Posts Tagged ‘art
2012 PA Horse World Expo – Chincoteague Minnow
Most of the people that came by our booth at the 2012 PA Horse World Expo probably thought that 19 year old Minnow was an old pro at attending expos.
He hopped off the trailer on Thursday morning, walked through the barns buzzing with clinicians and horses twice his size, and made his way through the rows and rows of expo booths to his corral on the expo show floor. He was the ONLY animal on the show floor for the duration of the expo – with not a single horse in sight.
Yet, despite Minnow’s professional attitude, this was the VERY FRIST time he attended an expo – let alone spend the majority of the time corralled on the show floor.
I was so proud of him – he’s come such a long way from his days of being terrified of EVERYTHING, and bolting at the slightest sound. I can attribute much of his success to the clicker training we began in 2004, but mostly Minnow & I just share this connection where he will do anything for me and vise versa.
He’s truly an amazing pony, and I’m glad he was able to make so many people smile during our visit to the PA Horse World Expo.
Below is a video I pulled together of Minnow’s experience at the expo – in case you missed it.
I hope to have some photos of a few of his newest paintings up on the blog shortly – and as always you can check out our online shop to see all of Minnow’s artwork.
PA Horse World Expo – Raffle Winner Announced!
While we were at the PA Horse World Expo in Harrisburg last weekend we held a raffle for a free custom 11×14 painting by Minnow the Painting Pony.
We had HUNDREDS of entries to win Minnow’s one-of-a-kind painting, but there could be only one winner. So when we got home from our trip (after rolling in the biggest mud puddle he could find), Minnow helped choose our winner.
Congrats to Brittany of Garnet Valley, PA!
Thanks to everyone who came by the booth and entered. You can check out all of the ponies’ available paintings in our online shop.
Misty Memorabilia
Misty of Chincoteague was a book I read as a child, but my love of Misty and the wild Chincoteague Ponies really emerged when I was gifted my first Chincoteague Pony, Minnow.
Minnow started my obsession with the book and the history behind his amazing breed. So when I came across a tattered book page from a 1947 First Edition of Misty of Chincoteague, I knew I had to have this little ode to Misty hanging on my wall.
Wesley Dennis’ beautiful illustration of Misty running free was the perfect little addition to my office wall once I had it all framed up.
Which Color?
One of the number one questions I always get is – do you let the pony pick the colors?
Most of the time, no, because lets be honest – we’d have millions of paintings that were apple green and carrot orange. 🙂 In actuality, Minnow has no problem choosing paint colors, but really there is no rhyme or reason to what he chooses – and honestly he’d much rather be wielding the brush anyway. So the task of paint color selection usually falls upon my shoulders.
Choosing paint colors is not an easy task. Sometimes I mull for hours over the right shade of blue to paint a canvas. A lot of times I doubt my color selection all together – which ironically these sometimes turn out the best in the end. Sometimes where we are painting influences my choice of colors.
When painting on Chincoteague during the summers we gravitate towards bright island colors and ocean hues. When painting at home on the farm in the fall we sometimes have deep reds and rich brown tones.
In the beginning of our painting adventure I gravitated a lot towards browns and earthy tones, now I much prefer the bright and vibrant colors. Ultimately color preference is in the eye of the beholder and there really is no right or wrong answer. However, sometimes I just can’t help but feel “stuck” when it comes time to fill the boy’s brushes with paint.
But while browsing through Pinterest the other day (which by the way this is by far my new favorite website – you can follow us here), I came across the mecca of color selection websites, Design Seed.
With millions of color pallets I’m suddenly inspired to provide the boys with a whole new arsenal of paint colors this year. It’s also a wonderful selection tool if you just can’t decide what colors for your custom pony painting.
Now if the 20 degree weather would just disappear so we could get back to painting!
A Piece of the Island
These two tomato sauce jars filled with sand might not look like much to you, but to me they hold much significance. See back when I visited Assateague Island at the end of October (2011) with all three of my Chincoteague Ponies – I took a little piece of the island with me. I collected these jars of sand from the beach – as a way to always keep a little part of the island with me.
My little jars of sand weren’t much to look at these past few months, but a little visit to the antique shop, and $5 later they had a pretty (beach worthy) glass jar to call home.
Now my Assateague sand sits happily on my shelf at home with my jars of sand from Belize and Nicaragua and everytime I look at it I’m reminded of the special trip I took with all three of my boys!
