Seeing Eye to Eye

"Eye to Eye"- Acrylic on 12 x 14 stretched canvas

I was completely intrigued by a photo my niece posted on her Facebook wall of a close-up of her horse Spartan's eye.  There was such expression and depth in the photo and I knew it would make a dramatic painting and so I started this 12 x 14 piece in acrylic a few weeks ago.


So as I put the final strokes of paint on this one, I decided to find out more about the vision of this amazing animal.  Frankly, I find that most eyes, regardless of the animal to be interesting.  But there is something special about a horse's eye.   Maybe that has something to do with just how very large, complex and expressive their eyes seem to be.  A horse is such a beloved animal and the bond between horse and man is very strong.

Just a few generations ago many of our ancestors depended on horses to provide their substance, travel and often their lives depended on their horse.  A few years back, my life was greatly impacted when my car was stolen.  It was then that I suddenly had a new appreciation for the wild west and their handling of horse thieves. That was a really big deal!

 Horse ownership has greatly decreased as has our dependency on horses for our livelihood.  A high percentage of households that own horses own more than one horse. Some of the statistics online were not as clear as I had hoped as I started to research the percentage of Americans that own horses but one thing I do know, owning a horse can be very expensive and labor intensive if they are only used as a pet.  So hats off to my niece Emily and her beautiful horse, Spartan!

Here are just a couple facts that I found to be just fascinating.

1. The equine eye is the largest eye of any land mammal—yes, including giraffes!
2. Horses can see a total of 350 degrees around them
3. Horses have “Dichromatic” color vision meaning they can see two colors—shades of blue and gold.  (https://woodsideequineclinic.com/the-amazing-eye-of-the-horse/)

I thought I would share with you a couple more equine themed paintings that I have worked on recently.  If you are interested in seeing more of my work, please check out my website gallery.  There is a little bit of everything there so you might just find something you really like.

"Riding the Buckskin"

Light-em Up

Fence Post Rendezvous

Heading Home

It's Not Done Until You Put on the Dust Cover

Tools I used for finishing off the backs of my art work

I am always on a quest to bring my art to a higher level and there are steps to finishing off your artwork once it is created. These last steps are just so important to the presentation of your art and in many cases are often ignored.   My good artist friend Lily shared with me recently how she had observed that a framing shop she had patronized used a fabric as the dust cover to the pieces they framed.  This dust cover consisted of the black fabric that you find underneath your upholstered furniture and that she was switching from using paper (which easily tears) to using fabric to cover the back of all her work.

I ordered a bag of this upholstery material from Amazon and yesterday was my first opportunity to give it a try.  It turned out to be somewhat of a two man project to get the fabric attached but all in all I'm pretty pleased with the ending results.  When we opened the bag and got a closer look at the fabric we realized this looked very similar to a large roll of landscape fabric that we have.  I'm going to give that a try next to see if it works as well.  If so, the local garden store or hardware store may be my new supplier.

I first laid down a thin layer of adhesive using my Scotch brand Advance Tape Glider gun to the 4 sides of the canvas and in my case down the center support bar.  All of the pieces that I was working with yesterday measure 24 x 36 and I had 4 of them to finish off.  

Then my husband guided the long edge of the canvas to match the finished edge of the fabric while I held up the rest of the canvas to prevent it from sticking.  Once he had laid his edge down and was satisfied the everything was lined up, he took the canvas and held it while I stretch and smoothed the rest of the surface as tight as I could.  Happy with how the fabric was going to lay we dropped the other three sides onto the fabric so that the adhesive and fabric were now united.  We pressed down firmly all the sides assuring that the bond was good.

Now came the fun part.  Using my Fiskars fingertip craft knife,  I proceeded to cut the 3 edges, careful not to cut the canvas or myself in the process.  Logan makes a special dust cover trimmer that I plan to try out but the Fiskars cutter worked sufficiently for this job and I got a little more proficient at the process with each new piece.

