101st Post & Annie's Birthday Prize Giveaway!

It's the 101st North Horse Post & 

Annie's Birthday Prize Giveaway!!

Yep, you could win this:

 

Here's a close-up:

This original painting, done by me, is about 16" X 20" and unframed. It's done in acrylic and lightly sealed.
  All you have to do to win is email your name and mailing address to northhorseblog@gmail.com. Put "Prize Drawing" in the subject line. 

I promise I won't use your information for anything other than this prize drawing-- I just need a real name/address so that no one tries to enter more than once via different emails, etc. In one week, I'll put all the names in a helmet and draw one, then mail the painting to the winner!

There's a lot to celebrate here on North Horse. In the last five months, Nash the llama and Diego the black stallion have been saved from neglect. I've gotten to personally connect with several of my readers, and I hope I've influenced more-- I think so, because this blog has gotten about 20,000 views since January! Through my blog and rescue efforts, I've also met some very generous, awesome people, including Lodi Vet, Erin Mehlos, Becky Kubehl, Gloria, Rae Miller, Midwest Horse Welfare, Saint Francis Horse Rescue and many others. You guys ROCK! Finally, my beloved horse Annie turned four in May-- she's now officially an adult! We just went on our very first organized trail ride, and also got introduced to equine soccer via America's Equine Soccer League-- I won a horse soccer ball from them!!

I got Annie as a neglected yearling for $100 on Craigslist (then spent $1,000 on vet bills). At three years old, I sent her off for thirty days of very basic saddle training at Pine Dance Ranch, owned by awesome trainer Adam Hoon. We spent the next year taking 1- 2 mile trail rides and basically waiting for her to finish growing up. I've learned to be more realistic about my goals (I doubt we'll get to any 25 mile trail rides this year!) but we're still having a ton of fun.I can't imagine life without her now.

Annie didn't know it was her birthday, but I gave her extra treats anyway :)  I hope you're enjoying your own horses' birthdays, and that there are many more to come!

What's down below is all about my art and how you can order some if you want. (Yeah, I'm a bit of an artist as well as a blogger.) There's not going to be any more horse stuff, so feel free to skip it. Email me if you want to win that painting, and stay tuned for more North Horse! Thanks for being here.

More art stuff I've done:
 

I'm pretty busy these days, but if you're interested in commissioning something from me, you can email me at the same address as above (northhorseblog.@gmail.com). I specialize in pet portraits/memorials on stones or canvas, in a semi-realistic to impressionistic or abstract style. I'm not talented enough to do photo-realism, and I never paint humans, sorry.

Painting FAQs:

What if I want to order something from you?
Email me and tell me what you're looking for as far as subject, size, style, etc. If it's a custom pet portrait, sending a picture (or several) right away will help a lot. I'll tell you if I can do it, and how much it'll cost you.

How long does it take you to do this?
Anywhere from three hours to three weeks. It depends on how busy I am, how interested I am in what I'm painting, how realistic I'm trying to make it, the size of the painting, how many elements are in the picture, etc. Also, sometimes I've "got it" and sometimes I don't-- the creative muse goes on vacation or something. Trying to do art stuff when it's gone is like trying to write left handed. It's possible, but not very pretty.

How much do you charge?
Um....see above. It really depends. Very roughly, anywhere from $25-$125 plus shipping.

Holy shit, how can you charge that much for this friggin' crap?!
If you think it's crap, that's fine with me-- don't buy it. As for pricing, let's say I charge you $75 for a painting that takes me six hours to complete, spread out over a few days (I'm usually slower though). I would get paid $12.50/hour, minus the costs of supplies. If you think my "skilled labor" is worth that, cool-- if not, that's cool too. I certainly don't pretend to be some sort of master painter. My stuff is strictly amateur finger-painting compared to, say, Franz Marc. However, my prices are pretty reasonable compared to a lot of similar semi-abstract stuff out there-- for example, check out the prices of the originals here.

"The Watering Hole" by Lance Headlee, $300

OMG you're always criticizing people on your blog and now you're posting stuff I can criticize!! I'm gonna go rant about your stupid ugly horrible over-priced "art" in the comments and send you a nasty email!
Okay, have fun with that. Wait, did you have a question?

What's with this advertising stuff? I thought you were here to write about horses and horse welfare, not to shill your dumb paintings?!
Hey, I've never mentioned this stuff ever before in 101 posts, or about six months. Anyway, this is mostly about giving horse-related something away, and celebrating stuff like Annie's birthday-- the commission stuff is here at the end, where you can totally skip it. You can't blame a gal for trying to make a buck though-- particularly when there are vet bills to think about! I'm sure you know about those. Also, you can stop reading this free blog any time now.

Will you donate a painting to my charity auction/fundraiser/whatever?
Maybe, if it's a legit charity. I'm pretty busy. But I'm certainly a lot more likely to donate art than money ('cause I don't have the money!). Email me with details at northhorseblog@gmail.com.

What do you use in your work?
The cheapest acrylics I can find, pre-stretched canvases from Micheal's, and brushes gleaned from garage sales and strongly-suggested Christmas gifts (again, I am not rich). I use all sorts of other stuff for non-paintings, but that's another story. I seal paintings lightly with a spray-on acrylic sealant, and I seal painted stones with polyurethane-- both are available in just about any craft store.

How do you do paint?
Uhh... Me personally? I look at a ton of pictures, I see some elements I like, I pay attention to how things actually are versus what my preconceptions are, I get an idea of what I want to do. Then I make a sketch. Then I erase it and change it six times, then paint the background, then paint the foreground, then fuss about things and change some more stuff, get paint all over myself, obsess over things I don't like, then force myself to call it done. Very abbreviated, the process looks like this: