The Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania voting has begun! All 53 paintings and the easy-to-use voting form are online at http://www.karenbrenner.com/VOTE_PA.html. It’s easy to vote — but may be difficult to choose just one painting!

Wow, I can’t wait for the Horse Expo! Most exciting for me will be seeing many of the horse owners that I got to meet last summer while photographing the Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania! It will be fun to show them their horses’ paintings in person.

There are some interesting speakers and demonstrations lined up for the Expo. My booth (#2) is right by the demonstration ring, so I hope to be able to pick up some horsey tips and see some neat demonstrations without leaving my booth.

The Expo is Saturday, April 12, from 10 am - 5 pm in the Ag-Plex at the Allentown Fairgrounds. The fairgrounds are located between east west running Liberty and Chew Streets and north south running 17th and 20th Streets in Allentown, PA.

Thank you to everyone who nominated horses of the Beautiful Horses of Indiana project. There were 157 horses nominated! That’s a new record. It makes my job of selecting the horses to be in the project especially hard. I would love to do paintings of all 157, but time does not allow. I am carefully studying all the entries, and will be posting the names of selected horses on my website April 15.

I’m planning to travel to Indiana to photograph these horse in June. Stay tuned for more information.

My four horses are so happy to be out eating green grass again! My low lying pasture was off limits from November until just last week with water sitting on the surface in the dip that runs through the center. But now it’s getting drier and I let the horses out for a few hours each day. It so much nicer than the two little pastures on the hill.

My idea of temporarily fencing of the wettest section of the pasture with step-in posts and electric rope fence worked semi-well. No horses galloped through the swampy area, but I did capture two horses — one on the first day and one on the second day — in the little roped off area. I speculate that each tapped the wire and bolted forward into the little “pen” rather than away from it. And after that one experience with the hot rope they were not about to attempt to pass under the wire again. Thus, they were bond inside the little wet area. The good news is it is such a small space they could not do more that amble around at a walk — leaving only shallow hoof-size divots in the soggiest spots.

I always like to share some interesting information I’ve come across with you. Here are a few for April:

Artist Robert Genn has a twice-weekly newsletter for artists, and I especially liked his article on Male Answer Syndrome (MAS). The article discusses men’s tendency to spout answers to questions whether they are familiar with the subject or not. I’m pretty sure my husband has MAS. Symptom #1—shouting out the answers to all the questions while watching Jeopardy. The fact that many of his answers are incorrect doesn’t phase him at all. I have to give him credit though, he does get quite a few answers correct — or is it questions correct (a la Jeopardy style)?

This article is suggesting that women need to learn to pass the baloney too. What do you think? Girls, could you make up answers and pass them off as facts even though they’re fiction??? There is more to it than that, so read up:

Homemade Fly Spray Recipes from the American Farriers Journal (speaking of bugs)

HORSE PAINTINGS NEWSLETTER March 2010

Only Four Weeks Left to Nominate a Horse
For the “Beautiful Horses of Indiana” series

Just a reminder, March 30 is the deadline for nominations for my newest series of paintings, "Beautiful Horses of Indiana."

You are invited to nominate your favorite Indiana horse.

I’m excited to report there are already lots and lots of VERY interesting horses already nominated! I can already tell I’m going to have to select more that 25 — there are just too many great stories coming in! I’m already looking at Indiana on Google to see where I might be headed. It’s a pretty big state. I’m going to travel there to photograph selected horses in June, so I must start planning now!

I’m sure you already know, but for new readers, the "Beautiful Horses of Indiana " series will include a painting of each selected horse. As each painting is completed it will be posted in a special section of my website with a short description of the horses, along with stories and quotes from the owners. An exhibit, "Beautiful Horses of Indiana," will showcase all the paintings, at a venue yet to be announced, in 2011.

To enter “Beautiful Horses of Indiana ” complete the online form at http://www.karenbrenner.com. Entries must be received by March 30, 2010. Owners of selected horses will be notified by April 15, 2010.

This will be my fifth "Beautiful Horses" series, joining Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio and Michigan. The other series’ paintings are all on my website: http://www.karenbrenner.com.

Spread the word to all the Hoosiers you know!!

If you have questions about the project, please contact Karen at kmbrenner@hotmail.com.

Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania Exhibit—April 10 in Allentown, PA

The Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania project is progressing perfectly! Just two paintings are still the studio; that means 51 paintings are done. Whew! I am going to have them all done just in time for the show! You all know where and when the Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania exhibit is —- don’t you?? All those paintings will be on exhibit April 10 at the Elite Equestrians Spring Horse Expo in Allentown, PA. (http://www.pahorseexpos.com/Ag%20Hall%20April%202010%20%202.htm). Plan to come to see the exhibit —- and enjoy the expo!

Commission Special

Since I’m going to be in Pennsylvania that weekend, I’m having a Special for anyone in that area who would like to commission a painting of their Pennsylvania horse, with a photography session on Friday, April 9, or Sunday, April 11. Traveling expenses will be waived. For more information, please email me at kmbrenner@hotmail.com or see the Commission page on my website: http://www.karenbrenner.com/commissions.html.

Going to the Dogs . . .

I mentioned in my last newsletter that I’d gone to the Dogs ...Dog Show that is… at the Cleveland IX Center in December. Well, I’ve started painting some dogs! My first paintings include a pair of Bernese Mountain Dogs, Siberian Huskies, a bulldog, and one of my favorites, a bull terrier. I just think they are adorable.

My other two favorite breeds at the show were the Airedale Terriers and possibly the cutest darn dog I’ve ever seen—a gray Glen of Imaal Terrier who was about a yard and a half long, 10 inches high, shaggy with a face like Benji, and a smile even better than The Mentalist star, Simon Baker’s. Oh, so cute!! (I’ll be starting his painting in a week or two.)

Well, I took my dog craze to an even higher level! In January I got a puppy! Just a clue, she’s not a Glen of Imaal Terrier, because they are very rare = very expensive. Plus I passed up the bull terriers, since even the owner of one of the winning bull terriers admitted — when asked how easy they were to train — they pretty much do not respond to training in any way whatsoever. (And you know I love tricks — for horses and dogs!) Which leaves the ever so clever, “loves to clown around,” breed — Airedale Terrier.

Piper is now 4 months old and knows lots of tricks! My favorite is “Hide your eyes.” Yes, she can cover her eyes with her paw on command —provided you are holding a treat when you give the command. I’ve borrowed the library’s copy of 101 Dog Tricks by Kyra Sundance and Chalcy — and renewed it the maximum number of times (I might now be racking up fines…). It’s a wonderful book!

Piper and Skeeter (my rescue cat) love to wrestle! In fact Skeeter’s just about the only “dog” in the neighborhood who will tussle with this rambunctious terrier!

Dog lovers, if you’d like to see a photo of Piper, check my blog: http://www.karenbrenner.com/blog_January_2010.html (scroll down to January 19)

COOL LINKS —I always like to end my newsletter with some cool links.

Marvin the Tap Dancing Horse

Flipping through the onscreen TV program guide one night, I was so excited to see “Marvin the Tap Dancing Horse” on the listings! I immediately thought of my Andalusian Sorpresa who can piaffe very nicely — why if we put that piaffe with just the right music, got horse shoes with those special “taps” and developed a bit better sense of rhythm maybe we could have a show, Sorpresa the Tap Dancing Horse!

I anxiously awaited the scheduled time, and turned to the correct cable station…..When show began, I was stunned. It was an animated cartoon. DARN. Am I the only one who was surprised that this show did not feature a real horse???? Anyways… here’s a link if you’d like to see Marvin the Tap Dancing CARTOON Horse: http://www.qubo.com/channel/marvin.asp

Speaking of tricks …

Speaking of tricks, I saw a story on the nightly news about a Chimp with some tricks I don’t want any of my critters learnin’ — drinkin’ and smokin’ …. Did you catch the story? http://www.examiner.com/x-38158-Cultural-Oddities-Examiner~y2010m2d28-Chimpanzee-sent-to-kick-booze-addiction

Horses at Work

I caught a story on Fox News about horses playing a major role in border patrol, so I looked for more information. Adam Housley rode along with the agents one night, and blogged about his experience. He rode Donkey, a horse that had previously been captured from smugglers. It’s interesting with how the patrol combines high tech sensors with low tech horses and gets results! Here’s a link:

http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/02/26/corralling-crime-on-horseback/

Eco-genius

Greener Gadgets’ contest for, well, greener gadgets, is over. But the best ideas are still online for us to admire! I love the Rocking Horse that recharges batteries! Check out all the great ideas at:

http://cea.mblast.com/ws/wfaward/rsp/vote2.asp?GUID=204654

VOTING

Yes, it’s too late to vote for your favorite gadget. And it’s too EARLY to vote for your favorite Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania painting. That contest begins April 1. Watch for details in the next newsletter!

Happy Almost Spring!

Karen

- - - - - - -

Horse Painting Newsletter
January 2010

Indiana to be next state for the “Beautiful Horses of ….” series

Are there beautiful horses in Indiana? I’m betting there are!

If you have, or know of, any beautiful horses in Indiana, you are invited to nominate them for my newest project, “Beautiful Horses of Indiana.” Indiana will be the fifth state in my quest to travel to all 50 states for this long range project.

Here’s a reprint of the Press Release with all the details about the project.

Equine Artist Karen Brenner Accepting Nominations for
“Beautiful Horses of Indiana ” Series

(Wooster, Ohio — January 5, 2010) Equine artist Karen Brenner is accepting nominations for her newest series of paintings, "Beautiful Horses of Indiana." You are invited to nominate your favorite Indiana horse.

The project offers an opportunity for horse owners to share stories of their special relationships with their horses. To nominate a horse, send Karen a brief description of why your horse is beautiful to you. The online entry form is available at http://www.karenbrenner.com. Nominations will be accepted through the end of March.

The artist will travel throughout Indiana the during June 2010 to photograph selected horses. As an artist, Karen enjoys personally meeting and photographing the horses in her paintings. Observing the horses at liberty and interacting with their owners helps her portray the horse’s personality in her artwork.

Karen hopes to include a wide variety of breeds with a wide variety of colors, shapes and sizes, from throughout Indiana. Up to 25 horses will be selected.

The "Beautiful Horses of Indiana " series will include a painting of each selected horse. As each painting is completed it will be posted in a special section of her website with a short description of the horses, along with stories and quotes from the owners. An exhibit, "Beautiful Horses of Indiana," will showcase all the paintings, at a venue yet to be announced, in 2011. The artist retains ownership of the paintings.

To enter “Beautiful Horses of Indiana ” complete the online form at http://www.karenbrenner.com. Or to enter by mail, send the following information: description of why this horse should be included in the project (300 words or less), horse’s name, breed, age, color, gender, owner’s name, address (and address for horse if different), email, and phone. Include the nominator’s name and contact information, if different than owner. Mail this information to: Karen Brenner, 3613 Triway Lane, Wooster, Ohio 44691. (if owner is under 18 years old, please list parent’s name, so permission to photograph the horse can be coordinated with a parent.)

Entries must be received by March 30, 2010. Owners of selected horses will be notified by April 15, 2010.

This will be the fifth in Karen's "Beautiful Horses" series. She hopes to travel to all 50 states and do a series for each. Earlier series, featuring horses from Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio and Michigan, can be viewed on her website http://www.karenbrenner.com.

If you have questions about the project, please contact Karen at kmbrenner@hotmail.com.

Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania Update

The Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania project is progressing perfectly! I just have two more of the 53 pictures yet to begin, and I hope to start drawing the first of those on gessoed masonite today. They should all be completed just in time for the April 10 Lehigh Valley Spring Horse Expo in Allentown, PA. I just found out that my booth will be very close to the demo ring — booth #2. How exciting! Here’s a link to the Expo’s website: http://www.pahorseexpos.com/Ag%20Hall%20April%202010%20%202.htm

Of course you can keep up with all the newest paintings in the series on my website at http://www.karenbrenner.com/beautiful_horses_of_PA.html

Going to the Dogs . . .

My friend Jeanette and I went to the Crown Classic Dog show at the IX Center in Cleveland last month and had the best time! There were 2,800 dogs competing. If you’ve ever been to the IX Center it’s big enough to fit my hometown inside. And it was filled with amazing well behaved dogs. So cool!

There were about 20 rectangular “rings” where different breeds competed all day long. A schedule was posted at the entrance of each ring listing the breeds that would compete in that ring. Luckily the Terriers (my favorite) and the Toys (Jeanette’s favorites) competed in adjoining rings. Of course we also walked around and watched many, many other breeds compete.

Plus there was the obstacle course with jumps (the EXACT height that I’d like to ride my horse over), ramps, tunnels, pole bending, and lots more. Dog maneuvered the course guided by their handler. What fun!

