HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Well the end of 2009 is upon us... and I'm honestly sitting here wondering where the year went - seems like I was sitting here only a few days ago bringing in 2009, let alone saying goodbye to it. From a personal note, it wasn't the best year, but I'm hoping 2010 will bring new things, better things, and the overdue 'good times' to come in for those who I love and cherish.

I hope 2010 brings you all great happiness and success!!

The last thing I'll probably get finished this year was to paint the first copy of my medallion I sculpted (not the first copy, but the first painted copy LOL), and here he is:





He has already being sold - thank you Christine!! I hope you love him!

Unpainted copies are still available for sale if you're interested, they at least make for good painting practice.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

Merry Christmas to all!!

Well I hope everyone had a very MERRY CHRISTMAS while I was quiet on the Blog and enjoyed good times, lots of food and merry moments. Unfortunatly I was curled up in bed from the afternoon of my birthday (the 22nd) to pretty much this morning with either a virus or Swine Flu - I'm begining to think it was just some random virus because I've bounced back from it pretty quick and I didn't go downhill that badly, but the Doctor basically said I'd be taking the same medication anyway, so he saved me a bloodtest, which I HATE! (not a needle fan - can you tell?)

Anyway, in the meantime, I sent off my Chickory and Tango resin to a show in South Australia with my awesome Show Proxier down there (thank you Bec!) and was absolutely stoked to hear that DMD Ricardo (my Tango resin) had not only pulled a Champion in his division, but had also won Reserve Overall Supreme Champion of the show! WOO HOO!! Very happy with the results!! He also picked himself up a few more DUN Cards to take home as well for good measure.

Here he is:





Other news in the studio? Well thanks to a full time job, things have slowed right down unfortunatly, but I am finishing up the Flash CM who is going grey, and also finishing up my first painted copy of the medallion I scuplted back at the start of the year for someone - so photo's will come shortly of those guys as well.

Not much else to report! Hope the last few days of 2009 are good for everyone, and that you party hard to bring in the New Year - all the best to everyone in 2010!!! See you in the New Year, if not before!

~Sam

Live Show Results

Well what a week! I was hoping to have more horse's finished (including two comissions) to take with me to show, but with a new job, the real horses, and my freshly broken in stallion, I have little to no time during the week to do anything!

But I did take a small handful of horses with me, and all of them brought home DUN Cards (Qualifying cards for the Down Under Nationals *DUN* of which a Committee is slowly being formed to organise it - exciting huh?). These are the results of the crew I took that I personally painted:

DMD Ricardo (Tango resin shown as a bay roan sabino Spanish Barb)





4th - Other Color Open Workmanship (against all my other roans!)
3rd - Other Breed Arist Resin
3rd - Other Color Artist Resin (again, the class was all my roans! LOL)
1st - Other Breed CM/AR Mini
Reserve Champion Mini CM/AR Breed
1st - Other Color CM/AR Mini

Rayne On Me (Rayne resin shown as grey Thoroughbred - owned by Rondel)





1st - Grey/Chestnut Open Workmanship
4th - Thoroughbred/Sporthorse Artist Resin
2nd - Grey Artist Resin
2nd - Light Breed CM/AR Mini
4th - Grey/Chestnut CM/AR Mini

Kenhurst Kilimanjaro (Custom Huckleberry Bey shown as bay Hackney Horse)





3rd - Black/Bay/Brown Open Workmanship
1st - Other Breed CM
Champion CM Other Breed
1st - Bay/Brown CM
Reserve Champion CM Solid Color
Reserve Grand Champion CM

DMD Scrapey (Chickory resin shown as bay roan Shetland Pony)





5th - Other Color Open Workmanship (all against my other roans)
5th - Pony Breed Artist Resin
2nd - Other Color Artist Resin (against my other roans!)
2nd - Pony Breed CM/AR Mini
4th - Other Color CM/AR Mini

DMD Santiago (Alborozo shown as blue roan Persauvian Paso)





3rd - Other Color Workmanship (against my roans)
1st - Spanish Breed CM Spanish
Reserve Champion CM Stock/Exotic Breed
2nd - Other Color CM (2nd to my other roan in the class)

Makhpia-Sha (Nokota shown as bay roan Quarter Horse - owned by Tracy)





2nd - Other Color Open Workmanship (against my other roans)
2nd - Quarter Horse Breed CM
1st - Other Color CM
Champion CM Broken Color

Caramea Bold Print (Timepiece shown as bay Anglo-Arab Sporthorse - owned by Rachel)





2nd - Thoroughbred/Sporthorse Artist Resin
2nd - Bay/Brown Color Artist Resin
(Yes, I've made two mistakes with his photo - he should have two 2nd ribbons, and two blue Halter DUN cards - silly me!)

