Table Top Painting

This past April we were vendors at the 3-day event called Rolex,at the Lexington Horse Park, Lexington, KY. We spoke with so many people for those 4 days! One customer loved our paintings, but wanted her horse on something. We spoke for a bit and finally agreed that if she just sent the table top we could paint on it and ship it back with reasonable shipping fees all around. She did send us 2 table tops. She wanted four terriers on one and on the other she wanted her horse and parent's bearded collie. She sent lots of photos for us to pick and choose which was great!
I was painting the horse and dog. I painted her horse bending over the closed dutch door and the bearded collie touching noses with her mare. The top measured 28" diameter. I ended up with 10 coats of polyurethene finish for protection!

New Treasury on Etsy

Heavenly Horses Treasury on Etsy. I have been included in this treasury! Please check it out! It is with the girls on Etsy with the Whoa group.
It will be on view until 3 am. December 29th.
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=29059

Last minute Christmas Portraits

I just finished in the nick of time two pet portraits for a friend of mine. She wanted a portrait of her son's keeshound, and her daughter's horse, Radar. So here are the pet portraits.
The keeshound and her son are inseperable and he will love the portrait of his dog.
Radar used to be a lesson horse and is now enjoying a well deserved retirement! I have known Radar for over 14 yrs and he is one of the best ponies! He is a chestnut appaloosa and a very forgiving nature. Allison will love to have her portrait of Radar. I love Radar's eyes, they look like he has eyeliner!
Both are painted with acrylics on 8 x 10 canvas boards. I have protected both with a finish.

Hand Painted Folding Tray Table with Red Fox

This is a one of my folding tray tables for sale. It has legs that will fold up when it is a tray, push the levers on each side, and it is a table! It is made by the Ferguson Company. They were well known for making nice quality furniture. They are no longer in business. This tray is from the 1940-50's.
I hand painted the scene on the top of the tray table. It is my version of an old painting called "Fox leaving covert". It features a rolling landscape with Fall colors and green meadows. In the background, you see a huntsman and his hounds on the scent of the fox. A whipper-in is further back by the woods. The fox hounds are following the scent off the the bottom left of the tray. In the foreground, is a red fox. He is hiding behind low bushes and is in a crouched position. He hasn't been seen by the hunt or pack of hounds and is moving off to the right of the tray.
I have antiqued the scene to blend with the color of the tray legs. There are at least 8+ coats of poly on for protection. Like any fine piece of furniture, don't leave a wet glass on the surface. Wipe with a damp cloth when needed.
The tray table sells for $ 195.00.
Please email me if you would like more photos. I have lots!

We had a good time last weekend in Richmond at the Equine Extravaganza show. It was a smaller show, but we met a lot of people. Lots of interest in doing pet portraits! We have already gotten a customer wanting a tray with her dogs on it.

This is a view of our booth at the show. We are always afraid that we don't have enough stuff to put in the booth. We are always having to stack items, because we have too much!

I like to move things around in the booth. There are so many things in there, that a customer can't really see it all. So, when something sells, there is a hole, and I move it all around! Sometimes I feel like the mad hatter from Alice in Wonderland at the tea party-Move Down move down!

We haven't made any show plans for the 2009 season. We are waiting to see how things go with the economy. I know there will be openings in any one we wanted to attend.
The booth fees in all of the shows have gotten so high and have gone up again!

We are still painting as much as we usually do, so we will have lots of stock. We hope to list more here and also get our website up and running.
We have 2 sheds of furniture to go through!