And vendors sold dog stuff of all sorts. And rescue organizations hosted booths as well.

I took lots of dog photos (no flash necessary because, unlike many indoor horse show venues, the IX Center had excellent lighting). And now, I have 16 of my dog photos cropped and ready to be my next painting series. It’ll be a great project to work on between the Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania and Indiana. And who knows, maybe I’ll have a booth at next year’s Crown Classic Dog show. I’ll post the paintings on my website—probably starting in March or April. So if any of you like dogs, keep an eye out for that.

http://www.crownclassicdogshows.org/

ONE COOL LINK —I always like to end my newsletter with some cool links. There’s just one for this issue:

Gift Wrapped for Christmas

I saw this video on CNN right before Christmas and loved it. You may caught the clip too. If not, just for fun take a moment to watch it now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afreOsPe83M

HORSE PAINTINGS NEWSLETTER

Horse Painting Newsletter
December 2009

Mark Your Calendars!
The Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania Exhibit Will Be April 10, 2010

The “Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania” paintings will be on exhibit at the Lehigh Valley Spring Horse Expo on Saturday, April 10. I hope you can all come see the 50 plus paintings in the series! These are some of my best paintings ever! Even I can’t wait to see them all hanging together in a booth. Boy, I hope they all fit in the 10’x7’ booth! It’ll be a rainbow of brilliant colors and brilliant horses!

The show runs 10 am—5 pm and promises to include speakers and demonstrations throughout the day. The Expo is at the Allentown Fairgrounds’s Agri-Plex. The fairgrounds are between 17th and 20th Streets in Allentown, PA. Directions are on the Expo’s website: http://www.pahorseexpos.com/Ag%20Hall%20April%202010%20%202.htm

Please mark your brand new 2010 calendars and come see the show!

Of course, you can watch the series progress on my website. . . I’ve posted over 25 paintings online so far. The most recent include a powerhouse Belgian named Woodstock, some gorgeous Gypsy horses, a super spirited Arabian, and more! Here’s a link: http://www.karenbrenner.com/beautiful_horses_of_PA.html

Thank you

Thank you to Susan Hoffman, one of the Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania horse owners, who wrote an excellent article about the project for the Pennsylvania Equestrian. Here’s a link to the magazine article:

http://www.pennsylvaniaequestrian.com/news/1109-Beautiful-horses.php

Speaking of “Beautiful Horses of __?___” . . .

I’m beginning to plan for the newest “Beautiful Horses of ___” series! Where will I travel in 2010? Stay tuned. I’ll announce the 2010 state in January’s newsletter!

SOME COOL LINKS

I always like to end my newsletter with some cool links. Here are some of my recent finds.

The World According to Twitter

I love to be amused, and The World According to Twitter sure sounds like it will keep me laughing for weeks! It’s a book compiling Twitter replies author David Poge posed to his Twitter followers. (I have the book on reserve at my local library, but it might just be one I’ll need to buy for my collection!)

I love the responses sent for captions for his squirrel photo:

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/photo-criticism-via-twitter/#comment-18172

Here’s more information about the book:

http://www.davidpogue.com/bio_photos/twitter_questions.html

Oh, you’ve got to check this out too — I think I read about it on David Poge’s Twitter page…. NEWS FLASH—some products for sale on Amazon.com are bogus! (That is sooooo hard to believe!) Anyway, here’s a link to one of my favorites — a Laptop Steering Wheel Desk (and as David wrote, you MUST read the reviews!)

http://www.amazon.com/Mobile-Office-WM-01-Laptop-Steering/dp/B000IZGIA8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1258404654&sr=8

Now we just need a Laptop Desk that attaches to the saddle horn.

Medical News about Multiple Sclerosis

Tis the season for miracles! I’m not knowledgeable in any way about medical miracles, but this story amazed me. An Italian doctor, whose wife was diagnoised with MS, sought a way to stop the debilitating disease. If you know someone with MS, here’s a story you will find interesting:

http://pensionpulse.blogspot.com/2009/11/liberation-treatment.html

And Tis the Season for Gifts as well!

One of my Twitter buddies has an online shop called Neighsayers. There is the Most Darling T-shirt ever on her website. For anyone who ever dreamed of getting a horse for Christmas ...

http://www.neighsayers.net/girls-long-sleeve.html

Have a Very Merry Christmas!

-Karen

Horse Painting Newsletter
November 2009

Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania

My trip through Pennsylvania was heavy on heavies! I have quite a few draft horses in this Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania series! The more I meet, the more I think I need one! My husband loves the painting of Shining Eye Lynda, a big white (aka gray) Percheron peering down at us from her great height. And I of course excited about all the horses!

So far the finished pieces include Arabians, Quarter Horses, Morgans, Friesians, Drafts, Spotted Saddle Horses, and more. Here’s a link to the 15 paintings posted so far — http://www.karenbrenner.com/beautiful_horses_of_PA.html. I’ve decided to just have 10-12 paintings per web page, so be sure to check out Page 1 and Page 2. With 53 paintings planned, I’ll be adding a few more pages before the series is complete.

See the Horses Behind the Paintings

You can now see hundreds of my horse photos — the photos behind many of my favorite paintings! They are published in my book, “Beautiful Moments in the Lives of Horses,” and now the book can now be viewed online — in its entirety! (It takes awhile to open — so save this link for a cold winter day): http://www.blurb.com/books/182331

Hey, I just noticed it is snowing outside my window….Guess I can look through that book right now!

Searching ….

Now you can search my website for your favorite horse painting — or breed — or anything you’d like. I’ve added a Google Search! There is a link on my home page: http://www.kareenbrenner.com.My husband Will had me show my website to one of his high school buddies right after I’d added the Search feature. I was so excited to get to demonstrate how it worked. I told them I often mentioned Will in my blog, and did a search for “Will” to show them. There were so-o-o-o many “Will” pages listed in the results, even I was impressed with what a devoted wife I’d been mentioning him way more often that I even remembered…… until I noticed almost all of the links used the word “will” with a verb, ie. “will be going to….”

SOME COOL LINKS

I have found some fun sites to share with you from Barnmice and The Good News Network and elsewhere. Here are a few links to pages I like!

Pedal Power

I’ve often wondered why our exercise bike needed batteries to power the unit that displays how many miles I would have traveled — had I been on a real bike enjoying the out of doors instead of being in the living room watching TV as I pedaled. Why couldn’t that pedal power fuel the display unit? And—like Ed Bagley Jr’s bike — make me some toast? Now there’s finally exercise equipment that does convert calories to current! Check this out:http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/self-powered-elliptical-is-fueled-by-your-burnt-calories-20091012/Now if we could just invent a treadmill for horses to trot on and create energy to power the whole farm!

Making your Christmas list?

Did you ever wish for a horse for Christmas? You might enjoy this video that was on Barnmice:http://www.barnmice.com/video/a-barnmice-sing-along-i-wish

Tropical New York?

Look out pigeons, parrots are the new “In” bird. This is a neat story about parrots in Brooklyn.http://www.brooklynparrots.com/2005/03/what-are-wild-parrots-doing-in.htmlParrots would look so cute in my backyard. I wonder how I could get them to move to Ohio.

Gotta love this campaign to reward people for doing the right thing!http://www.autoblog.com/2009/10/08/video-volkswagen-wants-you-to-have-fun-taking-the-stairs/#continued

Horse Painting Newsletter
October 2009

Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania Rolling Out!

Those horses from Pennsylvania are so beautiful! I am having the best time painting away—and looking forward to starting each new one! I finished drawing #28 yesterday. (I have 53 planned.) And I have finished painting the first dozen! You’ll find six “Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania” along with their stories posted on my special web page: http://www.karenbrenner.com/beautiful_horses_of_PA.html. More will be coming each week!

See Stacy Westfall on Saturday!

Saturday, October 10, is the date for “An Afternoon with Ohio’s Own Stacy Westfall,” a benefit for the Wayne County, Ohio therapeutic riding program, Change through Chance. Tickets are just $10 and it’s for a good cause! I hope you can come! I’m getting excited — not only about seeing Stacy, but also about the auction. Check out some of the awesome items that will be up for bid: http://www.changethroughchance.org/Stacy-Auction-page.html. Details about the event are at http://www.changethroughchance.org. I hope to see you there!

Dressage Simulator

Back in the good old days when I was learning to drive we got to practice in a driving simulator that for some reason reminded me of the bookmobile. Well, this YouTube video of a Dressage Simulator looks lots more fun! I wish I could practice on this mechanical school horse! Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a9yoqZwQs4

Poop to Power

Or, as I like to say, “Power to the Poop!” This YouTube video shows the power of poop. I love recycling and alternative energy, and these farmers are excelling at both. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8GDK7dtsSA

As for me, I’m using my horses’ “Black Gold” to enrich my daylily beds!

P.S. If you’re curious about my horse sculpture (mentioned in last month’s newsletter) you can see photos of it on my October 6 blog. Here's a link: www.karenbrenner.com/blog.html

Happy Trails!

Karen

I just got back from Appin Farm in Michigan, home of the fantastic bay Andalusian stallion, Confiado. You may remember him from my Beautiful Horses of Michigan series. He’s one of the stars! His owner Maureen arranged for the famous British photographer, Bob Langrish, to photograph dozens of horses around Michigan, and I got to tag along a couple of days! Maureen invited all the Beautiful Horses of Michigan to participate, and Gabriel and Noble Affire and the Andalusians of Avalon Farm were all on Bob’s agenda!

Maureen’s next big event at Appin Farm is a dressage clinic July 24-26 featuring David DeWispelaere. For more information — http://www.appinfarm.com

One of my paintings was accepted in the American Academy of Equine Art’s Summer Show on Mackinac Island! Hey, I’m excited and honored! The show, “PULLING THEIR WEIGHT: Draft and Carriage Horses in Fine Art,” will be on display at the Island’s Public Library from July 1 to July 31. The exhibit will include approximately 50 paintings and sculptures.

If you’ve never been to Mackinac Island, it really is a unique experience! There are no cars allowed. Transportation is by carriage or bike. We took the ferry over last summer when were photographing horses for the Beautiful Horses of Michigan series and were delighted with the quaint atmosphere of the village! Here’s a description of the island from their PR material:

“Mackinac Island is located in the Straight of Michigan between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. Since the late 19th century, Mackinac Island has been a popular tourist attraction and summer colony. Much of the island has undergone extensive historical preservation and restoration. As a result, the entire island is listed as a National Historic Landmark. It is well known for its numerous cultural events and wide variety of architectural styles, including the famous Victorian Grand Hotel and its ban on almost all motor vehicles.

“Motorized vehicles have been prohibited since 1898. Travel on the island is either by foot, bicycle, or horse-drawn carriage. In fact, during the summer season, Mackinac Island has the largest concentration of working horses in the world. Its highway M-185 is the only state highway in the U.S. without motorized vehicles.”

I was invited to participate in “Carriages in the Park,” July 25-26 at Hale Farm & Village near Bath, Ohio. The event will include a combined 2-day driving event with Dressage, Obstacles and a Marathon on Saturday and Sunday. There will also be a carriage parade through historic Hale Village. I’ve been planning to attend the event to take photographs for possible future paintings, so it was a real treat to be invited to set up a booth with my paintings! Luckily my husband will be on hand to sit in my booth while I’m out enjoying the show! Plus my friends Dana and Jeanette are going to come too! I just need to shuffle through my paintings and find some that will appeal to the carriage-driving crowd. I have some Morgans, Haflingers and a wonderful Dutch Harness horse/Amish buggy painting! And I’ll finally get to take that GIGANTIC “Friesians pulling the chariot” painting out of the family room to an exhibit. Hurray!!!! Please come see it in person! And have fun at the event!

Oh, I should mention, there will also be driving clinics with Debbie Egan, international singles and pairs driving champion and instructor at Windy Knoll Farms in Sullivan, Ohio. I just happened to meet Debbie Egan when I visited the lovely Windy Knoll Farms last month in connection with planning an upcoming Change through Chance fundraiser! You’ll like her!

Stacy Westfall will be appearing at Wooster’s therapeutic riding program, Change through Chance’s first major fundraiser, “An Afternoon with Ohio’s Own Stacy Westfall.” It will be Saturday, October 10. Tickets are just $10, but seating is limited! So get your ticket soon! Information about the event, featuring Stacy and Roxy (famous for their bridleless freestyle reining championship at the 2006 Congress [http://www.westfallhorsemanship.com]), Cowgirl Express and an auction of donated items, is posted at http://www.changethroughchance.org.

“An Afternoon with Ohio’s Own Stacy Westfall” is being held at Windy Knoll Farms — where Debbie Egan is based — in Sullivan, Ohio.

Change through Chance is also hosting a clinic July 9-12 with Mark Rashid. Information about this event is also on the CTC website.

