News April 2007 Issue 1
WHAT'S GOING ON AT THE STUDIO????
and see May 2007 postscripts
Hello everybody!
Well, for those of you who enjoy my newsletters, here is your chance to hear from me more often. I will try to update these notes from my studio at least once a month. And if you read anything of interest and have questions, email me or give me a call on the phone.
Keep your fingers crossed, it is greening up so we can assume it is finally Spring in North Idaho. Somewhere in those various colored clouds of hair are several mules and horses, starting to slick out nicely...well, not really nicely, for a couple of weeks it will be a royal mess around the barn, and to make matters even worse, out in the meadow, about fifteen deer are making lots of hairy contributions, too. And the deer don't seem to understand it is time to go back into the timber. My meadow, stableyard and front yard have the best grazing around the area. Oh well, the mud has solidified and the creek is back in its banks instead of using my driveway.
We had a great trip to Texas, dodging storms and tornados almost all the way down, and hail storms on the way back. But hey, we did dodge them. It was wonderful to see so many friends and family there, and yes, the sales were good, thank you all very much!!! And we took a wrong turn off the highway, getting back on track took us into the little town of Justin, and yep, that Justin, and they had three Justin outlet stores, right in a row. I have NEVER seen so many boots.
I do have two new pieces, one of which some of you have seen, my very first golden eagle bust. I still have to do a couple of minor changes on it, but Hawkquest admitted it did look like a bird, so I am on the right track. I have a couple of sales on it already, so look for the pictures of it in the works in progress section here directly. You might just like it!
There will be another one coming up soon. CIRCLE OF LIFE a figure of the earth mother of all creation. I am very excited about this piece, it is a concept I have been trying to visualize for years. She is about half lifesize, better than 30 inches tall. I am at the point where some final decisions have to be made, and at times an artist just has to let a sculpture sit for a few weeks until I have enough"distance" to see just what I have actually done. But there is so much about her that absolutely satisfies me, and I hope you will like her, too. Look for the photos, I may post them early just to give you a hint.
But this week, it is time to repair some snow damage to some fences. Mandy the mule is learning she can go just about anywhere she wants to go, and this is a really bad mindset for a mule to have, believe me. But she gave me a nice little ride around the place yesterday, though my grandson informed me I had forgotten my saddle again. (By that time, my legs had already made that very clear!)
Next week it is off to the Idaho Horse Expo, my first time there. I know we will have a great time, after all lots of horses and only a day's travel.
I hope that you enjoy this addition to my web page. Let me know, okay?Walk in beauty,
Gabe
Post script #1: I reckon those of you who have your own places to keep your horses quite probably have at least one extra horse or pony on the place that is no longer used, or even could not be used. A survey taken by the Backcountry Horsemen found a very high percentage of those responding had one or more old guys out to pasture. Yeah, my old Charlie horse is 35 and still raising a fuss. Horsemen try to take care of their old friends. but it doesn't work out that way for all horses, so there are some wonderful people who try to step up and take care of as many of the others as they can. somewhere i your area there is probably somebody doing their best to fill the need. even small donations can make a difference, and you might meet some really nice folks and some sweet old horses if you seek them out.
On this note I thought I'd let you know I've donated a painting to be raffled off to support one of our rescue ranch's efforts. "Soaring Spirit" can be seen on the Paintings page of this website. It is a 24" x 36" original acrylic painting and if you like it and would like to try and win it, the raffle tickets are only a dollar. I'll be happy to fill out your raffle tickets for you and put them in the box. I'll even build the crate for shipping it to you if you win, but you will pay for the UPS cost of shipping. (The ticket money all goes to the horses.) The drawing is June 30th at the Carter Country Feed Store Fair, the owner's way of thanking his customers each summer.
For those of you in this area, Carter Country has the painting on display and will be selling the raffle tickets there too.
Post script #2: While I don't like to handle secondary sales of my work, once in a while sold out editions do become available, estate agents contact me. Right now there is a Salmon and Berries, a Job, a Power and Glory, a small Carousel lion a one of a kind unicorn and a 50/50 chance wolf. If you are interested in any of these, I will be glad to forward your information to the agents.