Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Auction painting





Progress in three steps. We are counting down to the auction day. The response has been overwhelming so far and the Facebook activity has been great. 
It is important to remember that this is for the horses and their care. You, as a bidder and hopefully a winner, get a painting and a chance to help a legacy of California.
Keep looking, on Friday you will see the completed painting and the link to the auction. If the bidding goes over 250.00 I will include a frame of my choosing.
Thank you for looking.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

WIP for fundraiser


This is stage 1. Below is my posting that I just posted to Facebook. This is a very good cause and I  hope that you will consider bidding.

I am moved by the horses in Ramona called the Heritage Herd. You can read about them at my blog at http://foxrunstudio.blogspot.com/2013/08/something-completely-different.html or right here on FB at Coyote Canyon Heritage Herd. Their story is compelling. I am doing a painting of one of the mares and auctioning it off to the highest bidder starting September 1st. 100% of the money will go to the foundation. It will help them for hay, vet, legal fees. If the bidding goes over 250.00 I will also include free framing. Watch as I paint and consider bidding on the painting. It is win win for you and the herd. Please share this.

Friday, August 16, 2013

I don't need to tell you how happy I am in my new home. It is pretty obvious by the stupid grin I wear 24/7. There is so much diversity here in Ramona, and it stretches from the mundane to exciting.
John and I trailer our horses out every weekend to a local trail and enjoy our Sunday mornings on horseback. On the way there we see the remnants of a herd of wild horses that are being cared for by the community. Just seeing them out there is a sight to behold. However, their future is in jeopardy. As an artist there is only so much I can do to help.
Starting next week, I am going to start posting WIP's (work in progress) of a painting of one of the spectacular mares of this herd. She is known for her unusual color, an apricot dun. Proud and free, she represents to me the very thing I love most about horses. When the painting is done, I am auctioning it off to the highest bidder. 100% of the proceeds will go to the organization who manages the Heritage Herd. It will be used for hay, vet bills, legal fees to keep the land they are on. This is a purely volunteer organization and no one is payed. The money will not go to anyone's salary but directly to the horse's needs.
Please consider bidding on the painting if you like it, I assure you that the money is going to a great cause.
The following post is an article about the herd and the history behind them:

Something Completely Different...


