Blogging about Beautiful Bovines

Fence Post Curiosity

Well my "Down Country Roads" show has been hung at the gallery and it looks GREAT!  The Boulder City Art Gallery is such a beautiful gallery to begin with and Regina Marvin, the gallery director helped me so much with getting my artwork up and ready for display.  

Now I am so excited for the reception next Sunday, April 10th.  I will be making my much requested cheese ball and their will be an assortment of lovely snacks provided by other gallery artists in attendance.

I've worked really hard to make lots of art greeting cards and art magnets available so that there will be plenty of fun smaller items available for purchase. Let's not forget all those cowbells I painted up special for this show.  

I was thrilled when I sold 7 art cards before I even had all the art work hung up on Friday.  I just received a call on Sunday that my featured piece, "Fence Post Curiosity" has already been sold on day 2 of the artwork on display. I am beyond thrilled!  

With all that done, I'm turning my attention now to painting my entries into the Helldorado Rodeo Art Show that is at the end of this month.  I have committed to having 3 pieces finished to enter and I'm going to give it my best try to have another large 24 x 36 inch piece ready.  This time my idea is of a horse being fed at the fence line a carrot by a child.  That will be a challenge for sure.  I'm sure as I begin the painting process I will share my progress here so checking back in the next few weeks.

Heading Home

The first piece that I have completed is a 12 x 24 acrylic painting that I am calling "Heading Home".  This piece was inspired by a photo taken by a high school classmate that obviously loves riding horses. They appear to take vacations with them and the reference photo I used for this piece is just such a time.  A photo between the ears is such a great perspective that I couldn't resist trying to capture that experience.  In my mind I could feel the emotion of both the rider and his beloved horse as they come into sight of home.  To add interest to the composition I had to add a curious Holstein looking up from her grazing in the tall pasture grass as they pass by.  

Who Needs a Tissue

Often as I am working on a piece I will using sketching as a way to practice and work out specific areas of my composition.  This adorable pen and ink sketch called "Who needs a Tissue" is a perfect example.  In my piece, "Fence Post Curiosity" I wanted the Jersey cow to be licking her nose.  Kind of a disgusting practice but one that cows do often.  Here I have tried to make this yucky nose licking activity cute and adorable.  Sometimes these drawings actually work out to become artwork of their own and get matted and framed.  The original of this particular piece is still available along with prints, art greeting cards and art magnets.  Check them out on my Country Store on my website .

I can say it has been a season of bovines in my studio.  Besides these last two paintings outlined above I decided to add a piece using pen and ink and colored pencil into the Helldorado Art Show. This is a medium that doesn't seem to be utilized by most artists.  The oil and acrylic entries are numerous but a sketches are few in number.  This 8 x 10 matted to 11 x 14 piece is called "Resting Before the Rodeo" and features a powerful Brahma bull taking a rest in the hours before the nights events.  

I grew up loving the rodeo.  Mainly because my father had been a professional bull and bare back rider in his MUCH younger days.  He loved watching the rodeo and we would travel every summer to Coffeyville, Kansas to attend the rodeo and visit with my Uncle Richard.  I was so proud because my Uncle Richard Diveley had a great singing voice and was always given the task each year of singing the National Anthem at the opening night of the Rodeo.  Such great childhood memories that are connected to the rodeo.  The rodeo is such a thrilling sport and like most spectators, I loved the bull riding event the most and because it brings the greatest level of excitement.  Those beautiful creatures and pure power, muscle and meanness.  

I loved sitting right next to the fence in hopes that the angry charging bull would run past me with inches and a small wire fence separating me from imminent danger.  Sometimes, if I was lucky they would fling the arena dirt all over me as they thundered past and I couldn't help but scream a little.  The rescue riders and the brave rodeo clowns making every effort to draw the bull away from the cowboy and to the exit gate.  Some bulls would comply quickly but others would make them work for it.  Making several passes around the arena to the delight and cheers of the crowd.  

I hope you enjoyed seeing my bovine line-up as much as I've enjoyed creating them.  Please check out my website to see more of my work.

Resting Before the Rodeo

Cobbler On My Mind

Yesterday was a one of those days that I just couldn't seem to get warm.  I spent most of the day walking around the house with my jacket on and never really warmed up enough to want to even go into the studio.  It was the perfect day for a double dose of comfort food. First, I made a crock-pot full of our favorite Chicken Tortilla Soup and for dessert I made my Granny Diveley's blackberry cobbler.  Well actually, I'm not sure my Granny used blackberries in this cobbler but my mom sure did. We picked buckets of blackberries in the summer that grew wild around our home in Central Missouri.  This cobbler was made often during that season along with bowls of blackberries and cream for breakfast and homemade blackberry jam on warm biscuits. To this day, blackberry jam is my favorite but what you buy in the store doesn't hold a candle to the jars my mom would make when the berries were ripe.

