More work on 'Rested And Ready', work on dogs.

I finally got started on the dogs. Here I had made a start on the laying dog. In the ref, they were on grass but here they are on a dirt ground with lots of brown tones around so I added more brown tones to the dog to make her fit with the scene better. They don't show too well in the photo. More work on the first dog and a start on the second. No brown tones in him yet but I'll add them later.

More work on 'Rested and Ready' painting.

The background is coming along now. I'm itching to get on with the dogs. I had done a lot of work on the ground here with the straw laying about and texture etc.. and started blocking in colour on the nearest barn. More work on the ground and detail coming along on the nearest barn and I also got some work done on the kennel. Still that to finish along with the ground at the front and the nearest barn. I'm wondering whether that kennel needs making a little larger.

Update on Farm Border collies painting.

Here's two new updates on the painting I'm on at the moment. I've been accepted into Holmfirth Artweek so I need to finish this one and do another and have them ready before the end of June.
I have to send entries off before the end of May so I'll have to decide quickly what I'm going to paint next and enter it before it even exists, haha.
Here, you can see more work done on the nearer side of the furthest barn and the gate and I also started putting in layers for the ground. Here, I've refined the gate etc..built up the layers on the ground and started putting in details.

New painting in progress..

After a month or so of artists block, I decided to force myself back into it especially as I have been off work with the pulled back and not able to do much else and also need to get at least a couple more paintings done for exhibitions I wish to enter. I can only work in bursts because my back still doesn't like being in the sitting position for too long or it seizes up. It took long enough to put the photo composite together. The border collies came from a photo I took at our own flyball tournament back in October 08. The farmyard background was from seperate photos I took at a local farm and then the side of the furthest barn, the stone wall and trees/sky were all seperate again. The side of the barn was just a concoction in photoshop along with the kennel. There were a few other changes I made. You can see the messy cloning work on the gate and posts etc...but here is the final result after days and days of messing about. Once that was sorted, I got on with the painting. I'm working from back to front as is usual so here the trees and sky had been put in. The dry stone wall and the side of the barn weren't finished yet in this photo.
You can see a photo stuck to one side with a border collie and terrier in it which shows a wooden kennel that I'll be using as a ref. The border collie is Monty, a dog we bred ourselves when I was a child. He died in 2002. He was also the father of one of my last bitches who died a few weeks before I got Sleet. The terrier we also bred ourselves. He was called Hyde and had a brother, who's in the photo but further over, called Jeckyll. They really were jeckyll and hyde characters and wanted to kill all other dogs. No more terriers after they died. Hyde was run over and killed by a car when he was 8.

Here is more progress on the painting. I did more work on the stone wall and side of the barn so they look much better now. I also started on the nearest side of the barn and also a few bits on the gate and post but I'll finish those once the wall is done. Just base colour so far with the brickwork lines quickly drawn in.

And the cacti get going again.

This is the first post about cacti in this blog because they'd already gone to sleep for the winter by the time I started it so there was nothing to post about them....until now. Now that spring is well underway, they have started growing again...and flowering. I'll have a wait a little longer for the chinopsis hybrids to start putting out their large spectacular blooms but many are budding already so I should have some pretty good shows to look forward to.
At the moment, it is mainly rebutias, echinocereus, mammillarias and a steno that are starting to bloom. Rebutias always put on a good show.
I have tonnes of seeds I collected from hybrid cross matings last year but I haven't gotten around to sowing them yet. The seedlings from last year are growing like mad and looking very well. They are still in the proagator and I'll be taking them out and potting on soon enough. There's adult plants I also want to repot but can't because my back hasn't recovered properly since I pulled it so I'm still restricted as to what I can do.
I recently did a swap with another echinopsis grower in Italy. I sent them a pup of schick 'Candlelight', and they sent me Schick 'Celeste'. A new one to my collection of Schicks.
Those who already know about my cactus growing will know that I started my own breeding programme involving echinopsis hybrids and related types such as lobivia, chamaecereus and trichos. The oldest batch of crosses I produced are now reaching flowering size and I think there are one or two that are budding so I am excited about that. Here's hoping that they have decent flowers on them. If not, on ebay they go.
Here's a photo from today. Mainly rebutia and two echinocereus. The show is just getting going.

Sleet and Wren training pics.

I finally got some more photos of Sleet and Wren flyball training on Sunday. Taken by my sister as I was running them. They are getting there with regards to staying in the hurdles now with just wings here and there if they forget sometimes. They've not done bad being as I usually can't attend training due to having to work most Sundays.
Here's Sleet. She looks weird in all of hers with her back legs tucked under her rather than spread out like all the other dogs seems to do. If you watch her in real life, it's like watching bambi going up and down to the box. She springs over the hurdles like a Gazelle. Very weird!!
She jumps far higher than the 7" hurdles and does better over higher ones.

Wren looks more normal when she jumps. Again, she jumps much higher than the small hurdles. She looks quite graceful to watch and rushes back quickly too for her tuggy. She had a naughty day on Sunday though where she decided to chase one of the other dogs and pinch the ball from their box in the next lane instead of going for the one she was supposed to go for. Little madame.

She'll need more practise with a dog running in an adjacent lane but she never bothered with dogs in the next lane at the two starters tournaments she's been to.

During her second batch of runs, I managed to badly pull my back and I'm still crippled now three days later with two weeks off work sick because of it. All I did was straighten up after releasing her.

Here they are all running around afterwards. Sleet was returning with a ball that had been launched.
And again....

Some of us standing about watching or launching balls. I'd pulled my back by this time so was standing there in pain in this pic. Kath had to take the free run photos after training this time. I couldn't squat to get any myself. Look at that cloudless sky.

Sleet and Wren tricks.

Whilst at our flyball tournament on saturday, I got Kath to take some photos of Sleet and Wren doing a few tricks. Here's a few of them.
Double act: Never done this before because I normally teach them seperately but they just decided to do it. Wren jumps on my back and Sleet weaves between legs. I'll graduate to walking forward with Wren on my back and Sleet can do the walk weave.
Dual heelwork on the same side...they've never done this before either. We haven't done a whole lot of work on this but they seem to be quite good at it. I'll have to work more on it.

Sleet jumps Wren. She then circles me and jumps wren again and keeps repeating until I give the signal and toss the ball.

Wren on my back.

Sleet on my back.