I have to share with Ramona the exciting news and history of Ramona's Original Horses! We have a herd that is re-establishing our equestrian heritage right off Highland Valley Road and so many of you have asked about them I thought I'd better fill you in.
The horse has been part of North America since, well, forever. The San Diego Zoological Society believes the horse originated in North America millions of years ago then went extinct on this continent. Horses were reintroduced by Spanish visitors and have also been a part of Southern California for centuries.
My interest in wild horses began when dreaming of the wild horses in my childhood and wild horses in my life became a reality when I adopted Cricket. The Mustang is a decendent of the horses long gone by. In my growing passion for wild horses one of the most exciting things I have found is an effort to save the genetic stock from our area. Yep, horses used to roam right here in and around Ramona.
Coyote Canyon Caballos d'Anza (CCCDA) was established by people interested in preserving the history of the horse in our area, particularly Ramona, Santa Ysabel and Anza Borrego.
According to the CCCDA, wild horses had roamed from somewhere around 1769 when the first Mission was built in San Diego. The missions supplied bloodstock to the local outlying Rancherias, including Warner Ranch just outside Ramona.  Horses escaped the Missions and Rancherias and formed bands, or herds, and spread to the mountain and desert areas.
Through the study of history they were able to discern that by 1840, the last great horse raid on Southern California Ranchos was led by Pegleg Smith and Chief Welkara. Three-thousand horses of Colonial Spanish bloodstock were driven into Utah along the Old Spanish Trail. Not until 1974 were remnants of this herd discovered on the Mt. Home Range by the Bureau of Land Management.
COYOTE CANYON HERITAGE HOOF PRINTS
"The story begins in 1769 when the first Mission was built in San Diego to bring Catholicism and establish a land trust for the indigenous peoples. The missions supplied Spanish bloodstock to the outlying Rancherias, including the present day Warner Ranch. When Spaniards first visited the hot springs at Warner’s Ranch in 1795 they encountered the Cupeno Indians on a 'Rancheria' located there. To the south and west were the Dieguenos, and north were the Cahuilla’s. 
After the Spanish Mexican War, and by 1833, the Indians and ranchos possessed great numbers of horses, cattle, sheep and other animals. Newcomers to the area began maneuvers to acquire these properties, and tragically the Indians were displaced from their homeland. A small worn plaque near the tiny Warner Springs Chapel and Cupa cemetery bears their heart rendering words.
These native peoples and their lands were further segregated from the original trust after Mexico ceded their territory to the United States by Treaty of Hidalgo in 1848.
By 1840 the last great horse raid on Southern California Ranchos was led by Pegleg Smith and Chief Welkara. 3000 horses of Colonial Spanish bloodstock were driven into Utah along the Old Spanish Trail. Not until 1974 were remnants of this herd discovered on the Mt Home Range by the Bureau of Land management.
John Turnbull Warner arrived in San Diego about 1846. He applied for, and was granted, a Mexican grant to the Indian Trust.  By 1850 Indian resentment culminated in the Gara revolt and massacre at Warner Hot Springs, when the Indians reclaimed cattle and horses and drove them into  Coyote Canyon. For 150 years, even after the Indians abandoned their villages in the canyon, the animals ranged freely as was the custom.
However, by 1984 the Anza Borrego Desert State Parks acquired the lands and removed the last remnants of Indian cattle, and in 2003, the Coyote Canyon Wild Horse Herd.  Parks claimed they were feral and invasive.  All wild horses have been gathered and removed from the San Diego area, but are returning to Ramona!
Only four stallions remain from this herd. They are listed by the International Equine Conservation nonprofit Equus Survival Trust, as Critically Endangered/Nearly Extinct. (I will introduce them later).
For purposes of genetic recovery BLM sent 14 mares from the Southern Utah herd to be bred to the Coyote Canyon Stallions. The stallions and mares represent a distinct population segment of species that evolved and survived the harshest desert environs and nature’s challenges.
The Coyote Canyon Stallions and mares are held in trust locally by Coyote Canyon Caballos d’ Anza. (CCCDA) a 501 (c)3 non-profit that is dedicated to the repatriation of San Diego’s last Heritage Herd to their native ranges and preservation of historic routes."
Currently there are mares and foals residing in Ramona while plans are made and arrangements sought for more acreage for the herd. I met the mares upon arrival years ago and have much more to come!
Visit soon to find out more and how you can help.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Dust Busting

My newest.
Dust Busting, pastel.

Keeping in Contact

I have a hard time keeping up with all the "media" I use to put my work out there. Between a website, a blog, and Facebook there just aren't enough hours in a day.

I know not all my followers are on Facebook, but I tend to post more there than anywhere else. If you are on FB, and want to see more up to date paintings more often, "friend" me.

If not, be patient with this blog. Even though it is important to me I don't get to it often enough.

I hope your summer was a wonderful one, ours was full of fun and sun and getting settled into the new house. I do love it here. The only problem is, there are just too many distractions. Between the pool, the yardwork, the animals (and there are many) it is hard to keep up. Here are a few pictures of our new life here in CA.
 Bella enjoying the backyard
 Daphne the chicken
 My neighbor Emma enjoying a lazy Sunday with our horse, Mick.
 The girls and me on OB (Ocean Beach) Dog park. What a great time!
 Mick needs a hug, and I need a shower. A long day of prepping their new area and of course working around the old man.
 Swiffer gets a hug.
My horse Cadillac takes a snooze.
 Where I spend a certain amount of time every day. On a floaty in our infinity pool.
 The picture on the listing we saw when we were first looking for a home. It looks very different now! 8 acres of sheer heaven. I don't know when I have ever been this happy.
 The view we have every night. 

John and I.