This recipe is exactly what her cobbler was like and so when I received the actual hand written recipe card that said "Granny's Lazy Man's Peach Pie" I knew it was one and the same.  

Granny Diveley's Lazy Man's Peach Pie Blackberry Cobbler1 c Butter1 1/2 c Milk
2 T Baking Powder
1 t Salt2 c Sugar2 c Flour3 lbs frozen blackberries (I actually use a back of triple berry mix that I buy from Sam's Club)Melt butter in a large casserole dish.  Spread the frozen berries in the dish over the melted butter.  Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth.  Pour the mixture evenly over the berries and then bake @ 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes, until golden brown.  This stuff is pure heaven in a bowl if served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

"Morning Reflections"- 16 x 20 Original Acrylic

Of course this is an art blog and not a cooking blog so I have to share some of my artwork too.  This is a recent painting that I did that includes some of my favorite things that remind me of my childhood.  Blackberries, Lilacs, Peonies and Tea.   I hope you let me know if you tried the cobbler and how you liked it. This painting original is for sale and can be view on my website gallery along with all my other works at Julie Townsend Studios

Let Gravity Be Your Painting Friend

Last week I went to my painting lesson as usual.  I'm currently working on a winter scene that contains a number of bare trees.  I am actually painting from a reference photograph that taken by a fellow artists and Facebook friend, Clive Hughes.  I fell in love with the reflection and the bright sun rays and graciously he granted me permission to use his photo.

Reference Photo taken by Irish artist, Clive Hughes

I am in the place in my painting where I need to add the small fine branches for the background, so I grabbed the small script brush and started to paint away.  I had only made a few lines when I heard my painting instructor, Lily Adamczyk give a loud statement about the way I was holding my brush the wrong way.  My painting lessons are often a humbling learning process because it seems almost every lesson brings to light something that I am not doing correctly.

I was holding my brush more as you would a pen.  Far down on the handle near the bristles.  According to Lily, I need to hold my brushes more to the end of the handle so that I can allow for a more freedom of movement, letting the paint actually do the work.  The result will be a more natural looking branch because small branch detail should not be rigid or uniform.  Another helpful technique is to actually paint the small branches with the canvas turned upside down.  This allows gravity to actually assist you with the loose, free movement that you need to make realistic branches.

Current state of my WIP painting that I am doing from the above reference photo at my painting lesson

To reinforce what I have learned I had the perfect picture to come home and work on because there was actually painting a woodland snow scene full of bare trees that is a WIP on my easel.

A portion of my WIP painting that shows the lack of fine branch detail

Holding my brush the WRONG way!

Example of the correct way to hold the brush to get the loose fluid movement needed for the fine branch detail.  The canvas flipped upside down can also be a helpful technique.  This allows gravity to help your brush movement.

Additional small branches add to fill in the tree using the technique that Lily taught me

A Tribute to My Dad

Gerry Warner Diveley
February 8, 1940- January 27, 2011

My dad was a man that certainly lived his life outside the traditional structure of what most in society would consider essential... a job for one. He started out young in life as a cowboy riding in the professional rodeo circuit. I believe he was mostly a bull rider but sometimes he would ride a broncos and even a buffalo now and again.

An interesting side note to this was that in his youth, my dad ran around with the famous rodeo clown "Buddy Heaton" and even rode "Old Grunter" around for him. Buddy Heaton also died of this year.

Somewhere along the way, as a young man he decided that being a gambler was the best way to provide for his family. Now while I wouldn't agree with that decision, it was his to make and as his oldest daughter I didn't have much input in the decision. There were certain difficulties and sacrifices we were called to make because of his chosen profession, but again...we didn't have much input.

I do know he love his kids and adored my mother.  In August, they celebrated their 50th anniversary just a few months before he got really sick.

He passed away in January 2011, and I found that God had me use painting as a vital part in my grieving process. So far, I have painted several pieces in his honor. The most recent painting I call "Wild Ride" and it is inspired by this photograph taken of my dad while riding a buffalo.

Within just a few weeks of his passing I painted "The Cowboy and His Little Girl". The boots in this piece are the special ostrich skin boots my dad always wore.

I miss you terribly Dad...We're all doing our best to take good care of mom, but it sure isn't the same without you.

Love

Your Daughter
Julie