That’s a lot of fundraising for one therapeutic riding center! But it is needed. Change through Chance leases a stable, indoor riding arena and pastures from the Wayne County Commissioners. Our buildings are right next door to the farm’s historic bank barn, where we store hay… or used to ... until the bank barn was destroyed by fire on Memorial Day night. Fortunately all the horses were out in the pasture and are fine. But the stable suffered major damage. Photographs are posted on Change through Chance’s website. Please consider supporting the therapeutic riding program by attending one of these two exciting events!

I love clever graphic design work, especially billboards. I found this website with some of the best billboards EVER. I’m sure glad none of these billboards are located near my house, because I’d to busy staring at them to watch where is was driving. They are so fun! Take a look:

I guess overweight horses are common in the UK. Here’s an article about it from Horse and Hound.co.uk. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photo of a more plump pony.

I’ve just completed another YouTube video about commissioning a painting. No, DJ, my Quarter Horse, didn’t get a role in this one. It’s on the Commissions page of my website if you’re curious about how the commission process works. Here's a link: http://www.karenbrenner.com/commissions.html

I’ll be heading to Pennsylvania soon! I can’t wait to start photographing the Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania!

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Crazy About Horses! Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania Series Horses Announced

Yes, anyone who knows me would call me crazy about horses -- and crazy about painting horses. I can't resist a pretty horse. I'm sure many of you would have to admit to being crazy about horses too. 'Fess up!

That's why the hardest part of my "Beautiful Horses of ..." series is looking through all the nominations and knowing I cannot visit and photograph each and every horse. This year my goal was to select 20-25 horses for the Pennsylvania series. I remember on the last day of my Michigan trip telling my husband, "Don't ever let me do more than 25 horses. Ever."

Now, almost a year has passed since the Michigan trip, and I want to squeeze in as many as possible into my week of traveling.

So with much regret, I narrowed down the 90 plus nominations to 50. Then I decided to see where in Pennsylvania the 50 horses were located, just to see how many more -- the bare minimum of course -- I'd have to eliminate. I found a great site, http://gmaps.kaeding.name/, that let me type in all the towns and take a look at dots on a map that represented each horse.

I found that there were three clusters! And one of the clusters was huge! Many of the horses were located in southeastern PA. Still using this Google Map plot site, I tentatively listed the towns in the order I would travel. Then I used MapQuest to concoct a route from barn to barn, carefully noting the amount of time it took to travel from one to the next. And guess what! With a little rearranging, I could fit all 50 into one week! Of course, there will be no time for eating, but that's over rated anyway.

I have lots of paintings "under the brush" in my studio! I'm doing some mini paintings, and the first ones should be done by the beginning of June -- if not sooner! I'll post them on my blog as they are completed, so I have the opportunity to discuss the horses pictured or my painting techniques, etc. And they will also appear in the New Paintings section of my website.

The first painting in this revived New Paintings web page, http://www.karenbrenner.com/new_paintings.html, is of "Go Green, Go White, Through the Night." (It's not miniature size, just new.) It features two Andalusians from Michigan State! I've always been intrigued by how things look when I'm driving at night when lit by my passing headlights, so the painting is of the white horses at night with a strong imaginary light source illuminating the pair. Coming next -- two white horses in a snow storm (just kidding -- that'll be polar bears). :-)

Speaking of mini paintings, my newest painting, Parker and Cody, are of two itsey, bitsy, tiny, mini DOGS! (You can see it on my April blog.)

This contest is fun! Barnmice.com is hosting a weekly Photo Caption contest. Of course I had to enter — and you can too! You’ll find the details at http://www.Barnmice.com in the column on the right. It’s fun reading everyone’s suggestions!!! I hope I win. I can’t wait to see next week’s photo!

Have you been checking out the quotes/horse painting combos you can print out for FREE each week on my blog? As a rider and an artist, I especially like the one posted on April 29’s blog: "To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe." - Anatole France. How does that apply to riding? Read my thoughts at http://www.karenbrenner.com/blog_April_2009.html

Horse Painting Newsletter
April 2009

Ares Painting is the Winner!

Congratulations to Ares, Sarah’s beautiful Friesian mare, for receiving the most votes in the Beautiful Horses of Michigan contest. Ares won her own Café Press shop. Here’s a link: http://www.cafepress.com/Aresptg

The top overall vote getters were Ares, with 100 votes, followed by Basketeer, Conversano Marino, Hot Streak, Mr. Skips Geranimo, Too Sleepy to Paint and One Hot Nite.

Hot Streak, Emma’s Black Beauty and Graceful Eagle received the most votes at the Michigan Horse Expo, where the paintings were on display for people to see in person.

Thank you to everyone who voted for their favorite paintings! Over 900 people voted, and Maurizio’s name was selected as the winner of the drawing for $25 worth of merchandise from one of my Café Press shops.

Michigan Horse Expo was Outstanding

I had a wonderful time at the Michigan Horse Expo! Hundreds of people stopped by my booth to see the Beautiful Horses of Michigan display, and many took time to vote for their favorite painting. It was so much fun to talk to people about the paintings!

I also got to sneak away to see a couple of speakers, and picked up some great tips to try out with my four horses! I got to see some of the horses who are featured in my paintings (Confiado and Romerito) and watch On Black Ice and Cate participate in the Cowboy Shooting! He was the flashiest horse in the demo! I really enjoyed talking with the horse owners I’d met last summer on my whirlwind trip through the state.

One of my favorite things about the Expo was that my booth was right across the aisle from the SHAMWOW booth. The guys running the booth said maybe someday I could be the ShamWow girl! Those are amazing chemises! I loved hearing people walking down the aisle, spot their banner, and just automatically said—out loud — “ShamWow, SHAMWOW!!.”

Of course my favorite thing was when people glanced into my booth, took a look at my paintings, and said, “Wow!”

There’s a photo of my booth on my blog, if you’d like to see how I was able to fit all 37 paintings into my 10x10 space. Here’s a link: http://www.karenbrenner.com/blog_March_2009.html. Just scroll down to March 19. (There’s also a photo of me pretending to be the ShamWow girl.)

Michigan In July

I hope to return to Michigan in July to take photographs for commissions. If you’d like to get on the Michigan schedule, please contact me at kmbrenner@hotmail.com. Here’s a link to more info about commissions: http://www.karenbrenner.com/commissions.html. There is also information there about commissions elsewhere.

Rolex Cross Country Enthusiasts Mount Up!

I often wished I could ride a cross country course, galloping along on perfectly mowed meadows and tackling jumps along the way. It would be such a thrill. . . . Although, for safety purposes, I’d want my jumps to be no more than 18” high. (Hey, I don’t like heights.) Recently I saw video posted on Barnmice that let me live my dream thanks to a Helmet Cam. You can ride the cross country course (virtually) too! Here’s a link: http://www.barnmice.com/video/helmet-cam-x-country

Clean Up in Aisle 3

What would you do if you saw a horse and rider passing you in the cereal section of your local grocery store? Check out this video of a Seeing Eye Horse. (Love the pink accessories!) http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/tv/stories/wfaa090320_wz_serviceanimals.541d8299.html

The accompanying news story raised the question of what species qualifies as service animals. What is your opinion on this issue? Do you think only dogs should be allowed? Should there be any limits?

Here’s a Bank, yes Bank, website, you might enjoy. . .

I came across the Redneck Bank website and wanted to share it with you! Considering how some bankers can be rather “stuffy” I appreciate the creativity that went into this bank’s marketing. http://redneckbank.com/

There are Lots of Beautiful Horses in Pennsylvania!

Thank you to everyone who nominated a horse for the Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania. Nominations closed March 31 with over 90 horses entered. I’ve spent hours studying all the applications. How will I ever be able to narrow it down to 20-25 horses?

Names of selected horse will be posted on my website by April 15. And I will be traveling to PA to photograph each one in mid– to late June in preparation for my next series of paintings, Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania.

I’ll be too late . . .

“The Horse,” an exhibit on display at the Carnegie in Pittsburg, showcases the evolution, domestication, and nature of the horse. It sounds like an amazing display, with tack from the 15th century, saddles from China, and archeology finds dating back 17,500 years. I wish it would still be in Pennsylvania when I go in June, but I’ll be too late. It’s only there until May 24. Find out more at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09063/952885-115.stm?cmpid=entertainment.xml

Making room for new merchandise . . .

I will be discontinuing some of my Café Press shops as of April 30. There are only a few more weeks left to purchase merchandise featuring the paintings on the lower portion of this Café Press page: http://www.karenbrenner.com/shop_all_shop_pictures.html. Shop now before it’s too late.

Now that it’s spring, I get to ride again!!! I’ve taken a few lessons, and Deb, my instructor said I have a “perfect horse” in Sorpresa! (Then she added, “Well, almost perfect”—referring to Sopresa’s latest trick, which involves refusing to go forward whenever we stop to confer with Deb during the lesson. Instead Sorpresa turns her back end toward Deb and starts backing up swiftly — forcing Deb to quickly try to get out of her way. What will that horse think of next? [And when will I gain control?])

Happy Riding!

- Karen

Horse Paintings by Karen Brenner

www.karenbrenner.com
www.karenbrenner.com/blog.html

To unsubscribe to this newsletter, please send an email with “Unsubscribe” as the Subject, and your email address to kmbrenner@hotmail.com.

Horse Painting Newsletter
March 2009

Get a Head Start Voting for Your Favorite Beautiful Horses of Michigan Painting!

All the Beautiful Horses of Michigan paintings are done, and as a Horse Paintings newsletter subscriber, you get a one day head start on voting for your favorite painting! The official voting begins March 1 and runs through March 31, but you can vote early! To vote online go to my home page, http://www.karenbrenner.com and follow the link to the online ballot.

Everyone can vote TWICE! Once online and once in person at the Michigan Horse Expo March 13-15 where the paintings will be on display. Please come see them.… They honestly look better in person than online.

The Beautiful Horses of Michigan painting with the most votes will get its own Café Press shop and will be reproduced on cards, mugs, T-shirts and all the stuff that Café Press offers.

And, most importantly, one lucky voter's name will be drawn to receive $25 worth of merchandise from one of my Café Press shops. The winner will be notified April 15, 2009.

Reading: Animals Make Us Human

I’m always curious about what animals are thinking, aren’t you? In Animals Make Us Human by Temple Grandin, whose autism gives her insights that language-reliant humans often overlook, I’m discovering fascinating scientific findings about the subject.

Of course, I skipped right to the Horse chapter, searching for ways to better understand DJ, Sorpresa, Echo and Ollie. I found that my clicker training efforts are a good thing! I just need to go more in depth with them.

My main problem is Sorpresa, who is very frightened by the far end of the riding arena which abuts the woods. Many days she is only happy (under saddle or on the lunge line) in the front 1/3 of the arena (which is not very big to begin with) — doing a high-strung, scared-poodle dance if we try to go beyond the invisible line in the sand (well, grass) she’s drawn across the arena. This is a problem, which I solve by riding her in our even smaller backyard — creating even more problems, but those are with my husband, who seems irritated by hoof indentations in “his” grass.

An idea I might try from the book involves figuring out how to get Sorpresa to be in a positive mind set (which makes it harder to slip into Fear mode) through clicker training. I’ve already practiced clicker training giving her rest/grazing breaks only at the far end of the arena. I’m going to step it up with lots of specific requests, with lots of clicks for minor positive behavior. I hope it works!

Do you have any ideas?

Back to the book, I’ve read the Dog chapter (very good!), and am just about to start reading about Cats. Haven’t decided whether to read Cows, Pigs, and Wild animals, but it’s so interesting, I think I will!

This Might Be Bad News . . .

The Horse.com recently ran an article about horses' long term memories being excellent. What horse owner did not already know horses remember every single scary thing they have ever encountered? (This proves it will be extra tough for me to help Sorpresa conquer her fears.) Luckily horses remember positive training also! (Don’t let them tell you otherwise!) Here’s a link to the article:

http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=1364

Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania

There’s just one more month for nominations for the Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania series. Please let your PA friends know about the project. There is a link on my home page to the nomination form.

Hey, Purina is having a Contest Too!

Purina is holding a Senior Horse Tales Contest. Do you have a senior horse? If you do, you’ll want to visit http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29384847

Book Now for a Commissioned Painting of Your Special Horse

Do you have a special horse that you’d like to have featured in a commissioned painting? I am currently scheduling commissions for spring and summer 2009. Please contact me for more information if you are interested because I’d like to add you to my calendar.

Here’s a link to the commission info on my website: http://www.karenbrenner.com/commissions.htm

Hope to see you soon at the Michigan Horse Expo!

- Karen

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Horse Painting Newsletter
February 19, 2009

Michigan Here I Come!

