"Fall Fountain"

"Fountain" oil on 11x14 board

Barry Wallace is one of The King Township's best Photographers he  has the ability to see landscapes in a different way bringing lots of colour and interest into the pictures he takes.

September 28 th Barry took this picture Keele Street - South of the 17 th

I couldn't resist doing a study of this one, among a lot of the others he has taken during the last few weeks.

It was a challenge but fun to let the paint go it's own way!

Babs

Barries website is here; http://cameraonking.blogspot.ca/

Experimental Painting

Oil on 8x10 board

A "Just For Fun" painting, on a snow day.


Last year in Spring we took a trip to Round the Bend Farm, we buy our fresh vegetables there they have many Farm animals on display for the children to pat and find out what they are about. One in particular seem to get some attention, it was a young Llama she just had a beautiful hair cut but, had rather a surprised look on her face or embarrassed   not sure which it was, for fun we took a photo and I came across it, being another" extreme " heavy snow day I decided I would paint her, just to see those big eyes made me smile. It was fun to paint adding some unusual colours.
Good for the eyes with all the white stuff out side.
Babs

Highlights of 2013

In 2013 we have experimented with watercolour, acrylic on Masonite and of course kept going with our standard Oil paint.
Our subjects were flowers, landscapes, still life, portraits and now we are in the world of Horses, and feel at last we have found our niche.

In Summer we decided to work on the idea of looking for places we hadn't explored before it was a perfect weekend sunny and warm, so we went to the Caledon Equestrian Centre in Palgrave.

Palgrave is a small village about 20 minute drive from here we found there an event for horse jumping and decided to pay a visit for an hour.

We arrived around 10 am and parked the car walking up,to where there seemed a lot of activity. It was probably one of the best couple of hours spent, we watched many events of all age groups and plenty of close up's of horses and riders.

Palgrave, maybe a painting one day!

Palgrave is situated in beautiful countryside so plenty of photo's were taken.We found taking pictures of fast moving horse and riders over the jumps quite a challenge. A moving target is hard to catch at the right time, of course there we're a number of pro's with huge lens that must have got some super shots so we were very busy with a new learning curve that day, I had taken some hilarious shots headless riders double images backsides of horses, John being a pro had more luck than I did that day. We came home quite excited about our new experience over a few weeks we purchased thermos flasks and took picnics arriving early and finding out more about "Eventing" we got so involved I was almost tempted to buy a suitable outfit leggings and high boots and feel part,of the  scene.

Come Autumn we found there was an opportunity to see more of the area Headwaters were having a Tour

Winsong Farm

of Horse farms so we made a date to visit  2 Horse farms close to our area. Our first stop was Winsong they have a lovely horse farm which includes two Portuguese White horses Zelador and Zelosa  the names come from Portugal they were born on the last alphabet Z a tradition when a horse is born they name it from the Alphabet letter of the day had the most difficult time picking out the names.

The horses are well loved by the owners Winnie and Bill at the moment they are training them to do many tricks which takes time and patience but they are having a lot of success. We were at their Christmas Party giving us and visitors a good show.
We have found horse  people are more than pleased to show and talk about their chosen breed and why they love them.

We also visited Onice Farm,  intrigued  by the name we found a lovely Farm not far along tucked away in a very hilly area Ideal for this type of horse, They have Icelandic ponies no higher than 14 hands high energy sturdy and long living !
We arrived early and they were moving some of the horses to another field for the day.Although a busy

Two of the ponies

family they were able to give us a run down of the horses history. Coming from such a small country Iceland are particular about these little horses who have lived in the area for a thousands of years built to stand very hard conditions and free of disease.
They  are beginning to become popular in North America.
We have since met the Family Brian, Wendy and Sydney  recently , I managed to paint a couple of pictures and we delivered them they were very happy with them and took us on a tour of their outside family. They have quite a herd and know every single one of them by name (all named with Icelandic names!)
A great dedicated family who travel a lot to with their horses to the States showing and getting to know like minded interest in the Icelandic breed.
We are looking forward to meeting them again to take winter scene photo's for painting too. Mainly because they are different and not well known YET but soon will be.

Our small travels through horse country was amazing Summer and autumn went by in a flash, the countryside
away from highways is full of incredible scenery, Hills and dales views to take your breath away.
We realize how lucky we are to live near to such great countryside. We will be out and about making the most of our trips with plenty of photographs for painting and meeting such interesting people

2013 was a taste of what we would like to do more of, so 2014 is something to look forward to.

Our best wishes to all for 2014
Babs & John

House in the Woods

House in the woods, oil on 11x14 board

This was a commission finished a few weeks ago. It was quite a challenge painting from an old 4x6 photo, but as I got into it I began to enjoy the process, trying to paint as fast and loose as possible.

The dappled shadows were the big challenge!

The client was delighted which made my day and from the fee we made a donation to North Halton Kitten Rescue:

http://www.nhkr.ca/

John

Winsong Farm, again!

