Robin Hood

As I said in the last post, I've been painting a lot this month as time allows, and as the deadline to putting the carousel back up is approaching.  In contrast to the winter horse, here's a nice summery steed.  I was inspired by the story of Robin Hood, and of childhood dreams of camping and roaming the leafy woods.  She has acorns on her bridle, and arrows shooting ahead.

First, here is a photo of the original paint.  I'm trying to take these as I go, to preserve some record of Annie's work.

Oh, the look on their faces!  It's really hard to get photos of these horses from the inner ring, they tend to look a little panicked.

Thanks to Kayla at the History Center for looking up photos of pinto horses for me, and pointing out that they often have black streaks in their manes.

-Christi

Not Frozen, but definitely freezing

The winter of 2015 turned out to the coldest on record in Ithaca.  Loads of snow, ice dams on everyone's eaves, negative temperature nights.  This turned out to be a good source of carousel horse inspiration!  Here's my winter horse, a pretty white pony with the winter constellation Orion on her saddle and icicles and snowflakes.

These blues also happen to be one of my favorite color palettes.  I'm sure the legions of little girls who love that current favorite movie will be calling this "Anna's Horse," but I really didn't intend any of that.

We will continue to paint at the History Center now through the end of April.  Plans are afoot to put the carousel back up in the middle of May, and we starting to think about a big party at midsummer!  More about that as the time approaches.

-Christi