Just three weeks from today I’ll be loading up my 37 Beautiful Horses of Michigan paintings and heading for East Lansing for the Michigan Horse Expo, March 13-15. I’m so excited!!! And I have so much work to get done between now and then; I keep adding things daily to my to do list. Luckily I get to cross some off the list as I work toward my goal. All the paintings except one are done! Yes, there is one stickler that I’m just not satisfied with….. It has been “done” twice, but just is not quite right. I hope to work on it more today.

One of my biggest challenges will be how to arrange all the paintings in my 10x10 booth. One day soon I’m going to make a tiny to-scale layout on my computer so I will have a guide. We’ll probably be setting up our booth early Friday at the Expo — from 8-10 am—so I won’t have any time to spare!

In the meantime, I’ve been reading about who will the Expo presenters will be:

http://www.michiganhorsecouncil.com/2009_Demonstrators.htm

And studying the schedule:

http://www.michiganhorsecouncil.com/Schedule_2009.pdf

It sounds like an exciting weekend! I hope to see you there!

If you cannot make the show, be sure to check out the Beautiful Horses of Michigan on my website at http://www.karenbrenner.com/beautiful_horses_of_michigan_gallery.html.

Bad news for DJ

Yes, DJ, my Quarter Horse, had high hopes of becoming the next equine star, but in a not-at-all-close vote between him and the Budweiser Clydesdales on whose commercial was the best, the Clydesdales got ALL the votes. I was going to vote for DJ, but after I saw the commercial with Clydes retrieving a tree [stick] aired during the Super Bowl I had to vote for the Clydesdales as well. (Don’t mention that to DJ.)

Anyway, DJ bounced back from his loss with a clever Valentine’s Day photo. He wishes you all a belated Happy Valentines Day! His lover-boy photo is on my February 14 blog at http://www.karenbrenner.com/blog.html. (Scroll down to Feb. 14 to see it.)

While you are at my blog, check out the quote/painting combo on the coming week's To Do List. It is my favorite so far. I just picture that little Appaloosa colt as representing Alice in that Alice in Wonderland quote.

Book It

I just read a super book that has nothing to do with horses, but I couldn’t put it down. It’s Brad Meltzer’s The Book of Lies, a thrilling “who dun it” tale. You’ll discover at the end why I really, really liked it!

Out Spot Out!

If you read my blog, you’ll know I mentioned a recipe for manure spot remover that I spotted on Barnmice. It sounds wonderful, and I’m hoping I don’t lose this recipe by the time Sorpresa finally turns white — not that I don’t love those gray dapples. If you have a white horse, or a paint with lots of white, you might try this recipe out:

http://www.barnmice.com/forum/topics/1773158:Topic:25681

Trick Art!

You know how I love trick horses, but now I’ve found some trick art to share! I first discovered it on a blog that included the picture by LLLearner, and mentioned it was a static piece of art. Take a look and see if you think this is static: http://blog.imagekind.com/tag/flickr/

Here are some other images to drive you crazy!

http://flickr.com/photos/16975241@N00/2786736927/

http://flickr.com/photos/16975241@N00/2787593212/

That art reminds me that I’m starting to get cabin fever. Let’s hope spring will be arriving soon!

- Karen

Horse Painting Newsletter
January 2009

Coming to Pennsylvania in 2009 . . .

In 2009 I will be working on a new series —— Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania! If you have - or know of - beautiful horses who live in Pennsylvania, you are invited to nominate your favorite!

I will travel throughout Pennsylvania during June 2009 to photograph selected horses. I hope to include a wide variety of breeds and colors in the project. Along with breed, selection of which horses to include will be based on the description provided on the nomination form. Approximately 20—25 horses will be selected from those nominated.

The "Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania " series will include a painting of each selected horse. As each painting is completed it will be posted in a special section of this website. A "Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania " exhibit will showcase all the paintings. The artist retains ownership of the paintings.

This will be the fourth in my "Beautiful Horses" series. "Beautiful Horses of Texas, " "Beautiful Horses of Ohio," and "Beautiful Horses of Michigan" series were completed in 2006-2009. They can be viewed on my website.

Please nominate your favorite Pennsylvania horse! Here is a link to the official Nomination Form.

Deadline for entries is March 30, 2009.

And if you know someone in Pennsylvania who might be interested, please pass along this information.

Three Cheers for Women!

Did you hear history is being made in Vienna. Two women have been accepted into the men-only Spanish Riding School! You can read about it this article in The Independent.

Pain Relief News

I was so excited when I read a news blip in Prevention Magazine about pain relief…. Let’s face it, how many horseback riders do you know who do not encounter a bit of pain now and then? Turns out looking at art might help you feel better! Here’s a link to the Prevention article.

What did you get for Christmas?

One thing I saw in an advertisement before Christmas was a neat pet cam, which attaches to your pet’s collar and allows them to try their hand (paw) at photography. Well, Santa didn’t bring me one. So I had to make my own. I tested mine out on my cat Skeeter, who was not too thrilled with the whole adventure. I wrote about it in my blog. It’s there — along with pictures! — for you to read on my December 15 & 16 blog entries.

More crazy fun . . .

Boy, you’re probably glad you’re not one of my pets! Because along with the pet cam experiment, I also coerced another pet to help me with a completely different project. My Quarter Horse DJ helped me make another YouTube video! In it he plays the Horse Fairy. (He was paid with carrots.) It’s a fun commercial about my horse paintings. (I’ve gotta admit my favorite part is where DJ tries to bite the fairy wand.)

Watch the video on my website — and take part in a special contest I’m holding in honor of the Super Bowl. . . .

I just love the Super Bowl commercials, so in honor of the Super Bowl, I’m having a special contest. You can vote on which breed of horse you think makes the best commercials. There are only two choices — Quarter horses (like DJ) or Clydesdales (like the horses in the Budweiser commercials). Watch DJ’s video, and then vote for your favorite breed. Here’s a link to the video and contest.

I’ll post the results February’s newsletter and on my blog.

A Virtual Vacation!

For all of us who are freezing this winter, here is a special treat. It’s a virtual vacation I found on YouTube featuring the beach and Friesians!

Stay warm!

Karen

Follow me on Twitter—@horsepaintings

Horse Painting Newsletter
December 2008

‘Tis the Season!

I’ve attached my traditional Christmas card with Ollie, Echo, Sorpresa and DJ — my four darling horses. They are so sweet with their Santa hats! Boy was it hard to keep the hats on all four of their heads long enough to snap a pic!

We all wish you a Very, Merry Christmas!

Are you on Facebook?

If you are on Facebook, I’d like to invite you to join me. I just put the page up a week or so ago, and I really could use some fans! Please join me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Horse-Paintings-by-Karen-Brenner/104645905653

Equus
I've blogged about the fabulous book by equine photographer Tim Flach. Here is a reprint from my blog:

Visual delights abound in Equus, a new book filled with wonderful photographs by Tim Flach. Opening pages feature abstract close ups of sleek, luscious equine curves and forms; textures and patterns of stripes and spots adding detail. For anyone who loves "white space" this first section of the book will be a favorite. The compositions are striking; artfully balanced abstract shapes are surrounded by the perfect amount of negative space. The photographs are pure art.

In more traditional sections of the book, Tim Flach's photographs capture movement, shadow and light, and extraordinary landscapes. Not limited to horses, Equus explores zebras and other equines on their home turf. You'll fee the chill of the icebergs surrounding the Icelandic Horses in their dark, moody homeland. And smile as the Fjords play in the snow. You'll feel the spray as horses splash along the beach. And soak up the sun with Haflingers gleaming in the golden sunlight.

In the less traditional sections of the book, creativity abounds. You'll smile and be amazed by ideas he presents in this wonderful collection. Tim Flach shares his visual concepts for photographing horses in unique ways throughout the book. And he does it with exquisite skill. The photographs are crisp and clear. They will transport you to his side as he shoots fantastic equines. You'll get the sense that he really gets a thrill out of photographing horses! And you'll get a thrill out of his book, Equus!

Equus is available on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Equus-Tim-Flach/dp/0810971429/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228854303&sr=8-1.

Barnmice

Barn mice are not my among my favorite things. I didn’t even like the movie Ratatouille window.google.repIm={c:function(a,b,c){(new Image).src="/gen_204?atyp=i&ct=rep&cd="+a+"&ei="+window.google.kEI;document.getElementById(b).style.display="";document.getElementById(c).style.display="none"}}; — way too many furry rodents!…. Maybe if they’d been bunnies…. But Barnmice is the name of a neat video community where horse lovers can share videos, photos, blogs and discussions. There is even a calendar to post horse happenings. You can join for free at http://www.barnmice.com

I was watching some YouTube videos posted on Barnmice (YouKnow I love YouTube) and came across one I’m giving my “Two Smiles” award. It’s “Pop Star Will Young Rides Dressage" in his new video: at: http://www.barnmice.com/video/video/show?id=1773158:Video:45235. I just think it’s sweet. And the horse is very classy!

They also have the camel doing dressage posted. Gotta see that if you haven’t already.

Highway to Help

You’ll find a guest article on my blog about Highway to Help written by Leslie Hsu of uShip.com. The Highway to Help organizes free transportation for rescue horses. What a good idea! Read the article at: http://www.karenbrenner.com/blog.html

Beautiful Horses of Michigan

The Beautiful Horses of Michigan series is progressing nicely. A fellow horse-crazy friend and I were looking at the finished paintings last night and we were amazed with what beautiful horses there are in Michigan! You can see the finished paintings at http://www.karenbrenner.com/beautiful_horses_of_michigan_gallery.html. More will be posted every week.

Coming next month: “Beautiful Horses of __?___” — Where will I be traveling in 2009? I’ll announce the next state in my “Beautiful Horses of …” series in the January newsletter.

In the meantime, have a wonderful holiday season!

- Karen

Horse Painting Newsletter
November 2008

A Time to be Thankful

It’s less than a week until Thanksgiving, and even though our nation and many of us individuals are going through some tough times, we have much to be thankful for. I was just thinking about how fortunate I am, and I wanted to do something to give back. For a long time I’ve wanted to combine my paintings with some of my favorite scripture verses. Well, Thanksgiving seemed to be the perfect time to launch this new project. I’m calling this whole project my “Thanksgiving Series” and plan to donate the profit from the “Thanksgiving Series” shops to the food pantry at my church to help those less fortunate.

The first Thanksgiving Series Café Press Shop features my newest painting, Santiago Sunrise, paired with a verse that I thought of often while working on the picture. “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)

This beautiful Andalusian stallion is famous in the Baroque horse world, http://www.rothrockandalusians.com/view/481/14862/Stallions.html He has his own fan club and photo contest! No wonder — he’s awsome! I met him at the Fiesta Midwest and was lucky enough to photograph him backlit against an early morning sunrise. I loved that he closed his eyes, seemingly soaking up the sunshine as the breeze gently blew through his wonderful long thick mane. The painting will be posted soon on my blog and on the Andalusian web page, but for now you can see it on my Santiago Sunrise Café Shop: http://www.cafepress.com/santiagosunrise

NEWS!!! The Beautiful Horses of Michigan Exhibit Date and Location Finalized!

The exhibit of the “Beautiful Horses of Michigan” will be held at the Michigan Stallion Expo. I’m so excited that I was selected off their “Wait List” — and will have a booth to display the Michigan paintings. The show will be March 13-15, 2009, in the Pavilion at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. Mark your calendars! It’s a fun event with lots of horses and presentations and exhibitors. I better get to work completing all those Michigan paintings!

Horse Paintings Choreographed

One of my life goals is to train a horse to do a fancy freestyle dressage, well actually a “Cowboy Dressage” like Eitan Beth-Halachmy, http://www.cowboydressage.com/home.html I saw him perform at the Equine Affair probably a dozen years ago and was thrilled with his dressage movements mixed in with reining slides and spins. I love both freestyle dressage and free style reining. Well choreographed pieces seem to combine the movements and music perfectly, as does a well executed vaulting routine. The performances are art in motion.

Realizing that I might never be able to achieve that goal, I turned my focus onto something I could accomplish…. Choreographing my paintings to music! What fun! If you’d like, you can see the results on my “Horse Paintings by Karen Brenner” YouTube movie. It is available on my website at www.karenbrenner.com/galleries.html.

(Now if I can only get Sorpresa to learn to do a sliding stop, a canter piroette, improve her spinning, and of course do that elusive capriole, I’ll be ready for my Cowboy Dressage…. I’ll just have to find the perfect music that allows me to gracefully —and intentially—dismount during my performance before the capriole is executed.)

18 Tips for Taking Great Photos of Horses! (reprinted from my blog)

Even though I love to take photos of horses for my paintings and meet each horse personally, I just completed a commission based on a photo supplied by the horse's owner. Seems, I don't have to be the one who snaps the photos I use for reference material for a painting to come out well! Boy that makes me feel sad, but happy too!

