Sweet River Studios

The fall horse was more difficult to paint than the other two but I think I did okay. I put fall colored leaves, flowers and grapes on vines around the legs and I might add more on the skin of the horse. I also started the summer horse. I went with a black horse with blueish highlights and I'll probably add sunflowers and butterflies on it and maybe some cracked parched earth under it's hooves. I took about 2 weeks off from painting to take a break from it but hopefully, I'll start the background area soon then onto the quilting.

Painting the horses continue. There's a lot of detail work on the Spring and Fall horses with a lot of vines, leaves, flowers etc. so that's more detailed and very slow going but I'm making progress. When I'm tired of working on the small intricate areas, I started working on painting the fall horse so I can go back to painting a large area. I don't have the hooves or mane painted yet and no highlights but at least it looks like a horse.

I spent several days drawing leaves, vines, flowers, ice crystals and whatever else I could dream up on the horses using Frixion pens. They erase with heat so when I make a mistake or want to change something I just iron it away and start over. I waffled a while on whether or not I would quilt the horses first then paint or paint first then quilt. So it took me a while to get started but I went with paint first. I started with the Winter horse first, mainly since its the first horse from the right and rest of the quilt is rolled up onto a cardboard tubing. I decided to paint it gray with some kind of icicles coming up from the hoof landing on the ground. But for now, just trying to get the horses done and you know, looking like horses. The second horse in the Spring horse and I decided to make it a palomino color which is a golden color with white mane/tail. Since white on white fabric never really shows up, I went ahead and added some gray to help it stand out. This horse...

Yes! I've started my 4 horses art quilt. I've made some additional decisions since my last post so here they are. I bought 4.5 yards of PFD (prepared for dyeing) fabric. This fabric hasn't been treated with any stabilizers and I've not washed it. The fabric is supposed to hold onto paints/dyes really well. I didn't wash it but I did throw it into the dryer on the refresh cycle so a little steam was added but that was it. I created my own image of four horses and projected it onto the fabric and made an outline of the horses. I decided to make the horses realistic in coloring and decorate each one with seasonal themes. So for example, I decided the Spring horse will be a palomino color with white mane/tail and then I'll decorate the horse with flowers, leaves, ribbons and whatever else I can come up with. I might applique them on or just quilt them. I'm not sure about that yet. I'll probably take some scrap fabric and do some experimenting and see w...

I like making quilts with patterns and I recently purchased a paper piecing pattern called Paradise in Bloom by Judy Niemeyer. I haven't even selected fabric for that one yet but I will. It's early stages for this quilt but I'm hoping to start it soon. Lately, I've been feeling the need to start another art quilt. I like the freedom of no pattern. It's mine and I can do what I want with it using whatever technique I want to try out. I've been thinking that I'd make something to do with horses. I originally thought I'd make a quilt featuring carousel horses using the four seasons as a theme. Then I got to thinking that maybe I'll just use real horses instead but I haven't really decided. A picture in my brain is starting to form and it's looking more and more like real horses that are running. And big. Did I mention that? Like 45x120" big. Like scary big. Then the artist part of my brain scoffs and says, "Go big or go home."...