I may have said already that, the painting called Wild Horses in the Camargue, I sold recently from my exhibition at the Royal Surrey Hospital. As can sometimes happen, there were two people who wanted that picture, and so, of course, someone had to be disappointed.

I didn’t want to paint Wild Horses again. I always resist doing that as not only is it boring but also I do prefer every painting to be unique. As it happened, on my list of subjects is the one that I have just drawn up. You may remember, a few posts ago, that I wrote about the Danube. One place where we stopped was near the town of Mohacs ( spelling hopefully correct), where we were treated to a wonderful display of horsemanship by the cowboys out on the plains.

I did include the photograph on that particular post, which will show the detail more clearly, but in case not, I can tell you that the rider is standing astride the rumps of two horses at the rear of the team. He is controlling a team of eight horses, and mostly by the sound of the voice, we are told

Anyway, I have said to the gentleman who missed out on the Wild Horses painting, that I would give him first refusal on this painting which I shall just call Horsemanship. If he doesn’t like it, well no harm done, it was going to be painted anyway, and can go towards a subsequent exhibition. If he does take it, then it will be a good deal for us both.

On the subject of exhibitions, the summer exhibition organised by our art club, the Pirbright Art Club, which is held outdoors, had to be cancelled due to very wet weather. We are just setting up a Facebook shop to compensate our members who got exhibits ready and couldn’t show. I believe it is on the Pirbright Art Club  Facebook page now although the three paintings which I have submitted haven’t been loaded yet, and there should be many more submissions to come

I will publicise when it is complete

This is the finished painting of the little frog from the Danube Delta. I am generally pleased with the way he has turned out, and certainly something different from me

There was very little for me to add since the last post, just putting in the very deep shadow with Transparent Brown. Also one or two highlights on the water I have added with white gouache

I don’t know if I mentioned before, but two people wanted the painting of Wild Horses in the Camargue. Of course, sadly someone had to be disappointed. However, I am about to start another horse painting which I hope will be equally dramatic, and the gentleman concerned has been offered first refusal

The inspiration for this next painting comes from a photograph which I posted a few weeks back, showing extreme skill in handling a team of seven horses by one rider, standing on the backs of the rear two.  This was actually a photograph which I took myself, when we went to visit cattle country in Hungary, and unusually,  good enough to paint from.

However, many a slip betwixt cup and lip, so we shall have to see how the painting turns out, before we get too pleased with ourselves.