I've changed the wording on my Commissions web page.... If a horse owner would like a commission done from a photo that they send me of their horse, I'm ready!

Of course, because of copyright laws, I will need written permission from the person who took the photo(s) -- whether it is the horse owner or another photographer -- to use the pictures for a painting. Professional photographers may not agree -- or may charge the horse owner a fee to use their photos . . . so . . . .

I decided to share some of my favorite tips for getting great photos of horses. No, a simple "Top 10" list wouldn't work for me! Especially since I decided to illustrate the tips with some of my favorite photographs -- and I have literally thousands to choose from.... I've come up with 18 Tips. Yep! 18.

If you'd like to read the tips and see some of my photographs, the official link to the 18 Tips is located on my Commissions page: http://www.karenbrenner.com/commissions.html.

One tip I didn't put on the list -- maybe because I didn't have a good photo to go with it -- was to get a digital camera. That sounds bossy, but it really is good advice. When taking photos of horses, often you have to take 100 shots to get 4 or 5 really good ones.The cost of film and developing can be expensive. With a digital camera, you can take endless photos. And you never have to print the ugly ones!

If you'd like to share your favorite tip for photographing horses, I'd love to hear it!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

- Karen

Horse Painting Newsletter
October 2009

Cincinnati Art Show

Come see my horse paintings at the Indian Hill Church Art Show. This is their 7th annual art show — my 1st (annual???) and I’m so lucky to be invited. There will be 100 artists with 30% of the proceeds going to benefit the church’s outreach programs. The church is located at 6000 Drake Road, Cincinnati, Ohio. The show opens Friday, November 14 from 6-9 pm—with Wine Tasting and Homemade Appetizers! Yummm!! (Come that night if you can!) The show concludes Saturday, November 15 with hours 10 am-2 pm. I’m planning to take Camargo Hunt paintings and a mix of others. I’m also planning to introduce something new at the show! You’ll have to come to find out what it is!!!

If you are planning on attending and would like me to bring a specific painting you’ve seen on my website and would like to see in person, please just email and let me know. I’ll bring it along!

Going to the Dogs

This is a secret, so please keep it on the DL . . . I’m working on a Dog Painting. Yes, a dog painting! It’s for my son’s friend, Scurvy, who has an adorable Australian Cattle Dog named Roxy. It’s a surprised, so please don’t mention it to anyone you know named Scurvy. I am having so much fun painting this pup! It’s so much easier than painting horses!! And I am using a photo that my son took. In fact he took about a dozen photos of Roxy and they all looked good. Unbelievable! I can take 100 photos of a horse, and I’m lucky if two come out looking decent! Is it because my son is more talented with a camera than me??? That is a possibility. But I prefer to think dogs are just easier to photograph—and paint….

Which leads me to my newest venture! You guessed it! I’m going to start doing dog portraits. I figure I’ll be able to price them lower than my horse paintings because: 1) I will be able to use photos taken by the pet owners — I will not need to travel and take the photos, and 2) Dogs are just easier to paint than horses!

Here’s the introductory special! You can commission a 9”x12” headshot oil painting of your favorite dog for just $200. The original artwork will be done on gessoed masonite using the same translucent layering technique I use to create my luminous paintings of horses! The painting will be based on photos that you email to me (photos must be accompanied by a statement from the photographer [who owns the copyright] giving me permission to use the photos for a painting). I’ll work up a composition, and email it back to you for approval, and then start painting. I will do my best to complete commissions received by November 1 in time for Christmas.

This would be a perfect gift for someone special! Please contact me at kmbrenner@hotmail.com if you would like to commission a dog painting! Other sizes are available, ask for details.

Of course, you can find out about commissioning a Horse Painting on my website: http://www.karenbrenner.com/commissions.html

Studs to Drool Over — Horse Studs of course!

I found a very cool site that you might want to check out — the Video Studbook! The site is a creative idea from Horse of Kings magazine. They are offering stallion owners a beautiful webpage with links, photos and video featuring their stallion.

What I found especially exciting was that I’ve done paintings of quite a few of the horses featured on the Friesian and Andalusian pages.

Terri Meador’s Hereje and other stallions each have pages with video! Here’s a link to the Andalusian Studbook index: http://www.andalusianstudbook.com/

And Friesians—Tim, Nanning and Mintske have pages too! They are all wonderful, but I especially LOVE the video on Nanning’s page. It’s almost like a fantasy come true! A young girl riding a beautiful Friesian through the woodlands on Mackinac Island. Here’s a link to the Friesian Studbook index: http://www.friesianstudbook.com/

That Video Studbook must be too popular at this moment -- I’m having trouble getting it to load on my computer….. If it's busy when you try, here’s a different link to the Nanning video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1soKyEj5nk&feature=related

If you have a stallion to promote, here's a link that explains how you can be part of the Video Studbook: http://www.videostudbook.com

Painting Update

The Beautiful Horses of Michigan series is progressing beautifully!! If you haven’t clicked in recently, take a look! The first seven (out of 37) are posted on my website at: http://www.karenbrenner.com/beautiful_horses_of_michigan_gallery.html

And there are new Andalusian paintings—from my adventure at the Fiesta Midwest -- posted at: http://www.karenbrenner.com/andalusian_gallery.html.

Gift Certificates for Available for Christmas

Gift certificates — either for a commissioned horse painting or a dog portrait — are available. Christmas is coming! What a perfect gift for this would be for your favorite animal lover! Contact me at kmbrenner@hotmail.com for details.

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Horse Paintings Newsletter
September 8, 2008

As you read this newsletter, you’ll find I’ve been busy in my studio creating lots of paintings and working hard updating my website. Along with the new web pages described below, I have revised my home page—so take a look! Home Page

BEAUTIFUL HORSES OF MICHIGAN PAINTING #1 COMPLETED!
I’ve just finished the first painting in the Beautiful Horses of Michigan series! It is a headshot of a beautiful paint gelding, Too Sleepy to Paint. Now just have 34 horses more to go! I plan to post a new Michigan horse painting online every week or so. Please check back often to see the newest additions! Here’s a link to the Beautiful Horses of Michigan web page where you can see that first painting: Michigan Horses

FOUR NEW FIESTA MIDWEST ANDALUSIAN PAINTINGS NOW ONLINE
My trip this summer to the Fiesta Midwest 2008 was fantastic! Being surrounded by Andalusians for three days is like a short stay in paradise! I have many paintings planned from the thousands of photos I took that weekend, and the first four are completed and posted online. There is one of a very Spanish mare, Millenia, who lives at Rothrock Andalusians (with the famous Santigo, who will be in a future painting or two), and two paintings of the swift and twisty Melosa and one painting of the stallion Falcao M. They are the latest paintings added to my online Andalusian web page: Andalusians

SPORTING ART GALLERY ADDED TO LINE UP
I’ve just expanded my online galleries to include a “Sporting Art” page. In it you’ll find some new paintings from the Camargo Hunter Trials and from the Aiken Steeplechase. Equine sporting art can include hunting, eventing, jumping, dressage, horse shows and steeplechasing. If I ever complete some of my Rolex eventing paintings this will be the gallery where they will appear. As you might know, I usually do not include people in my paintings…. And there was that riderless horse in the last race at the Aiken Spring Steeplechase, which I could have painted and stuck to my “no people in the paintings” rule, but I have had so much fun photographing horses with their people aboard that I had to create some paintings including humans. You might want to take a look… and let me know what you think of my attempt at people! Here’s a link to the Sporting Art.

ALL HORSE PARADE IS EYE CANDY
An artist friend, Pat Getha, invite me to an All Horse Parade in her hometown, Delaware, Ohio, on Sunday, September 6. What fun! I went with another artist, Sue Steiner, to see the 500 plus horses on parade! We all took tons of photos of HUGE horses, mini horses, ponies, mules, donkeys, and unicorns. (I’m not kidding.) Take a look at my favorite photos—posted on my blog : BLOG

And if you just MUST hear from me more often then every month or so, you can sign up for my Blog Email. The sign up form is on that blog web page. I’ll just send you a friendly email whenever I post a new blog. Hard to resist . . . I know!

CHANGE THROUGH CHANCE OPEN HOUSE IS OCTOBER 11 & 12
The last newsletter included some information about Change Through Chance Youth Mentoring and Therapeutic Riding program based in Wooster, Ohio. Here’s an official invitation to their Open House October 11 & 12. Hope you can come! Invitation

- Karen

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Horse Paintings Newsletter
July 16, 2008

I’ve returned from Michigan where I had the BEST time meeting beautiful horses and horse owners. Each stop was exciting! There are lots of great horses in Michigan! Who knew??? I’ve selected one photo from each farm, had my friendly neighborhood lumber yard (Curry Lumber in Wooster) cut masonite boards, and I’ve even gessoed all those boards (a dreadful task). AND I’ve started painting the first one! It should be completed in a couple months! In the meantime, I’ll be finishing some sporting art paintings and some LITTLE paintings I decided to do as an experiment. So new paintings will be appearing soon in my blog and on my new paintings web page.

I’ve been busy with my newest hobby — daylilies. Now you might ask what that has to do with horses??? Well, let me tell you … my four horses contributing partners in this new project. What do they contribute, you might ask. Let’s just say they are in charge of Soil Enrichment. And they are going above and beyond …. producing much more compost than I need for the three daylily beds I’ve dug so far! I better start expanding my gardens to keep up. Anyway, the daylilies I planted last fall are just spectacular. And I give all the credit to those horses! (And also perhaps the record setting rainfall we’ve had this year.)

I NEED YOUR HELP
Speaking of daylilies, I am planning to enter a daylily/animal photo contest. I can enter three photos, and I have six that I really like. If you have time, please take a look and let me know which three you think are the best. I’ve posted the six photos on my blog. There’s an easy COMMENTS form for you to email me your picks! I’d appreciate your help! Here’s a link to my blog.

CHANGE THROUGH CHANCE
Another new project that I’m helping a wee bit with is Change Through Chance. It’s a Youth Mentoring and Therapeutic Riding program based in Wooster, Ohio. Because I love designing things, they let me design a brochure and a simple website for them. Check out the website at www.changethroughchance.org. They are planning an open house October 11-12, so if you live in the area, plan to come by!

Luckily I’m getting in lots of riding this summer. I love this hot, sunny weather! Hope you are having a great summer, too!

- Karen

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Horse Paintings Newsletter
June 2008

Fiesta Midwest

We just returned from the Fiesta Midwest! It was heavenly being surrounded by beautiful Andalusians! I took over 1,800 photos (thank goodness for digital cameras— can you imagine how many rolls of film that would be — and the cost for developing??) Now I’m trying to organize the photos, and only save the very best. After the first round of deleting my least favorite, I’m almost down to 600 shots. Now, there is NO WAY I’m going to paint 600 paintings. A more disciplined artist I’m sure would be able to get the number down to 100…. But discipline is not my strong suit…..

One of the most exciting things about the Fiesta was getting to meet the world famous equine photographer Bob Languish. I have one of his calendars hanging about two feet from where I’m sitting… so even if you don’t recognize his name, I’m sure you’ve seen his work. He adds 20,000 horse photos to his collection each year, and has a fantastic website with all kinds of horses at boblangish.com. Bob invited participants at the Fiesta Midwest to have their horses photographed in a huge (3-4 acre) grassy pasture beside the show’s venue, Roberts Arena in Wilmington, Ohio. Fortunately for me, he didn’t mind who tagged along, and they needed volunteers to keep the horses running rather than grazing during the photo shoot. What fun!!!!

Bob also gave a seminar for people at the show with lots of tips on photographing horses. And he lit up his laptop with fantastic photos from his collection. My favorites were his pictures of the Queen of England’s ponies with one of her castles in the background. (They were taken for a special project and I couldn’t find them on his website.) Bob is going to China for to photograph the Olympics for major horse magazines.

Kudos to the organizers of the Fiesta Midwest! This was the first year for the event and it attracted 90 Andalusians! There were classes, seminars, vendors and more. I’m am so glad they are already planning for Fiesta Midwest 2009. Watch for details!

20% OFF SALE!

In celebration of my new Google Checkout Account, I am running a 20% OFF SALE for anyone who purchases a painting that is listed on my website. This limited-time offer runs from June 10—17, 2008.

If you’ve been waiting to purchase a special painting, now is the time to do so! Please email me the name of the painting you are interested in purchasing and your address, or click the Inquire link by the painting and complete the form. Then I will figure shipping costs (and sales tax if you are an Ohio resident) and email an invoice to you. If you do not already have a Google Account, the invoice will have information about opening one.

With a Google Account, you can pay with your MasterCard, Visa, American Express or Discover card.

The sale price will be 20% off the price listed on my website. You may pay with a Google Account or by personal check to qualify for the 20% off sale. Check must be received by June 19, 2008.

