With age comes an understanding of what makes you tick! I have always been one to jump at a new experience, opportunity or situation. Sometimes, it's true to say it has come back to bite me! But more often than not it has enriched my life. (#thebigpaintingchallenge) I am always frustrated when I don't get to paint or sketch in the day due to work or family commitments - life does have a habit of getting in the way! But in order to be good at anything sacrifices have to be made.
As I will never be an athlete training every day in order to win competitions, I can still try to be the best I can be.
I am only into Day 27 of this years challenge - to paint a horse every day for a year, and I admit it! I'm flagging! I have found myself sitting down to paint at 10pm and not finishing until the small hours in some cases - which is fine when you are in the flow, but the next morning is not a pretty site! So I am rethinking my strategy to keep momentum and energy up! This is why I have decided to be happy with a work in progress to count as one day of my challenge - that way I won't feel compelled to rush, and can take on more painting exercises as opposed to having to scribble a quick pencil sketch just to complete a day. Quality NOT quantity - and as the whole idea is to be able to understand the horse better, then I think this is still a valid way to complete the task. So keep posted on my progress - check out my facebook page and keep on posting your horsey photos for me to use as reference! :)

It's the beginning of a New Year and I always like to set myself a new goal so just before the end of 2015 I joined The Society of Equestrian Artists with the express purpose of improving my understanding of the horse, and therefore my horse art. Having a horse of my own definitely helps, but as most of my time spent with her is shovelling her muck and transporting her to and from shows it seems a forbidden luxury to actually be able to stand there and sketch her! However, that is my mission this year and in order to kick start my challenge I have committed to painting or sketching a horse a day for the whole year! Most of them will be painted at the end of the day, such is the life of a working Mum with the demands of various animals during daylight hours, but it is a great way to unwind and I often climb into bed with plans for the next days study. I have a massive library of horse images, most taken at the various horse events that I have attended over the years, with a painting in mind, but I will also be taking my sketch book and easel to the yard when the weather improves and doing some life studies. In addition I will be hopefully joining in with some of the events that The Society of Equestrian Artists, and the Association of Animal Artists hold this year. So without further ado its off the stables to muck out and take delivery of some straw, and then back to the easel! I will post updates daily on my Facebook page so please join me and feel free to leave comments.