We then flipped the piece over and my husband then used a staple gun to apply a staple at each corner while I prepared the certificate of authenticity that was to be attached.  I cut a 3 hole sheet protector in half and remove the holes to make a sturdy plastic sleeve that holds my certificate nicely and then I attach it to the back of my artwork using my Scotch Advanced Tape Glider gun.  We decided to allow the one corner staple to secure the certificate just to make sure it would stay attached and not fall off.  As you know when you are transporting artwork, no matter how careful you think you are being, there is always a problem with tags and dust cover paper being torn or falling off.  I feel that this fabric is much more durable and I like the professional way it looks.  

Now it's time to add the D-rings and hanging wire.  I measure 1/3 the way down on the canvas to install the D-rings and I use size 4 soft hanging wire.  I bought a large spool that measures 850 ft on Amazon and am so happy with that investment.  I hate the quality of the wire that you can purchase at the local craft and hardware stores and when you paint as much as I do, those small packages are always running out.  With 850' of wire,  I think I might have enough wire now to last me through the zombie apocalypse.

I would love to hear from you if you have questions or found this article helpful or if you have tried other products or have a process you think works better for finishing off your artwork.  I might include your information in a future blog post.  Leave me a comment here or email me.  Also feel free to check out my website for all my available artwork at Julie Townsend Studio or my Etsy Store at Julie Townsend Studio Etsy Store

To make this supper easy for you, I have included all the links to the tools and supplies I used :

Scotch Advanced Tape Glider

Fiskars Fingertip Craft Knife

Picture Wire

D-Rings

Dust Cover Upholstery Fabric

Blogging about my 2nd favorite subject-COFFEE

This morning I'm sitting here drinking my coffee and looking at this blank blog screen.  I was just considering how drinking McDonalds coffee in the morning is a long standing ritual with me that dates back to the late 90's when my favorite McDonalds handed me one day a little white sticker about 3x3 that might as well been made of 24k gold.  Oh I was there to pick up an order in the drive-thru but they gave me SO much more.  That sticker would soon become a prized possession because it would entitle me to to a free large cup of coffee (no purchase necessary) each and everytime I passed through the drive thru.

It didn't take long after sampling this free gift that the addicting effects of the caffeine took hold of my heart and my head.  Soon I was waking up each morning and yearning to partake in my morning beverage.  This habit deeply rooted went on for over a year when like the cliche, "all good things must come to an end" when on one hot summer evening my world was rocked as I became the victim of auto theft.  When I got that phone call from my son informing me that my car had been stolen out of the Office Max parking lot my first thought was "Oh NO!  My drive thru club sticker."  My second thought was of the old west and how horse theives (the ancestors of the modern car thief) were strung up on the nearest tree and I had an momentary urge to be transported back 100 years.

Long story short, my 89 Toyota Camry was recovered a month later and my drive thru club sticker was still clinging to the windshield.  When that McDonalds management finally stopped honoring my little sticker I was hopelessly addicted to their product and have purchased a cup nearly every morning since then.  My perfect vacation spot is when I realize that there is a McDonalds within walking distance of the hotel. I almost think Expedia should have that as a useful filter option along with price and stars they should include "the distance to the nearest McDonalds" available when sorting out hotels.  Maybe I will contact them next to suggest it to them.

Regardless of what my day will bring this blessed Wednesday morning, it is starting out good as long as my husband will keep my cup refilled in a timely manner.

2013 Starting Out To Be A Busy One

I'm make preparations to hang my artwork on Thursday at the City of the World Gallery.  Lots of little details to get ready but I'm SO excited to see everything framed and hung. 

My new oil paintings all have to be varnished.  I thought that you had to wait about 6 months before applying a coat of varnish to seal the piece but once again I have learned something new from my friend, instructor and accomplished artist, Lily Adamczyk.  She uses a varnish called Gamar made by Gamblin that is sold at Blicks Art Supply.  Making a trip there first thing in the morning.  I was also able to purchase a few more frames at Hobby Lobby and of course that was at their 50% off weekly special.  YES!

Thanks to my son, I've got my new business cards just in the nick of time. I've been updating my website and blog so they look all pretty. Now maybe tomorrow I can actually start another painting...MAYBE!