Beautiful Horses of Michigan

Later this month I will be hitting the road and heading up to Michigan to photograph 35 horses for my Beautiful Horses of Michigan project! I’ve already taken pictures of horse #1—Too Sleepy to Paint. How’d I do that? He was going to be at the Paint World Show on his scheduled day, so he came to Ohio to get his picture taken! (Well, that’s a stretch, he was actually participating in a show in Ashland — which is very close to Wooster — so I drove over.) He’s a Beautiful Horse! That’s for sure! (You can see some pictures of him on my May blog at http://www.karenbrenner.com/blog_May_2008.html. Scroll way down to May 5, 2008, to see him.

More May Blog Highlights
While you’re at the blog, you’ll also find my newest Andalusian paintings — the four I completed to take to the Fiesta! I almost sold one to the cutest boy, who was about 12 years old and wanted to buy it for his three sisters who love horses. He was saving money from doing barn chores. Wow, what an nice brother!

There are also some photos of my horses grazing in the fog. I love fog! And the work of another horse artist! A sculptress!

Along with the Andalusian paintings, you'll find one from the Camargo Hunter Trials with a new style I'm experiementing with. What do you think?

YouTube Videos with DJ and Sorpresa
You know I love YouTube (see, I can spell it correctly now). I’ve made two videos! Actually I showed Will, my husband, which button to push on my digital camera #3, and after lots of “takes” and much, much editing in MovieMaker, Voila!

Movie number #1 is of my horse DJ trying to learn to paint. Yes, I love those animals who paint pictures! Check out DJ’s efforts at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-Gkbt9G3U8

Sorpresa, my Andalusian, cannot be left out of the movie making biz. She had to have her own video too. Here she is doing her fancy ground maneuvers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjwqofTwNAY

Well, I’ve been waiting all winter for the wonderful warmth of summer — and it’s HOT today! I better get out there and enjoy it! You enjoy it too!

Karen

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Horse Paintings Newsletter
May 2008

Riding news

Warm weather is finally here and I’ve been riding Sorpresa and Echo. For Sorpresa I securely fasten my helmet to my head and beg my husband to stand down at the far end of the arena between the fence and the neighbor’s woods, aka the wicked forest full of frightening creatures who may pop out and attack you at any time — well, that’s what Sorpresa thinks. Last night my husband was too busy to stand guard, and I was too lazy to lead down his substitute (my calm Quarter Horse, Ollie) and tie her to the fence for protection, thus Sorpresa refused to venture further than 1/3 of the way down the arena — and it’s a small arena. Then, one of the scary creatures of the forest came creeping right up to the fence line. It was my neighbor’s calico cat. OMG. Terrorized is the only word to describe this trembling Andalusian.... And I hope to take her trail riding on Saturday at Mohican State Park! Actually she’ll be with other horses, so I’m hoping for a better ride.

Echo, my very green, very tall, eight-year-old Quarter Horse, is finally getting some attention. Riding her in the arena is the opposite of riding Sorpresa. She’s laid back and super calm. Getting her to move at all is my biggest problem! I kinda like that!

Fiesta Midwest in OHIO!

Calling all lovers of Andalusians lovers. The Fiesta Midwest 2008 is a new show debuting June 5-7 at the Roberts Arena in Wilmington, Ohio. It will be a celebration of the Pure Spanish Horse. The "¡Viva la Vida!" Expression of The Zest for Life! — a special evening exhibition —will be Friday, June 6, at 6 pm, (previously scheduled for Saturday). It will include an amazing liberty performance by Laura Amandis and her super talented Andalusian, Acierto, who you may have seen at the Equine Affaire. There will also be a fantastic Liberty class, where Andalusians strut their stuff and much more. It’s not to be missed!

The Fiesta Midwest will also include classes for the PRE horses, seminars about Spanish tack and Spanish breed standards, and an ANNCE Inscription and Revision.

Of course the highlight of the Fiesta Midwest will be my booth in the vendor’s area! (Don’t tell the event coordinators I said that!) I’ve been pulling together my favorite Andalusian paintings — and even painted some new ones just for the show! (Check my website in upcoming weeks and you’ll get to preview the new paintings.)

If you are planning to attend the Fiesta Midwest and would like me to bring a specific non-Andalusian painting for you to see in person, please email me. If I can fit it in the car, I’ll bring it! My email address is kmbrenner@hotmail.com.

And if you are bringing your Andalusian to the show, please let me know! Of course I’m bringing my camera and hope to take hundreds of paintings…. I’m already planning of a new series of paintings, “Andalusians from the 2008 Fiesta Midwest.”

You can find out more about the Fiesta Midwest at their website: http://www.fiestamidwest.com/My_Homepage_Files/Page1.html

Rolex Cross Country (from my Blog)

My friend Becky invited me to go with her to watch the Cross Country portion of the 2008 Rolex Kentucky Cross Country. What a wonderful opportunity it was to take photos for reference material for future paintings! If you've visited the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, you know what a beautiful setting they have for cross country.

This year the cross country jumps were outstandingly massive--seemingly impossible for a horse to leap, but leap they did!

When we arrived we decided to try to see as many jumps as possible, so we watched a rider or two at each numbered fence, shooting photos as best we could. It was so amazing how many people were clustered at each fence, many armed with cameras and long lenses, eager to photograph the riders and horses!

Spectators are free (well after paying admission of course) to roam the course. The galloping lanes are roped off with occasional openings along the way. Every 10-15 minutes or so a new horse and rider team sets off from the starting line to jump the course. As the horse travels along the 3.9 mile course a whistle blows to alert crossing guards in the immediate area to stop pedestrians from crossing. It was fun to watch all the photographers (me included) hoist their cameras toward the closest jump at the sound of the whistle!

The ideal time for covering the 33 jump course was 11 minutes. If you'd like to see the course, here is a link to the official course website. Just click on the number of each jump to see details and photos: http://www.rk3de.org/virtual_course.php

Of course I took hundreds of photos!

According to online reports after Sunday's stadium jumping (the third and final portion of the eventing competition, after dressage and cross country) Phillip Dutton won the Rolex! Just who I wanted to win because he and his wife Evie have moved to Aiken, South Carolina (where I dream of retiring one day!). In fact when we visited Aiken this spring, we drove along the paved road of the beautiful Bridle Creek Equestrian Community where they have their Red Oak Farm. Maybe someday I'll get to meet them in person!

If you've followed the Rolex news, you've undoubtedly heard that two horses had to be put down due to injuries suffered during the cross country. What a tragedy. Becky and I were standing between jump numbers 4 and 5 when Frodo Baggins galloped from the Downhill Oxers to the Flower Basket. Becky turned to watch him approach the giant basket and saw him catch his foot on the basket and go down head first and flip over on top of his rider, Laine Ashkir. Almost instantly the hundreds of spectators near that portion of the course were hushed, silently watching as horse trailers and medics approached and pulled a huge tarp (or tent) over those involved in the tragedy. Focused dread stilled the crowd for over an hour. I wish I could report good news, for after about 90 minutes, the announcer informed the crowd that Frodo was being taken across the road to a nearby medical facility. But I read on the internet that he did not make it. Laine will hopefully recover. Another horse also was injured on the course and had to be put down. Here are links to Nancy Jaffer's reports about the cross country and stadium jumping and what she learned about the tragedies on EquiSearch.com:

http://equisearch.com/equiwire_news/nancy_jaffer/rolex_crosscountry_042608/

http://equisearch.com/equiwire_news/nancy_jaffer/rolex_jumping_042708/

Nancy's reports include comments by USEF President David O'Connor about the risks of participating in eventing.

Please say a prayer for Laine in hopes that she has a full recovery.

You can see some of the photos I took that day, including the photo I took as Frodo and Laine passed me, seconds before approaching the Flower Basket, on my blog — www.karenbrenner.com/blog.html.

Beautiful Horses of Michigan—a work in progress

It was so fun to read the 98 nominations horse lovers sent in for my Beautiful Horses of Michigan project. Of course I wish I could choose everyone! But time does not permit such luxuries. Darn.

The list of 34 horses who I will visit to photograph at the end of June are posted on my website. I’m excited that there are LOTS of Paints! And quarter horses, Tennessee Walkers, a Haflinger, Thoroughbreds, Andalusians, Friesians, Morgans, Saddlebreds, Appaloosas and crosses. I am so lucky! I can’t wait to hop in the car with my camera and husband and notebook full of MapQuest directions and head for MICHIGAN!

Well, I hope to see many of you at the Fiesta Midwest! Til then — Happy Riding!

Karen

Horse Painting Newsletters
M arch 2008

Hi Everyone,

Time to unveil my TOP SECRET project … It is a book, Beautiful Moments in the Lives of Horses, with LOTS of my favorite horse paintings and photographs I’ve taken while visiting horse farms and equine events over the past seven years. In fact there are so many horses in the book that it comes with a warning! “WARNING—For Horse Lovers only.”

I was so excited about this book, that I decided to start a blog so I could write more about it on my website. So, for this newsletter I’m just going to take the easy way out send you what I wrote in my blog about the book!

I am a huge fan of books -- especially those with lots of pictures -- and ESPECIALLY those with lots of pictures of horses! So to have the opportunity to create a table top book filled with pictures of my paintings and many of the photos that I've taken as I've travel around visiting horse farms and equine events -- well, I am super excited about that!!!

When I started researching creating a such a specialized book, I stumbled on a wonderful internet company named Blurb. (I hate to admit it, but for a few weeks I thought their name was "Blurp" -- they did come up with that spelling on Google!!)

The exciting thing about Blurb is that it is a print-on-demand type of internet business - much like Cafe Press where I have some shops. So I would not have to buy a whole bunch of books like a vanity press and then try to sell them.

And anyone who wants to order a book, can order it straight from Blurb! And pay by credit card! I love the internet!!!

Blurb gives away the software needed to design your book. Anyone can use their templates, although I opted to design all my pages in Photoshop and upload them to blank pages in the Blurb software.

After about four months of designing, writing, photographing paintings, and fine tuning the layout I placed my first order. I was holding my breath waiting for the book to arrive..... In the back of my mind, I was rationalizing that the first copy would be an "artist's proof" and I could change things for the second copy. When the book arrived --- I LOVED IT!!!

Enough about Blurb..... I should tell you a little about the book, Beautiful Moments in the Lives of Horses. It features over 80 of my equine paintings and over 250 photos. Most spreads show a photo or series of photos of the horse that is in the corresponding painting. There are 160 pages. All full color of course! It's a real table top book, with a hard cover and very beautiful book jacket, if I do say so myself!

The artwork is in breed specific chapters -- Andalusians, Arabians, Appaloosas, Quarter Horses, Morgans and the all inclusive, More Horses.

That’s my entry from my new blog…

Want to preview the book? Blurb lets you take a look at the first 16 pages! There is a link on my home page to the preview of Beautiful Moments in the Lives of Horses. Just go to www.karenbrenner.com.

While you’re visiting my website, check out my blog! I plan to use it to unveil my new paintings as they are completed — so I can write lots of stuff about each one! When you visit my blog, keep in mind, it’s homemade, so it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that “real” blogs have, but it does have a “Comments” link! I’d love to hear from you!

Think Spring!

Karen

February 16, 2008

Hi Everyone,

First the big news! I’m on Western Horse iTV! Pat and Marlane came to my “Beautiful Horses of Ohio” exhibit in November and brought their movie camera. They taped a segment about the paintings including a short interview with me. Now you can see the “Beautiful Horses of Ohio” exhibit on Western Horse iTV. It appears at the end of the Northern Ohio Shooters segment which is about riding and shooting a gun at the same time! No, don’t worry—I’m not in that part. Knowing me, I’d accidentally shoot my horse while aiming at a balloon. Here is a link to the program: www.westernhorseitv.com.

My horses and I are patiently waiting for spring to arrive… they are looking forward to the green grass and I am looking forward to riding. In the meantime, I’ve been busy painting. My first painting completed in 2008 is of Sorpresa, my Andalusian mare. You can see it in my newly created online gallery “New Paintings—2008.” I know, what a clever name! Here’s a link: http://www.karenbrenner.com/new_paintings.html
I plan to post new paintings on my home page every week or so, after which they’ll be moved to the 2008 page.

My second 2008 painting, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” is on my home page now. It’s based on a photo I took back in the fall of 2006 at the Camargo Hunter Trials near Cincinnati. My favorite event of the day was when teams of three riders/three horses rode the jumping course together. It really looked like fun!

There are lots more paintings in my studio (okay—living room) in various stages of completion. You’ll be seeing them soon on my website.

It is so exciting to see dozens and dozens of nominations for my upcoming project “Beautiful Horses of Michigan” arriving via email and regular mail. The deadline for entries is March 31. It’s going to be so tough to choose! Thank you to all who have entered.

