NaMoPaiMo 2018

Utopia resin finished with mixed media.

NaMoPaiMo

Which stands for "National Model Painting Month" and is held in the Equine Miniature Industry every February. This year was the second year and I believe well over 400 people signed up to participate.

During this event model horse enthusiasts paint one horse. During this month though, we also share the ups and the downs of painting, the painting techniques, the new and old products and we enjoy just talking "model horse" with one another without any news, politics or outside frustrations getting in the way. It's our month to be crazy model horse artists with like minded individuals.

For one solid month our Facebook newsfeeds are filled with positive and happy news about model horses. Near the end of the month it's a deluge of pictures. So many amazing photos to view of the finished pieces everyone signed up to complete in one month's time!

For me this event is about all those nakid beady little eyes on my own shelves that stare me down continually. They all ask the same question, "When will you paint us?" Many of these pieces have remained unpainted for over a decade because I just can't get to painting my own stuff. February's event helps me truly focus, with other like minded artists, on one of my own pieces.

This year I chose a Utopia resin that I must have acquired back in 2002. I had a beautiful saddle created for him by Jessica Friedman of Tack Without A Doubt in 2003 and I've had that saddle around hoping to one day get my Utopia painted so I can show off the saddle....or at least play with it in the secret of my own studio.

I have always envisioned my Utopia painted in a chestnut. A plain ol' run of the mill warmblood-like chestnut. The kind of color that is in every stable, equine lesson and show event.

Chestnut.

I felt a chestnut with nice purples would compliment Jessica's work fully. I'm thrilled today, February 28th cause I finally finished my piece. Today, I present my boy "February Persuasion" all dolled up with his J. Friedman saddle.

Oranges and browns are
complimented by lots of thin purple layers.

Detail of a Jessica Friedman saddle.
Circa 2004

Seeing Stripes

Custom Zebra.
Latest pieces out of the studio.
I'm seeing stripes this week!

Leah & Zee are up for offers until
Saturday, February 24, 2018 10:00 PM Please see the following link
for full info and current offer status: Leah & Zee Zebra


So many projects and commissions strewn about in the studio work space. Some days I can focus on exactly what's on the workbench. Other days, I look at something and automatically get sidetracked!

This time around my little Leela sculpture side tracked me hard! I couldn't get the vision of her as a zebra out of my head and decided to run with the vision. Well, once that ball started rolling down the hill it went crazy and blew into a vision of a mama zebra made out of the G1 Arabian mare and a full base and so forth and so on, until Leah & Zee were fully created.

They are my latest creation and I learned so much from this one project that I'm rejuvenated for older, lingering projects. See, sometimes we must get off the path in order to gain perspective and insight. Those experiences help with every day issues and work.

My older issues that awaited me in the studio were two commissions I had been putting off and I didnt know why. I just couldn't work on them. After Leah & Zee however, I am now almost finished with the one and have jumped in full force with the other! Going off the path is good and much needed.


More photos of Leah & Zee



















Current offer status: Leah & Zee Zebra



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