Royal Delta FINISHED!!

Ta Da!  All done!!  I am thrilled with the way this one came out!  And I have to also thank Pat Hammel for the use of her wonderful photograph!

Royal Delta #5

Almost there….  sorry for the delay in getting this up.  I have been on a trip through the Carolinas… part business, part family.  I had 6 photo shoots in the Charlotte, N.C., area.  And I wanted to check out a new horse show facility in Tryon, N.C….  the Tyron International Equine Center. I have been hearing a lot of amazing comments on the show facilities and wanted to check out the show grounds and speak to them about displaying my work there next spring.  Well, it was amazing!  Money is being poured into this 1400 acre horse resort.  It is very well thought out and planned.  However they were not very receptive to allowing individual artists to set up at this time.  The venders area is a little on the small side for a facility this large. There are plans to expand this in the future.  They do have a local gallery on site,  Skyuka Fine Arts,  and it just so happens to be one I had exhibited my work in last spring.  I had planned to stop in and say hello on this trip…  Had a great visit and one thing lead to another and… they are now going to represent my pastel portraits!!  The owners husband  ( Richard C. Nelson) does amazing oil portraits and is with Portraits Inc.,  a national portrait agency. My oils do not light a candle to his!  But he is not an equine artist…  he will do them but prefers to do the big oil portraits…. so there is an opening for me!!!  This is the first gallery to represent me!  I have never found one that was the right fit and this one feels right.  I am very excited about the future partnership!  We have already talked prices and they are basically doubling!  Of course a large part of that is their commission.  But they will be doing all the work to get the commissions and they are going to be on the show grounds for the whole show circuit. I will be doing a portrait for them to display after the first of the year.  I also have a few ideas for some gallery pieces!  Very excited for 2015!!!

Royal Delta #4 WIP

Here is the 4th installment…  finished her body and worked right into her head.  I am really happy with the way the colors worked out on Royal's body!  It is sometimes hard to get those really rich dark colors.  And then that pop of blue in the sheen.  Here is where I end up collecting lots of pastels… some companies just have better dark colors…  Girault is my favorite for having nice dark purple/browns and red/browns. Unison also has some great dark colors but because the sticks are so short and fat it is hard to get a good sharp edge.

Royal Delta WIP #3

Moving right along….  I need to get the body done before I can move onto the head.  I just find it easier to work left to right...  because I am right-handed.  And back to front….  because it is easier to lay color down on top of another color than to butt it right up against it.  Some times I change that when I am working with a lot of white… like to do the white  and other very light colors last to keep it as clean as I can. Of course here I will have to go back and rework the background… but at least I have that initial nice and clean edge.  I generally go back and rework all my backgrounds before I am done.

Royal Delta WIP #2

I am doing the background a light pinkish grey… only because the client had seen one of my older pieces that was on the suede mat board and really liked it.  So I am attempting to recreate it… sort of!  The background is blue in the upper left because of my lighting…  day light bulb on left and above, and tungsten on the right.  I will eventually replace the tungsten. I really like the way Royal's body is coming along…. took me a while though.  But I love using the purples and blues for that slight highlight in the shadows. And it will really make her head pop off the paper.

Royal Delta WIP

This is a favorite portrait I did of a thoroughbred race horse named Royal Delta.  It was commissioned by the bloodstock agent for the owner. She is pretty famous and her earnings on the race track are over 4 million!  She was trained by Hall of Fame trainer, Bill Mott…. great trainer and good guy!… not so many in this business!  He loves this horse… and not just because she won a lot of races.  I have been told that she has the air of greatness about her and is a nice horse to be around.  She retired the end of last year and was shipped to Ireland to be bred to a horse named Galileo.  Bill sent a case of peppermints with her… she only likes one specific brand!  This photo was taken by Pat Hammel who works for Bill.  She is a wonderful photographer and I am honored that she allowed me to do this pastel of her work.

Casallo with Hazzy and Blanche Finished!

So sorry I have been away for so long!  Life with my mom has been quite the roller coaster!  She arrived right after my last post in February!  Since than I have moved her 3 times (different rooms in the same facility)  Started in the memory care section because of her dementia… they wanted to make sure she was not going to wander off. Thought it was going to be alright and moved her to the general population… that lasted less than a week before she was found wandering in the parking lot!  Back to memory care!  A month ago they thought she was having either a stroke or heart attack… sent her to the hospital… turns out she had an obstructed bowel!  Three weeks of basically being bedridden, we are  now in rehab! O.K. TMI!  Between keeping up with her and just doing my work, something had to give! Sorry bout that!  She is doing alright in rehab but I am afraid this is the calm before the storm!  It is just so sad to see your parents fading away! She recognizes me, but does not know who I am.  She lives in the moment, which is good for her, but sad for me.  And also hard for her care givers, nurses and doctors. And she just does not have the will to get better…. so very sad!  I thought I would blog about the experience… but it is just so depressing that I could not make myself rehash everything here.  My work, when I can do it has been my retreat from it all. I also have taken up guitar again after 20 years or so! I always found playing to be therapeutic.  Need all I can get right now! And I have lots of work that needs to get posted here!!  Some really wonderful pieces  too!  So… stay tuned!  And thanks for listening if I ramble on a bit about life with an elderly parent!  And I must add…  my dad on the other hand has been in Africa on a safari for the last few weeks!  Total polar opposite!

Casallo with Hazzy & Blanche #9

Casallo with Hazzy & Blanche #9, originally uploaded by debifitz.

Almost there…. sorry I have not been posting… lots of family stuff going on. We are in the process of moving my mother down here to Florida close to me. She has moderate dementia and just fell and broke her shoulder. She has been in independent living, but now she needs more care than she can afford up in Raleigh. I have no idea how I am going to do this! We did go through this with my mother-in-law… but that was so different from my own mother. I was the support for my husband and he was not that close to his mother. Going to be a journey! I will try to post some of it here… never know who it may help or who might help me. It is so hard seeing your parents age and knowing that I am the next generation to head down that path…..

Casallo with Hazy & Blanche #8

Casallo with Hazzy & Blanche #8, originally uploaded by debifitz.

Pretty much done here with Casallo… working on Hazy and Blanche….

Casallo with Hazzy & Blanche #6

Casallo with Hazzy & Blanche #6, originally uploaded by debifitz.

Ahhhh… the dapples are done! But I will have to go back and mess with them some more before it is all over!

Casallo with Hazzy & Blanche #5

Casallo with Hazzy & Blanche #5, originally uploaded by debifitz.

Almost finished with the dapples!!

Casallo with Hazzy & Blanche #4

Casallo with Hazzy & Blanche #4, originally uploaded by debifitz.

DAPPLES! DAPPLES! DAPPLES!

Casallo with Hazzy & Blanche #3

Casallo with Hazzy & Blanche #3, originally uploaded by debifitz.

Boy have I been BAD!! So glad the holidays are behind us! Now I just need to get back into a routine here! I will try to get Casallo's portrait posted so I can catch up with all the others I have been working on. Just starting to work on Casallo here… those dapples took FOREVER!! Not really so much hard as time consuming… And Casallo has a little warm tint to his.