Will and I are planning a spring trip to Aiken, South Carolina, to check on our tract of land at Windsor Trace in March. I planted lots of seedlings last spring, and it turned into a true test of survival for the little plants with last summer’s severe drought. I am curious to see if any are still alive (sorry National Arbor Society) …. We’re not taking any plants with us on this trip.

At the end of April some friends and I are heading down to watch the cross country jumping at the Rolex. Always a wonderful place to photograph horses!

I am also working on a TOP SECRET project that I hope to announce in my next newsletter. Stay tuned….and stay warm!

Karen

Horse Paintings Newsletter
December 2007

It’s winter in Ohio…. With snow on the ground and more coming down as I write, it’s not hard to get in the holiday spirit. (Just hard to drive to work!)

ANNOUNCING “Beautiful Horses of Michigan”
Michigan is the next state in my “Beautiful Horses of ….” series! I plan to travel to Michigan during the last week of June to photograph horses for this new project. If you know of any beautiful horses who live in Michigan, please nominate them for this project! Here is a link to the online nomination form: www.karenbrenner.com/form_beautiful_horses_of_michigan.html.

“Beautiful Horses of Ohio” Exhibit
Thank you to everyone who attended the “Beautiful Horses of Ohio” exhibit and also to everyone voted for their favorite painting online! There was a fantastic turn out at the show, and my only regret is that I didn’t get to talk personally to everyone who came. I know I love having people over to my house to look at paintings! If you are ever planning to be near Wooster and want to stop by, please just email me and we can set up a time for you to visit! Here’s my email: kmbrenner@hotmail.com.

The painting with the most votes was (drum roll….) “Teddy,” who now has his own Café Press Shop. Congratulations!! “Peanut” was second, and “Tucker” was third. They each have their own Café Press Shops too! Just click the “Shop” link on my website to see some of the gifts available.

Everyone who voted was entered in a drawing for $25 worth of Café Press merchandise. Karen L. of Dalton, Ohio, was the winner. Congratulations!

More New Café Press Shops
Okay, I really enjoy making Café Press Shops! It’s fun and easy! So here’s a list of the
“Beautiful Horse of Ohio” who join Teddy, Peanut and Tucker with their own shops: Thor, Wiz and Sprout, Casey, Curly Tom, Wildfire, Coosa Thyme, Sharpsburg and the newest shop—Micah. There are links to all on the “Shop” link of my website!

World Friesian Horse Show
My friend Sandy and I traveled to the World Friesian Horse Show in Springfield, Ohio, at the end of October. We were delighted with the wonderful horses! My personal favorite was the four-horses and chariot performance by House of Friesians from British Columbia, Canada. They were spectacular! And they had traveled 56 hours one way to get to Ohio just for the show! The House of Friesians crew was easy to spot throughout the show because they dressed in neon orange pants and yellow wooden shoes!

But the House of Friesian horses were not the only fantastic horses. Friesians from Michigan, Wisconsin, and the Netherlands, and Vermont — and more — came for the show. Sandy and I both expected more horses. Some classes only had two or three entries. But the longer we were at the show, the happier we were that it was relatively small because we had many opportunities to talk personally with almost all the horse owners and find out from the experts all about the breed.

Another highlight of the show were the liberty classes. If you’ve never seen a liberty class, here’s how it works: the horse enters the arena and is turned loose with two handlers. The horse is judged on movement (I think), so the handlers are there to be sure the horse isn’t just gazing at the crowd looking for treats during his three minutes of fame. Music, chosen to compliment the horse’s movement and style, is played during their timein the arena. If you’ve seen a Friesian going full speed — or doing a powerful extended trot — you can imagine the beauty of the Liberty Class.

We’re both hoping the show returns to Springfield in 2008.

In the Studio . . .
Now that the Ohio horses series is complete and I’m still months away from starting Michigan paintings, you might be wondering what I’m working on in the studio. I finally got to pull out my photos from three “horse trips” and here are the subjects of the paintings that are in progress in the studio — the American Gold Cup in Cleveland (terrific jumpers), Camargo Hunt Trials (some with hounds!) and Spanish Mustangs (with the most gorgeous array of earth tone colors ever!!) from the Dildine Ranch in Texas. Oh, yes —this week my wonderful buddies at Curry Lumber cut eight more pieces of Masonite for just some of the Friesian paintings I have planned! (Two from the House of Friesians foursome roaring around the arena pulling that chariot!) I’m so excited about ALL these horses!!!

Well, I better sign off so I can start planning more projects!

In the meantime….

Have a Very Merry Christmas!

Karen

October 24, 2007

Horse Painting Newsletter

Beautiful Horses of Ohio show — November 4!
I hope you’re all planning to come to the exhibit of the Beautiful Horses of Ohio paintings on Sunday, November 4 from 1-5 pm. It’s at my house — 3613 Triway Lane, Wooster, Ohio. Everyone’s welcome!
     Lots of people have been voting for their favorite paintings online at www.karenbrenner.com! There’s still time to vote if you haven’t already. And you’ll have another chance to vote at the show. The winning painting will be featured on mugs, shirts, tote bags, etc. in one of my Café Press shops. (Actually, I’ve started creating shops for some of the paintings already. You can see which ones on my website!)

America’s Horse and American Carriage Driver
You might have seen two of the Beautiful Horses of Ohio paintings in America’s Horse magazine in the October issue! Being a Quarter Horse magazine, of course they were Quarter Horses — Tucker and Fine Details. Thanks to Holly for writing such a nice article!
    American Carriage Driver also ran a story about my paintings. I loved that the article included the tale about DJ, my wonderful, calm Quarter Horse, who is very smart and loves to learn tricks & get treats (actually he’s all about the treats). Well, when I was attempting to teach him a card trick—with those giant playing cards — he ate one. (No, it was not supposed to be a disappearing card trick.) You’ve heard of slight of hands — hey, slight of mouth. Speaking of DJ . . .

Stranger than Fiction
I fractured some ribs riding in the woods near our house in September. It was the strangest accident. Will (my husband) was on DJ (wonderful, calm Quarter Horse) and I was riding Sorpresa (semi-hyper Andalusian). We were bushwhacking off trail. DJ and Will went through some waist high brush in which DJ get his back foot entangled—and then shook it loose. Sorpresa and both took note — I asked them to come back because I didn't want to take Sorpresa through the brush. Will didn't want to. (Husbands can be stubborn at times.) So Sorpresa and I walked up to it and of course she didn’t want to go forward (Horses can be stubborn at times). With a little urging, she rose up like she was going to jump the brush, but the movement ended up being a very high rear in slow motion (yes, we’ve been practicing that on the ground with our pretend “high school” dressage schooling— and this was our first mounted levade), but then she rotated around and when she came down I was sort of stabbed in the ribs by a 7 1/2 foot high tree trunk that just happened to be there. Very strange. . just a straight sturdy trunk with the top broken off - like a lance - no branches or leaves. I think that might be how joisting feels - getting rammed right in the heart with a lance -- luckily the trunk wasn't pointy enough to cause any bleeding.
    I ended up with a couple of fractured ribs. Very painful! (I’d never been hooked up to oxygen before — it’s not as fun as I’d heard.)
     I guess I’ll need to look for a suit of armor to wear when bushwhacking with Sorpresa.

New iTV about Horses!
Marlane, whose horse High Sierra is one of the Beautiful Horses of Ohio, sent me a link to a new website: www.westernhorseitv.com. The website has the sweetest story about twin Appaloosas. Marlane co-wrote the story with Pat. I think you’ll like it!

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September 2007

Horse Paintings Newsletter

Vote for your Favorite Beautiful Horses of Ohio Painting!

All the Beautiful Horses of Ohio paintings are now online, and you can vote for your favorite! I wish I could say all 48 are done, but that would not be QUITE true, because I cheated and put up one “in progress.” That would be “Dynamo and little Diva,” which is just about halfway done—it won’t be completely finished for about a month. But you might like to see what a painting in progress looks like! If you use your imagination, you can guess what it’ll look like when complete!

To vote, just go to my website (www.karenbrenner.com), and click on the “Vote” link. It will take you to a page with all the paintings. At the bottom of the page is a form to use to cast your vote. Everyone can vote one time online. Plus one time in person at the show on Sunday, November 4 from 1-5 pm at my home studio — 3613 Triway Lane, Wooster, Ohio. Everyone is welcome to come to the show! Please invite your friends!

The Beautiful Horses of Ohio project includes stories about each horse. The paintings with their stories are divided up —and appear on four pages of my website. Newly added stories include fellow OHC member Bob’s horse Fuego Del Sol (I love what he wrote about his horse — it’s good reading!); a wonderful Friesian mare, Alectra; the fabulous Quarter Horse stallion Tucker; the Gypsy Vanner Romany King; and LOTS, LOTS more. You can read about all the horses before you cast your vote! (But it’s not required.)

Why vote? The horse painting that gets the most votes will be added to my line of Café Press gift items. And there will be a drawing of all the people who voted online and/or in person, and the winner will receive $25 worth of merchandise from my shop.

MJ International
MJ International had licensed one of my paintings, Walmac Morning, and is offering it to retail stores on various stuff. Just think one day you might see my work in a store where you live. Here’s a link their home page: http://www.mjintl.com/

Riding News
Weather in Ohio has been fantastic, especially if you like hot and steamy like I do! My husband Will and I got to go trail riding at Mohican and Rocky River. And we got to help our club, the Wayne County Ohio Horsemen’s Council, and about 46 dedicated volunteers from all over Ohio with some trail work at Mohican. If you’re familiar with riding there, eventually the green trail will go all the way to the Mohican Lodge. Will can hardly wait for that 30 mile trail ride! But, I must emphasize, the green trail extension is not yet open.

We are hoping to go to the Chili Cook Off at Mohican on Saturday, September 15. Not to camp, but to ride and eat. Maybe we’ll see you there!

Sorpresa and I continue to frustrate my wonderful dressage instructor Deb Gasser. We practice very hard at it!

Sky Bus
Our trip to visit our son in California was fantastic! I, who hate to fly, am now in love with Sky Bus. We got a super low rate on our tickets, had a direct flight from Columbus, OH, to LA, and got to ride in a very new airplane! I’d recommend Sky Bus to anyone who travels out of Columbus — or to Columbus. A++ for Sky Bus!

Utube
You might think I’m addicted to Utube, but then you realize I spell it incorrectly, and think, No, she’s not. Anyway I did happen upon some good horse videos:

First, for anyone who isn’t familiar with dressage, or who loves dressage, here is a lovely clip from Casa Lusitana:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8ujdjyloe8&mode=related&search=

Speaking of dressage, here’s one you MUST see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De0vL53EDgU&NR=1

And one for my friend Becky and others who like horse raceing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYFIJu-W38c&mode=related&search=

Happy riding!

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June 21, 2007

Horse Paintings by Karen Brenner Newsletter

Painting News

Today I’ll start drawing the final of my 50 Beautiful Horses of Ohio paintings! Since I first began the project in January 2006, I spent most of last summer traveling around Ohio photographing wonderful horses, and started drawing painting number one at the end of last summer, I have to say this is an exciting day for me! I’ve spent most of my lunch hours at work drawing. What will I do after this drawing is done???? No fear, I have paintings planned from photos I took at a ranch in Texas that had fantastic Spanish Mustangs, plus the American Gold Cup stadium jumping photos, and photos from the fun hunt club trials that I dragged Will to down near Cincinnati. Wow, I don't think I'll ever run out of inspiring horses to paint!

Plus I’ll need to start organizing that exhibit—Sunday, November 4— of the Beautiful Horses of Ohio.

Life is just so exciting!

Since the last newsletter, I’ve completed paintings of Stetson and Walnut Creek Sun, who are Rocky Mountain Horses; Sharpsburg, an American Saddlebred; Wildfire, a bay Arabian; Potentially Famous, a quarter horse; Gable’s Secret Sun, a Morgan; and Aarial, an Arabian. Here’s a link to these Beautiful Horses of Ohio: http://www.karenbrenner.com/beautiful_horses_of_OHIO_gallery.html. (You’ll need to click on the link on the far right of the page to go to a second page in order to see all of the paintings.)

California Here We Come!

Because one of my sons moved to Oceanside—near San Diego—a few months ago, Will and I are planning to travel there early next month. I hope to visit a ranch or two to photograph some West Coast horses. Let me know if you know of any interesting ranches in that area.

We’ll be flying on a new airline that goes out of Columbus, Ohio, called SkyBus. We could have gotten one way tickets for $50, but I procrastinated, and instead had to pay $125 round trip. (What a deal!) I hear they make money by allowing advertising on the plane, and am wondering if I’ll be sitting by an insurance salesman who gives me his sales talk, or end up buying a condo, or what???? I’ll let you know what happens.

