9” x9”
Oil on canvas
Waiting at Dawn
This painting is dedicated to my dear friend Carol, who is battling cancer and has to deal with the loss of her husband. I am so worried about her.
9” x 9”
Oil on canvas
February 6 2010
Intlxpatr wondered what our shadows looked like?
According to the Q mine looks like this 
9”x 9”
oil on canvas
Leonard
Leonard is the darling of M. He’s a New forest pony, and she used to ride him when she was a kid. After a few years he was sold. And somehow she always longed for him. A few months they found out he was with a girl who was putting him up for sale and her parents brought him back. He is now happily stabled at the farm where the Tarq lives.
This is painted a s a little present for M.
Because she is so nuts about Leonard!
Februari 2
9” x 9”
Oil on canvas
The Qatteri Cat as the Demon Cat from the ninth circle of hell.
This painting was inspired by this witty post about the Qatteri Cat.
I immediately got a vision in my head when I read the post and saw the picture of the Qatteri Cat she put up. The Qatteri Cat is cool and very sweet. Just to make that clear.
It’s so nice to have visions and be able to paint them right away. 
Januari 30
9” x 18”
Oil on canvas
The Niqabi Scream
This little equine portrait is a cute little filly which is being trained by my friend S. She came as a very scared little thing, grown up in the wild. She is the offspring of a mare from a free-roaming group of Exmoor ponies, and a naughty spanish stallion who escaped his comfortable lodgings to have a night of hanky-panky with the wild ladies. Who consequently gave birth to a pack of cruzados, all unwanted because the aim was to keep the Exmoors as a pure herd.
So little Kyra arrived as a shivering bundle of nerves, and my friend S has been working with, and caring for the little lady for about six months now. By now Kyra has about doubled in size, her somewhat crooked legs have become straight, and she has become a very sweet friendly little horse, enjoying working with S. and looking forward to every session, and looking at the world with open curiosity.
I was completely taken with her.
My friend S also likes photography and she had one photo which struck me in it’s monumental simplicity. She send it to me. I usually don’t work from photo’s other than using them for details, information. The danger with really working from a photo is that you get a very static painting. You can usually see at first glance when an artist has copied a photo. There is something languid and boring and static about such paintings.
Yet when one has to make a portrait of a horse on another continent, or one which has died, one has no choice. If I have to use photo’s and can’t meet the horse in person, I prefer to get a lot of photos. That way I can have a more complete image in my mind of the horse and it’s personality.
I think the major problem is that if you have such a clear, static, two-dimensional image in front of you, you tend to concentrate far too much on that easy image.
I have noticed paintings which follow a photo so slavishly that silly things are copied too, like a hoof dangling at a weird angle. Now the human mind works thus: if it is a Photo, your brain doesn’t really register a detail which is artistically a bad detail. But as soon as that image is transferred to a drawing or painting it becomes immediately apparent. So you should weed out those things which will look wrong in a piece of art. You should also avoid looking too much at the photo, but instead concentrate more on your painting.
So as I looked at that photo I kept seeing more details, more interesting combinations between blacks, greys and browns. I thought it would be an interesting study, use the one photo, try not to get bogged down with details, and explore those subtle colours.
Now of course I also know Kyra very well, but I really wanted this to be an excercise in using only one photo, and keep it fresh.
So what do you think?
This is also Diary painting 9/10 December. And to show you a bit of my painting process I show you the portrait half-finished too.
The photo of Kyra
Kyra half finished
Kyra
9/10 december 2010
9” × 9” oil on canvas
Oil on Canvas 9” ×9”
This from a series of designs I made which are meant for modern interiors, as a quiet but colourful touch. Somebody asked me for some designs, and at first I thought it a stupid commission, but I really got to enjoy myself and I made a lot for myself! I am going to do a few as diary paintings.
I ahve been busy and a bit ill, so my diary paintings have suffered, very bad!
Bad Aafke!
I have some still to share with you. But unfortunately I have lost my memory card. it fell in the snow, and now I have lost all the photo’s I made, and I sold most of them at the horse show.
It’s winter, it’s cold, and due to the slipperiness we don’t do much trotting and galloping. So dressing well is important.
- Sportsbra, sportslip, and tanktop
- Thermal underwear, top and pants
- Pullover, ridingbreeches and socks
- Jumper, thick woollen socks
- Shawl, wintercoat and thermo-ridingboots, and thin gloves
- Thermo-over-breeches and thick gloves, and russian fur-hat
Now riding in the winter is quite comfortable!
The result:
Tarq is very bored, not much to do in the meadow, no ”ludicrousspeed” when riding out, and he is in full winterfur! He looks so cute! Until his bad bored mood comes through! He’s also fat because there’s nothing to do….
I have made a Banner for Blogging Buddy Bedu!
It symbolised both herself and her blog.
It has an Arab horse of course, but also Bedu’s cats, and a Nejdi goat, and an image of the beautiful Nabatean ruins in Maidan Salah. There’s a lot more to Saudi Arabia as just sand and oil!
You can see the banner in situ, read lots of interesting posts, (and heated discussions 
) at American Bedu. Click here.
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