Chrismas Card

A sneaky peek of my new Christmas Card with the kissing donkeys:

If you would like one sent to you just email me your address to: contact@catherinehenchie.co.uk

Sky and The Christmas Donkeys

Finished 'Sky', (AKA Woody) Oil on Linen yesterday.

I also managed to finished one of my Christmas Kissing Donkeys...one to go.

Christmas Kissing Donkeys and a Saddle!

I decided to do a Christmas card for all my lovely customers and collectors, two donkeys kissing under the mistletoe, (I'll add that later) in pastels....rough sketch:

Getting there:

Got the basics down, detail next...

Another new project is this saddle, it's oil on linen. I have left the linen on show as I think it will really suit the subject, here's the underpainting...

South East England International Eventing

My stand in the Norfolk Pavillion, (Next to the Show Jumping Arena) at The South East England International Eventing, Ardingly.

Sky and The south East of England International Horse Trials

Here's a new painting in progress that I started a few days ago, it's called sky.

I will be taking him to the South of England International Horse Trials at Ardingly on Saturday and Sunday where I will be painting in the main Pavillion with a few of my paintings, please come and say hello if you are there.

Basic sketch...

Background done, getting the basic tones down...

 Ready for the detail...

Emily

 

Just finished Emily, I really like her but she took ages!

 

 

The Horse in Art 2014



It was the private view for The Society of Equestrian Artist's exhibition 'The Horse in Art' at the Mall Galleries last night.

 

 

My husband and I got there at about 5pm to find out my painting had already been sold!

 

 

Very proud moment...

 

It was very busy by the end of the night.

There are some fantastic works of art to see, it's on until Saturday the 6th Sept.

The online Gallery for The Society of Equestrian Artists annual exhibition 'The Horse in Art 2014' is now online, here's a link:

http://www.equestrianartists.co.uk/index.php/the-horse-in-art-2014-gallery-slideshow/

See if you can spot mine...

The Horse in Art Exhibition

My painting ' First Time Out' got through the final judges panel for The Society of Equestrian Artist Exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London from the 2nd -  6th September .....whoop!

Carrick & Year of the horse

Finished Carrick's portrait:

 

 

I'm very pleased with him.

 

I also finished 'Year of the Horse' after battling with gold leaf for a few days, (never again).

 

 



I'm driving up to the Mall Gallery in London tomorrow to hand in 'First Time Out' wish me luck for the Judges final selection!

The Horse in Art Exhibition

Wow, 'First time out has got through pre-selection for the Society of Equestrian Artists annual exhibition at the Mall Galley in London.....so excited :)

Big George

Just finished the larger than life scale Cob half face, I'm calling it Big George...

Busy busy

I've been busy since the kids have gone back to school.

Here's the Year of the horse painting, ready for his tack. I'm thinking about using a little bit of gold leaf to highlight the gold parts of the bridle.

 

Another painting I have nearly completed is a bigger than life size half face of a cob, the linen is 30cmsx120cms so an unusual size. Here's the sketch....looks like an Exmoor in the dark!

 

 Here's what I have completed so far....and a close up.

 I also managed to do a bit more to Carrick, hopefully he should be complete in a week or so.

Just a quick shot of my hand mid-painting....made me laugh.

Chinese Year of the Horse

I thought I would do a painting based on the Chinese year of the horse, I wanted to include some of the styling from old Chinese paintings so I did some research and came up with some ideas....

 

The stance from Chinese horse sculpture is very often quite close together legs with a slightly turned head so I went for that, they were also useful for studying the saddle and bridle.

 

My original photo was a very poor one from a dressage event years ago but it did have the right sort of pose, I also went with a vertical mane and an old parchment type background...

 

 

The Chinese letters say year of the horse, as does the stamp at the bottom. The three stamps, (well, painted to look like stamps) are good luck wishes for the year of the horse, old Chinese paintings had a lot of stamps like this on them...

 

 

They were actually made by the art dealers the painting had passed through over the years to authenticate it! I'm glad they don't do that now.

 

I also added some Chinese text to the bottom of the painting, these are sayings about the horse:

"A horse brings victory"

"The spirit of the horse and dragon"

and

"Be the first and take the lead"

 

Just finished the under painting.............

 

Carrick

Thankfully the holidays are over so back to work on Carrick, finished his eye and got the general tones down, now for the detail...

 

 

Fairy Door, (Mouse hole) in You Magazine!

 

Not one of my paintings unfortunately.....however one of my Fairy doors, (something I do on the side) was featured in The Mail on Sunday's "You" magazine last Sunday, they called it a mouse hole :)

 

 

Top Right, the little door in the stairs, shame it's not a bigger picture as it's a carved ledge and brace door with a little keyhole, door handle and working hinges....

Piglets!

Not very equestrian but I took a photo of some Piglets at the Heathfield Show last year and have wanted to paint them ever since...

Starting sketch....

Getting the base layer down.

Time to add detail.

All done...I've called it Siblings!

Dreyfus the German Shepherd





Just finished a portrait of a German Shepherd called Dreyfus.

 

The only remaining photo of him was pretty old and not very flattering so I used another couple of photos as reference to open his eyes and bring his ears forward.

 



 

Reference material...

 

 Rough sketch,

 

 

 Nearly finished...

 

The end result, his owner was very pleased with him.

 

Carrick

Beginnings of a commission, a veteran thoroughbred cross called Carrick....

Starting sketch:

 

All set up...

Halfway through the under painting:

 

Under painting finished... 

 

 

As you can see I am giving him his summer coat back!

Grey Shire Finished...

Finished the grey shire horse today....