Riding News

I’ve started taking dressage lessons with Deb Gasser (instructor) and Sorpresa (my horse). I have to say, we’re not very good, but that’s what makes dressage interesting. There are so many things to learn and perfect. So far we haven’t perfected anything. But believe me we’ve tried hard!

Sorpresa, who does a fantastic Spanish Walk, likes to revert to that when she should be trotting forward. Plus I’d taught her the beginning of how to do a piaffe, which she decides to do sometimes when she should be doing lateral movements in a forward motion.

And now we are privately working on the Spanish Trot. Don’t tell Deb, because in our dressage practice Sopresa is now throwing in some rough attempts at Spanish Trotting when she should be trotting strongly forward.

Can you tell we are struggling with anything “forward?” I wonder if we have to master forward before Deb will teach us the mounted capriole — that’s my ultimate goal! (And, as I tell my friends, my other goal is to join the Spanish Riding School—but I’m not serious about THAT one.)

Horse Tricks

Have you seen the video of the horse who is an artist? Check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmYrXAdZziw

Inspired by the video, I’ve started teaching one of my Quarter Horse, DJ, to paint. So far he’s just done the barn, … his next project —the window trim of the house. My husband just hates to paint. Just kidding about those paint jobs… but DJ has learned to hold a BIG paint brush — I learned that size is VERY important after DJ swallowed one of those GIANT playing cards a few years ago when I was teaching him a card trick. He can also make brush strokes on the side of the barn and then hand the paint brush back to me! Next - actual paint - but since he sometimes misses the barn and "paints" me, I've been putting that off....Someday I’ll make a video!

I’ve really been enjoying the warm Ohio weather! Hope you're having good riding weather wherever you live!

- Karen

April 29, 2007

Wow, April is flying by! The Ohio weather has been a mix of good days to go riding combined with cold and rainy days — which translates into good days to stay inside and paint!

Beautiful Horses of Ohio
The Beautiful Horses of Ohio series is rolling along nicely. I’ve completed the first 18 paintings — you’ve seen them if you’ve been regularly checking on my website’s “Feature of the Week.” Most recently completed paintings include Two Bits, a Connemara Pony; Prepstress, a Thoroughbred mare; Wijnand “Thor,”a Friesian; Wiz and Sprout, Haflingers; and Woody, a Dutch Harness Horse. Here’s a link to a page that includes pictures of each painting and a short story about each horse: www.karenbrenner.com/beautiful_horses_of_OHIO_gallery.html.

Keep Sunday, November 4, free so you can come to the Beautiful Horses of Ohio exhibit and see all the paintings! I’m planning to hold the show at my home in Wooster, Ohio, and everyone is invited.

Celebrate 50
As many of you know, I’ll be celebrating my 50th birthday soon! To mark the occasion, I’ve pulled together 50 of my favorite paintings and have them displayed on a special page on my website. I’d love to hear from you about which is your favorite. Take a look at the paintings, then email me and let me know which is your favorite.
Here’s the website: www.karenbrenner.com/celebrate50_paintings.html
Email me at: kmbrenner@hotmail.com

Any other almost-50 or 50-something out there????
If you are almost-50 or 50-somehthing, check out this neat website (you’ll even love the name): www.boomergirl.com.
It’s got everything a boomer girl could want — AND — if you go to the Create/Art link you’ll see an artist you know—It’s me! Why struggle: here’s a link right to the page: www.boomergirl.com/photos/galleries/sets/artists/

Thanks, Boomer Girl, for including my artwork on your groovy website!

Exploring Art
Artwork, artwork, artwork! I love artwork. As a fun project, I spent months searching the internet for beautiful artwork. Where better to seek it than gallery websites. Through months and months of researching over 800 sites, I found some remarkable galleries — that each have unique beautiful artwork.

It's so inspiring to see what artists are creating!

I put a Favorite Galleries page on my website with links to my eclectic group of — well —favorite galleries. Some of their artwork is representational, some of it modern. Check it out. You'll see a variety of subjects and styles with one common theme -- these galleries represent beautiful artwork. Click away and enjoy!
Here’s the website: www.karenbrenner.com/celebrate50_galleries.html

Aiken was HOT!
I love hot weather, and our trip last month to Aiken was HOT! Perfect weather, since I love warm, sunny days. We drove straight to Windsor Trace, where we plan to retire on 6 acres in the developing horse-centered subdivision. How fun to see the land mostly cleared and ready for sprigging (that’s planting little grass sprouts, from what I can understand). Our 6 acres still has about 40 tall, skinny oak trees that did not interest the loggers who came in and took down hundreds of pines that were a timber crop planted, I believe, for International Paper. We planted our tiny trees from the Arbor Day Society in a corner of the property and hoped for the best! I’ve been watching the precipitation in South Caroline regularly — and the baby trees should be doing just fine (lots of rain). We went to Outback with our wonderful Realtor, Betsy Lamb; checked out the new gallery space where Equine Divine will be moving — two blocks up the street in downtown Aiken; and then went on to Charleston for a bit of fun.

Barbaro Memorial Fund
My “horsey” friend at work, Becky, gave me a Riding with Barbaro commemorative wristband. You can get one too, and make a donation to the Barbaro Memorial Fund to benefit equine health and safety research at ridingwithbarbaro.org.

Calling all Friesian Lovers
I’m so excited that The Friesian Horse Association of North America will hold the 2007 World Friesian horse Extravaganza in Springfield, Ohio! It will be October 25-27 and will have competitions for Mares and Geldings along with Stallion Spotlights. I’m planning to attend. Here’s a link to the website: www.fhana.com.

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March Newsletter

March 7, 2007

It’s March and spring is on the way! I was talking with a friend who said they’ve been riding a lot this winter, which struck me as odd until I remembered she has an indoor arena! Ah ha! It simply hasn’t been riding weather in Ohio since — say October. My lovely horses are lounging in the barn at night and spending leisurely days outside. They aren’t complaining! (Just me.)

Of course a few weeks ago when we got 20 inches of snow in one day, I had to have them pose for some photos. The wind chill was about 20 below, so the photos are a bit blurring because my hands were shivering violently as I was snapping away.

Noon Lions Presentation

Last month’s talk to the Wooster Noon Lions was really fun. The crowd sat nicely through the Power Point presentation of my photos and paintings. They really liked the photos of Amos, the West Chester police horse, who demonstrated crowd control on my husband! Amos is part of the Beautiful Horses of Ohio series, and is the current feature of the week. I’ve included some of the “crowd control” photos in Amos’ write up on the Beautiful Horses of Ohio page, so you can see how he uses his head to push people around.

Going South!

Later this month, we are traveling to Aiken, South Carolina, (warm weather here I come!). We plan to visit with Lydia at Equine Divine, maybe see Besty Lamb, our fantastic Realtor, and plant a few trees on the land we got last year — the site of our future retirement home. Then we’re going to Charleston for a few days.

It was fun researching trees that grow in the south. I’ll get to try lots of new plants! If you like trees, check out this website for the National Arbor Day Foundation, which sells trees: http://www.arborday.org/index.cfm. I thought the trees would be 2 or 3 inches tall (like we ordered from our county many, many years ago when we first bought our Wooster property —– those were so small that after we’d planted about 25 tiny trees, my husband (who’d helped plant them) accidently mowed over them! Didn’t hurt them at all! Anyway, as I was placing my order, I realized some of the National Arbor Day trees are 3-4 feet tall! Hope they all fit in my car for the trip south!

Southwest?

I just found out my son is transferring to California. His new job will be in San Marcos, CA. He’s excited! I guess I’ll have to plan a trip to California soon!

Equine Affaire

The Equine Affaire is held in Columbus each spring, with dozens of trainers doing seminars, hundreds of vendors selling everything horsey and breed demonstrations where you can see some fantastic horses! I’m sure most of you know all about it, but if you don’t, here is a link: http://www.equineaffaire.com. It will be April 12-15, 2007.

Links:

Here are a few other links that my friends have forwarded to me that you might enjoy!

Police horses in an amazing show (don’t try this at home):

http://www.olympiahorseshow.com/show/metvideo.htm

Outstanding freestyle Dressage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKQgTiqhPbw&mode=related&search=

Happy riding to all!

Karen

February Newsletter

February 5, 2007

Happy Winter! Yesterday and today are the coldest days so far in Ohio this year. Minus 5 with a wind chill of minus 20. And the good thing is the school where my husband teaches was cancelled due to the cold and he volunteered to do the barn chores this morning!

Yesterday Holly Clanahan, the Assistant Editor from America’s Horse magazine came to interview me for a story in a future issue. I asked her how she’d heard of me and she said that someone had forwarded her a copy of my newsletter! I want to thank whoever that was! Holly was one of the nicest people I’ve ever met! We had fun chatting. Because America’s Horse is of course a Quarter Horse magazine, we went out to the barn and she took some pictures of my Quarter Horses, DJ, Ollie and Echo. Despite the 5 degree temperature they were very well behaved and even did some of their tricks for Holly. DJ does a cute stretch — although he usually only does it between 6—7 am —but he did that for Holly mid-afternoon! Ollie did a nice bow. And then DJ and Echo smiled for the camera. Holly lives in Oklahoma and has seven horses, who her husband was caring for as she traveled around interviewing Ohioans for stories. She had been to a hoof care seminar in Cincinnati and was going to visit the owner of a cheese factory and Swiss Restaurant in Charm, which is located in Holmes County just south of here! He has quarter horses!

It was fun being interviewed by Holly. I only got one question wrong— but corrected myself quickly. (How could I have forgotten—even for an instant—how many children I have????) I guess I was a bit nervous. Speaking of nervous, I get to talk to the Wooster Noon Lions Club this week about my paintings. I’ve never given a speech to a big group, so I am a bit nervous. I’ve put together a Power Point presentation so I might be able to fall back on visuals if all else fails!

One thing the Lions might be interested in is my “Beautiful Horses of Ohio” series. I have about six paintings done, with 44 more to go. I’m starting to draw number 24 at work this week, so you can imagine how many are lining the walls of my studio/living room in various stages of completion. Many of you know I’m posting one new painting each week on my website with a short story about the horse and owner. This week Roxi and her foal are featured. What a beautiful splashy paint!

Did you know I’ll be celebrating my 50th birthday this spring? I wanted to do something a bit crazy to celebrate, so I created “CELEBRATE 50 — an art event that is all about 50.” Right now I am hoping to get 50 galleries to each sponsor one of the 50 paintings on my special “CELEBRATE 50” website for the 50 days around my birthday. If the painting that gallery sponsors, they get a 50 percent commission! See—it’s all about 50! If you know a gallery that might be interested, please let me know!

The other part of CELEBRATE 50 is “CELEBRATION STORIES.” You are the first to find out about this special addition I have planned for my website. It will feature stories about how other people who have celebrated a special birthday in unique way. Do you have a special celebration story? Please tell me if you do! I have a handy form on my website for you to use to submit your story!

January 1, 2007

Happy New Year!

The first painting in a project I began early in 2006—Beautiful Horses of Ohio—is done! For those of you who are not familiar with the project, a year ago I invited horse owners in Ohio to nominate their horses for this new series of paintings. Many were nominated, and many were chosen, although unfortunately I could not include everyone. I did pick 49 horses, and my husband and I spend many weekends in May, June, July and August traveling around my home state photographing beautiful horses and meeting the wonderful people who had nominated them. It was tons of fun! (And I still have three more horse to photograph, so I’m not done with that part of the project yet!) In September I started painting, and because it takes three months or so to complete a painting, the first paintings are just now getting DONE!! I will be posting one painting in the “Feature of the Week” section of my website each week. Yes, it’s going to take most of 2007! Along with the picture of the painting, I’ll include an excerpt from the horse’s nominator, and perhaps a bit of information from my visit with the horse as well.

Don’t miss the FIRST horse in the Beautiful Horses of Ohio series—Rease, a fantastic standardbred race horse! His painting is this week’s Feature of the Week. And I just loved what his owner had to tell me! See Rease on my website at www.karenbrenner.com. I’ve added a “Beautiful Horses of Ohio” Gallery on my website where you’ll eventually be able to see all 49 paintings.

When all the paintings in the series are completed I will exhibit them in a show at my studio. I hope you’ll be able to come! Pencil in November 4, 2007, on your calendar. That’s my goal! I’ll let you know as the date approaches if I’m going to make it! Only 48 more paintings to go!

What are your goals for 2007? I hope you all have high hopes and that all your dreams come true. Start making them happen today!

- Karen

HORSE PAINTINGS NEWSLETTER March 2010

Indiana to be next state for the “Beautiful Horses of ….” series

Beautiful Horses of Pennsylvania Update

Going to the Dogs . . .

Press Releases