Last Paintings before I move to Florida

Hey, did you know I've accepted a position in Florida? It will be to train beautiful warmblood horses while I get schooled in the art of Dressage. Valhalla Farm has gorgeous horses and a friendly crew. I am very excited about this opportunity to learn from such talented riders! Rainy will be coming down there with me. Click here to see their site.

Anyways, my last painting hurrah while here resulted in these fun images. You can see them at Absolutely Art on Atwood Avenue in Madison.

New Paintings

Van Gogh Mural at Vernon Creek Gallery of Art - Completed!

It's finished! It really only took a few days here and there, but in between those few days were about 8 months. It could sound impressive to say: "This mural took 8 months to complete" if you're into valuing art by how much toil you imagine went into it. This one was pure delight. I took 2 of Van Gogh's paintings and made them into one, and in the center I planted some historic buildings of Mount Vernon. Visit Matt's Gallery to check it out, and to find WONDERFUL solutions for your holiday shopping. He has some fabulous new work. Click here to go to Vernon Creek Gallery of Art website.

To see the earlier stages of this mural, click here.

Police Clinic - in July...

Here's a little catch-up blogging. Remember when it was HOT outside? Dad, Holly, and I took horses to a Police Clinic and they got to play with many toys. There was a podium for the horses to stand on, a water hazard, barrels, scary suspended noodles, and much more. Rainy liked inventing new tricks, and she was rewarded with treats to encourage her creative behavior. We took the horses on a very short "trail ride" across the road to meet COWS. A very large barn full of cows were surprised to see us. Holly's horse was nervous at first but improved. Rainy was interested, not scared. She quickly snuggled in as close as she could to the cows and let them lick her nose. Even after seeing this, Dad's horse "Ranger" was not convinced that these strange animals should be trusted.

Printed Baby T's

To make these prints I used fabric paints and a brayer. I hand cut a potato for the pea pod print, and for the other one I used a baby cabbage from my dad's garden. When the vegetables were ready, I inked them up and voila! Little rubber stamps dabbed with the fabric paint were used to make the letters.

Moving Sale - Giant puppet and Accordian lesson!

Who knew that selling all your stuff could be so much fun? I met some wonderful folks and even got some inspiring tips to help me practice Accordian more frequently. The giant puppet featured in the first video has a twin, and they are both for sale or rent. Great at parties, parades, football games, or for Halloween, they stand about 4' taller than the operator - hard to miss in a crowd.

Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in the puppets. (608)215-5200 Thanks! Sara
Note: the puppets have been sold. Look for them on State Street this Halloween or in the Milton parades next summer.

Rainy Paints!

This clip is from the DVD Requisite Variety made in July of 2007. This is the second painting Rainy ever made. Now she has learned to hand me the paint brush when she is through with it. I trained her to do this using a click and reward method. I will be giving a workshop on "Clicker Training, With and Without The Clicker" this month and am working on a short video about how I use the clicker method with my horses.
You can also click here to see Rowdy and Rainy in other movie clips made by Requisite Variety.

Rowdy and Rainy at McFarland Family Festival

At the McFarland Museum, Rowdy and Rainy were the hands on exhibit for the "Horse Power" theme. Rainy stood quietly for a harnessing and hitching demonstration and Rowdy let the kids pet him and braid his mane and tail.





















Holly took Rowdy for a walk after helping out all day with both horses.


When it was time for Rainy to demonstrate how she paints, she was SO SLEEPY and not in the mood to make much of a painting. Meanwhile, Rowdy was leaning over the fence saying, "Let me do it, I can paint!" So even though I had not trained him to paint yet, I gave him the paint brush to see what he would do. See the video below of Rowdy making his very first painting.