the painting feeling tonight. Some of the photos I took this weekend inspired me. I find that it is much easier to paint now that I take my own source photos. I used to search for hours to try and find something that inspired me - but it is hard to find people who see the world the way you do.

I have a ritual when I paint. I turn on a mix of music on the computer, start an incense stick, grab a glass of Sangria and ask for creative energy to come through me. It's usually about 6 or 7 at night - and before you know it - four or five hours go by and I have made good headway. Some days are better than others - you know the feeling.

So - I took a photo of Puck, my friend Justine's horse at liberty with Deb the other day. He is a left brain introvert - likes treats and play. His spirit just came through this one photo - which wasn't that great of a photo actually, but the movement was captured enough for me to paint the impression.

At this point I will leave it for the night and get my best critic John (my honey) to take a look at it in the am. He always says the same thing - what every artist needs to hear - "it's great honey - your best yet"... but if I ask about specific sections he will give me an objective view. So, here they are in order and we'll see how I feel tomorrow.

Weekend at Twincreeks

We had a let up in the rain thankfully, and I had the opportunity to head down to Twincreeks in Duncan - one of my favourite getaways. I went with a girlfriend Justine Saunders and we brought our boys - Nino and Puck. Yesterday we explored the trails off the Trans Canada Trail - weather was brisk but loping helped take the mind off the cold. There is nothing like getting out with some good horse friends to enjoy the outdoors on our four leggeds.

This morning Deb did a natural horsemanship clinic with Justine and her horse Puck. Puck was super quick and took on immediately. It was a great opportunity to shoot some candids of the horses as the sky was a bit overcast.

I do this sort of trip regularly, it has a good way of grounding you. If you have a bed bale and breakfast nearby, check it out, take a girlfriend or two and hit the trails, go out for a nice dinner, enjoy a bottle of wine - solve the worlds problems and head back home ready for another week. At Deb's you get the added bonus of learning something with your horse. Check out Deb's place if you are on Vancouver Island - it is a must.

Check out some great ones of the horse eyes - love the one of Topper, Deb's horse.

Putting myself out there...

Well, I have never been one to adopt things early - so here I am, born into the world of blogging. I have had numerous friends encourage me to do this and after checking out some pretty neat ones, and finally getting my head around what a blog is - here I am.

This has been a big week for me - after years of dreaming about it, I have finally taken some steps to putting myself out there with respect to my creativity. With a lot of courage, I finally built myself a website, built a brochure and even paid for a bit of advertising. I have no fantasies about quitting my day job (I work at Vancouver Island University), but I do want to do more of what makes my heart sing - that is painting and photography.

In looking around at others blogs and websites, I am inspired and I hope that by putting myself out there a bit, I can connect with people who share some of my interests. I know that by choosing a life of art, we also choose to continually learn - and I have much to learn.

So for all you artists and photographers that love horses and other farm critters, I hope you will connect and contribute. I will update with what I am learning from my shoots and show paintings in process. I think that will help keep me productive.

That is it for the first blog entry... wasn't so hard now was it!?