My blog has now moved over to Blogspot...I am joining the fray with  A Painting a Day blog.

Please check it out at www.kimratigan.blogspot.com...perhaps you'll see something you like !

Kim

Here is my final panel. I finished it earlier this week and it is in the mail on its way to Alberta and the great team at Mural Mosaic.

This was an amazing project to be part of; Phil, Paul and Lewis sure know what they're doing and run a class act plus they keep it fun and light! I hope to be able to do something more with them on a future project...I suggested dogs :-D

Please visit their website and check on the Mural Progress. Once a panel has been posted, it can be clicked on for a larger view and Artist's statement. All these panels are wonderful and creative, browse through them all; you won't be disappointed!

The final mural will be unveiled at Spruce Meadows Masters Tournament in September of this year, where it will be on permanent display.

~Kim

Here is some updated progress on the panel. Sorry it took so long; camera went kaput!

I need to go in and finish off some facial and tack details and possibly add some more contrast in the tent. I'm not sure how far I can push it before I stray too far from the original panel colours....

~Kim

Did some work on the panel this weekend. Not as much as I had hoped, but I have all this afternoon to myself and will be painting! Hopefully I can get around to tightening up a few areas and adjusting shapes as most of the color has been blocked in

~Kim

Some of the work that artists have been creating for the Mural Mosaic Le Cadeau du Cheval are absolutely beautiful! Check out the progress so far!

After a very hectic May, I have free time to work on my panel. A lot of my progress has been in sketches, as I wanted to try and use the shapes in this piece creatively and somehow get away from using that broad expanse of blue as "sky"

I sketched knights in armor, costumed arabs, thoroughbreds in blue blinkers, mustang scenes and faded, ghostly scenes. While all of them worked to some degree, other mural artists who started their projects right at the get-go have used these subjects  in a much more innovative, creative and pleasing way.....so...after more sketching, I finally came up on a subject that fit...The Circus!

Here is my first block in of colour for Panel #9  showing the horse master waiting for his cue to enter the big top with his string of liberty horses. Working title: "Circus Curtain Call"

By the way, I was having a tough time fitting in that brown wedge in the bottom left hand corner, but after seeing Marti Adrian's panel, I followed her lead! Thanks for the inspiration Marti!

Check back tomorrow for more progress :-)

~Kim

I was able to enter a small painting in this year's Pyramid Society Art Auction, which will be held during the 28th Annual Egyptian Event at the Kentucky Horsepark in Lexington, Kentucky.

The Event showcases the stunningly beautiful and versitile Egyptian Arabian and the Auction itself helps raise funds for a variety of programs that work to preserve and promote the Egypian Arabian. It is one of my few 'donated to' events.

This year's entry  is a small original watercolour painting entitled "California Girl."  It portrays a sweet blond arabian, decked out in her western gear.

I hope this peice does as well as last year's; a colour pencil/watercolour orginal called "Baby Bling"
It was somewhat ironic that the purchasers of this peice were from Canada :-D

A belated congratulations to J. Parsons and C.& F. Mercedes on their purchase and a big thank you for your patronage!

~Kim

Well, I got my panel...unfortunately I wasn't able to get one of the ones I had chosen originally, but what I did get is really going to be a challenge!

Wow! What a lot of colour....I am starting to think along the lines of some of those gorgeous Arabian costumes that I love to do.

I have a fairly long timeline, so this will go up on the wall and well have to see what develops, so stay tuned :-)

~ Kim

My apologizes readers; Easter, March Break, three paintings in progress and helping out with 2 recent school fundraisers has eaten up the days!

Sadly, the mural project I had been apart of ran into some difficulties, but I am happy to say that I have been accepted as an artist on another horse mural project, put on by Lewis Lavoie and Phil Alain of Mural Mosaic.

These two gentlemen have done previous murals with great success and have now introduced a horse-themed one entitled ...

This is a very exciting project, and Mural Mosaic is a wonderful organization to work for. Artists are receiving instructions via YouTube videos, and it is working wonderfully. Artists were also able to choose our panels via an on-line gallery.

Internet viewers will be able to stay on top of this project not only by the various artists blogs that will be reporting on the progress of their personal panel, but MuralMosaic has the mother image set up in an on-line grid and it will be filled in as each panel is received. You can see the template here.

And check out how it works by viewing their currently on-going mural, King of Kings.

The completed Le Cadeau du Cheval is due to be unveiled at the Spruce Meadows Masters Tournament, one of the largest and richest horse Shows in North America.

My panel is in the mail and I can't wait until it gets here!

~Kim

So goes the life of an artist ;-)

Now back to my mystery panel....we're socked in with snow here, much like most of the north eastern seaboard, so its either painting or housework....now there's a choice!

~Stay warm, Kim

I have entered the Louisana State University School of Medicine's 21st International Exhibition of Animals in Art (phew! ). This venue  always has beautiful work - Take a look at their 2007 show.

I did enter a number of years ago, got in and was very pleased with it. Unfortunately, I could never seem to get my act together in following years to have entries ready for their early January deadline. Right after Christmas, kids back at school and fresh colds and flu... I seemed to always get caught in a timeline crunch or lack of it!

But this year I planned, and you've got to love it when a plan comes together...

I sent of the following two entries;

"I See You,"  above left, a small colored pencil on Pastelbord (5"x5")

"Summer's Gold," above right, colored pencil on pastelbord (9" x 13.5")

You may recognize Summer's Gold (hint: look to my banner)
This is a subject that I have painted numerous times, as I love the back lighting on this pony.

None of these previous Summer's Gold peices has been sold or on display, but merely produced as an experiment to see what different mediums could produce in terms of showing the lovely light.
I currently have another one in progress, in watercolor this time, so when that's done I will post all the versions and readers can let me know what they think :-)

Thanks for visiting! ~Kim