Monday, February 6, 2012

A horse is a horse...

...of course, of course...  Hi Everyone!  Happy Monday.  Do you remember the movie Secretariat?  I love that movie and was watching it this weekend while watching the snow fall.  When it got me to thinking...
As a little girl, I loved horses, still do.  I would love to have horses on the farm, but they cost a bunch to keep.  When I first realized I had some talent in the area of art, I use to draw horses all of the time!  In fact, they were my go to animal to draw.  But I don't think I've drawn one since junior high.  That is until now.
As I was watching the movie, I got to thinking about making a horse sign.  And of course I couldn't just make any horse sign, I decided to make one for a race horse from The Meadow. 
Which is the name of the Stable and is located in Doswell, VA where Secretariat was born.
 I liked how it looked when I finished painting it, but decided since he won the Triple Crown in 1973, the sign definitely needed to be aged and not just the background.  I didn't just want to add antiquing to the sign, so I decided to actually sand the horse and lettering.
 I sanded it pretty lightly and I'm still contemplating on whether to add the antique medium to it or not.  I do like how it turned out.  Although it is a little on the large size.  It was painted on the backing from a frame I had turned into a chalkboard that didn't sell as a chalkboard.  I used the frame for the message center this past fall and hadn't done anything with the backing.
 I had to pull this guy off my shelf in the dining room.  He is a cast iron horse that my great Uncle Cecil gave me a few months before he died.  And this horse is old.  But he was my model for the drawing I did.  Isn't he cute?

I think I need to cut the sides down some, but since it was snowing and blowing, I didn't want to hike out to the shop just to cut this board down. Would you add the antique medium to it?  Or leave it the way it is?  Or maybe sand the picture a little more?  I hope you have a great week.  Thanks for stopping by.

Links:
http://farmhouseporch.blogspot.com/2012/02/cowgirl-up-linky-party-starts-now.html

7 comments :

  1. I really like it just as it is!! How lovely is that? I hope you are feeling super-proud of yourself!!!

    Sarahx

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  2. Your talents never cease to amaze me! I think it looks great right now, but if you decide you want to try glazing it, why not try it softly all around the horse, but not through it? Kind of making it look like a vignette.

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  3. Very nice! I can't even draw stick figures very well! We live near where Secretariat was raised in Northern VA.

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  4. Beautifully done! We are horsey people and if I could I would have horse decor every where in the house. We know a couple who did just that, horse decor all over the place, they even had porcelain horse cabinet door knobs....crazy, but I loved it!

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  5. I love horses too!! Always wanted one of my own when I was young. Nice painting, you should hook up with Paint Party Fridays too!! I'm following you back :)

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  6. What a cool painting! And yes, when I was young I drew horses too!!! I also drew unicorns, but don't tell anybody. ;)
    You did a wonderful job. Since you asked ~ I would definitely distress it around the edges of the wood and up into the white more. AND add the antique medium. It will soften it up and give it a nice patina. You really want it to look aged, right? Maybe if you distress the sides enough you won't want to trim it down. It's hard to say...I always have to "play" with things to get them just right. But you are way ahead of me because I haven't done a real painting in a LONG time....so who am I to give advice. Wink wink! I'm thrilled to be a new follower and maybe you can inspire me to pick up a paintbrush and do more than a new color on a furniture piece!

    Have a great evening.

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  7. Very cool painting!! Thanks for linking up at Cowgirl Up.

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