Well over all it was a very, very busy day - but a HUGE success. CONGRATES to everyone who attended and proxied (thank you for sending your guys over to our litte show in the West!) and a huge thank you to all our judges (myself, Mel Boynes, Mollie Burton, Jackie Siebel and Carol Warwick) and a huge thank you to our show mistress/master/exrodianaire... Mel Boynes!! And last but not least - mega thanks to everyone who sponsored and donated to the show, without your help we wouldn't have raffle items to help pay for the show!! THANK YOU!!

Phew.. think I'm done! Enjoy the pics - shame the weekened wasn't a day longer! Off to work for me...

~Sam

Sneak Peak;

I just finished this guy Monday morning - he is a Sarah Mink "Tango" resin, and I have to say, I'm just in love!! I could easily, easily have a complete conga line of this guy!! He is such a spunk! Here is a detail shot of some of his sabino markings:





He is resembing a bay roan sabino Spanish Barb stallion :) He'll get shown at West Coast Spring Fling in November and probably be listed for sale afterwards (unless you are a part of my Yahoo Group which is getting first offer on him for a month leading up to the show). *hint hint nudge nudge* LOL

~Sam

Cheeky Bugger!!

Well, walking around outside today, I managed to snap a shot of his cheeky bugger flying over a 1.30m fence set up out the back yard:





LOL - Just kidding!

He is however, a finished comission ready to either be proxied at a show I'm attending in November or sent home with his new stable buddy "Kenhurst Kilimanjaro" (my Huck CM Hackney) - I'm waiting to hear back on base color and the correctness of his lip marking, but otherwise (aside from glossing eyes and hooves) he is done!





I'm so happy with him - he just came alive at the last few strokes of the brush and I have to say I'm in love!

Next on the home straight is a Stormwatch I'm painting for a friend of mine who has being here on comission - you'll see him soon!

Otherwise, enjoy a much clearer, and nicer shot of Mr. Chickory, who will be staying with me for a while to visit a show or two down under :)





Enjoy the last day of the week before the weekend!! (and I can't believe it's OCTOBER already!! Where the heck as the year gone?!?!?!)

~Sam

Chickory Resin;

Some of you may know that Lynn Fraley recently released a new resin to the public, with the first 30 copies being sold via a lottery, the little guy in question is "Chickory", and I was lucky enough to have being picked out of the names entered to grab one of these guys, and this is him:





My photo's just do not do this little guy justice at all! He is a spunk in person :)

He was just a blast to work on! If he stays on long enough to be shown, I think he'll be named "Scrap" because ponies are well known for being garbage cans and eatting anything you put infront of them (including the scraps left behind by everyone else) and it seems to suit him well.

He is though, up for offers on MH$P for a few days with a starting offer of $150 USD ($170 AU) - so please check him out:

http://www.modelhorsesalespages.com/sales/view_details.asp?path=Gallery&id=738505





I have two comissions nearing completion as well which will be posted up soon, and another sales piece in the pipeline - who? I'll just say it's a Mink resin and an old favourite!

Enjoy the weekend!
~Sam

Spring is coming!

Well I've being quiet on my blog, but busy in the studio and busier in the stables - I recently had my stallion (who just turned 5) broken in so that he had plently of time to mature both physically and mentally, and I reckon it's really paid off as his knees, which were HUGE have fully closed and he was more than ready to get broken in and start to have some work put on him. He had some rave reviews from the breaker and his wife, which was absolutely lovely to hear especially since I bred this boy and have handled him all his life. So he is now home after three weeks at the breaker's and loving being home, being worked, having his stable surrounded by his 'mates' (the geldings) and feeling good old spring in the air!

But of course, back to the studio news:

This little girl will be heading home to her owner after being sitting here for awhile and not posted off due to my email and computer generally throwing a hissy fit and not delievering emails. But problem solved thank goodness!





Also speaking of heading home - "Manhattan Mistress" was won by an Australian collector and will be staying down under, but is already on her way to her new home and new owner. I have to say, it was a very sad day to pack her up knowing that she wouldn't be coming home with ribbons from a show, but heading off for good, she had quickly become one of my favourites... but still, she is heading a show home which is always a bonus!

A progress picture of one of my comissions currently in the works is a Timepiece I'm painting as a portrait of a client's late horse (who I will say, looked an absolute spunk!) - he is a lot further along than this photo shows as this was an eariler photo:





And one of my personal works in progress is this Breyer Moody Andalusion rescuplt which I'm working on between pastel layers - Just showing you his face at the moment next to another body to show the difference. I'm loving this guy's spunk and attitude (he's definately saying, "ner ner ner, I can do it better!" as he is mid air through an explosive flying change). Hey, the referrence photo had his tongue hanging out, so I thought why not!?! And it seems my ever-loving other half thinks so as well, since he agreed about the tongue and is now bugging me and coaxing me gently to keep this guy as apart of our own personal collection and not a sales piece (which he was going to be) - so sorry guys, you'll have to blame him for that one! LOL Not that I mind at all of course, I'm giving into his coaxing quite willingly!





I'll post up some photo's during the week as I get a few comissions finished up that are in their final home stretches as we speak!