Two horses enjoying a beautiful November day

Yesterday we visited Winsong farm to deliver a finished painting of Zelador the beautiful white horse. The day was gorgeous, all sunny and bright after the cold, snow and rain of the previous week.

Winnie has a new passion, she is training her dog "Trooper" who is of the vizsla breed, to do similar tricks to

Trooper

what she has taught the horses.

Trooper is a lovely animal, full of fun and excitement, doing his tricks with great speed to get to the treat.

With his favourite toy, the Bell

Before Troopers tricks we met Bill riding Zeloso, the
half brother of Zelador, and he seemed keen to meet us.

Zeloso

We were very thrilled also that Winnie gave us a small Sculpture of Zelador sitting on a cushion, which is now on display.
The sculpture was made by Ann Clifford

The World of Equineity!

Gimcrack Equestrian Centre in King Township

We haven't been painting for a couple of weeks, some "Bug" has captured us and made us ache and doze, so we thought we would share some of the scenery from our trip out to the Headwaters Horse Country Stable Tour.

Gimcrack Equestrian Centre
This is a magnificent farm situated in the rolling hills of King Township, and makes us very proud to live in King Township!
Above you can see the landscape and the horses are friendly too!







Waterstone Estate & Farm

Waterstone Estate farm

Located in King Township again but at the north end close to the Holland Marsh, beautiful area for horse riders and a huge indoor arena.

Harmony Ranch

Just North of Schomberg, a place specialising in teaching adults all about horse riding, 

Showing the art of horse handling

"Come on I dare you!"

If we were a bit younger we might be tempted, but being seniors we are beyond the adult stage!

Lots of inspiration for painting in all these places/

Pomp and Circumstance

My niece Rachel lives just outside of London and a couple of days ago made a trip to check The Mall Galleries and a bit of a walk around.She knows how much we are into horses at the moment.

She was able to take some photo's of the Horse Guards Parade, it was a pleasant surprise looking at a tradition that thankfully hasn't been changed too much .  Something about being an Ex pat you tend to forget

about these treats, the pride and beauty of these horses trotting along with the Guards certainly  makes the heart strings vibrate a little.

Here are a couple of Rachel's photo's for you to enjoy if you're a Brit. 

A colourful spectacle for a rainy day!
Babs

OnIce Horse Farm

The Welcome Committee

A Big Secret we found yesterday.

Saturday we were full of energy even though there were heavy clouds and the chance of rain we went out to enjoy the Headwaters Country Stables Tour.

As usual not knowing what it was we were getting into, our first choice just 15 minutes away is the OnIce Horse Farm, specialising in Icelandic Ponies and set in the beautiful  Ontario Countryside we never knew existed! We arrived just as the Horas family were setting up, Mr & Mrs Horas, Wendy, Mitchell and Brian.

We were greeted right away and introduced to a very friendly family, we had the opportunity to look around as they brought the ponies out into the pasture. I believe they have 19 of these special and unique animals .
Meantime we were invited to have fresh coffee/tea  home made cookies warm from the oven or apples and cider, all made by Oma.

We thought it was a great way to start our morning watching the goings on. We had the chance to talk to the Wendy who is very enthusiastic about Icelandic ponies and we found out the uniqueness of these animals, they are playful and hardy with the ability not to worry about the winter, their coats designed to take all kinds of weather and they can give a smooth ride even though they are small.

Wendy demonstrating the way to ride a Pony!

We realized we had found a family who are totally besotted and only too pleased to give us all the information they could about being care givers and owners. 

We are looking forward to more trips to  Onice Horse Farm again hopefully soon when they are not

so busy.
We visited 3 other Stables all very different in this area so lots more to write about with photo's for another day.

Winsong Winnie and Zelador

Winnie & Zelador Walking to the barn. 

Zelador

A beautiful Autumn day and we had the privilege of meeting Winnie of Winsong Farm, a gorgeous morning of sun and warmth arriving at 9 30a.m. we drove up the path and parked the car just as she was coming to greet us for an hour to watch her train Zelador  putting him through his paces in readiness for the Weekend event .

Zelador  is of Portuguese origin, he is a  .Lusitano Gelding, strong handsome colour of milk with a shaking chocolate sprinkles he was still in his stall and seemed to be  listening as Winnie gave us a summary of all what entails training and looking after their horses. An amazing amount of hard work and lots of love and kindness goes into every day. With gentleness and lots of encouragement for Zelador,  it was good to see no cracking whips. just softly talking and encouragement.

They are definitely in communication with each other and a joy to watch this incredible horse who seemed to enjoy his routine catching a ball, standing on wooden blocks, waiting for the next thing with patience and pride, his eyes on Winnie all the time.

He can even sit on a bean bag!

This Sunday we are going back with the audience of 70 or so people to watch the whole show, We are looking forward to seeing more.

Our sincere thanks to Winnie taking the time out before she had another training session straight after us!

We are beginning to understand equine people, they are a different set of folk who LOVE and Care for their Horses!.

Winsong Farm