Sunday, January 15, 2017

Charlie the Race Horse: A Portrait

For a while now, I've wanted to do something to honor and pay homage to Charlie's racing career. Racing was a major part of his life to date, and he had many connections who really believed in him as a race horse.

When I read that Alyssa was accepting commissions to offset Bacon's emergency veterinary bills....well. It was a no brainer. Alyssa's artwork is lovely - she has an uncanny ability to capture each individual horse's expression. (I mean, c'mon, did you see her portrait of Bobby?!?)

Plus. Alyssa knows race horses. Who better to immortalize that part of Charlie's history?

  
I sent Alyssa this link to Charlie's win pictures from Parx Racing, where he often ran and sometimes won, and let her choose how to best proceed.

And. Well. I'm just floored. It's so perfect!! Thank you so much, Alyssa!! I love it!!

Obviously I love it so much that it's become Charlie's debut as this blog's star attraction! And of course I couldn't wait until the painting actually arrived to share it with y'all haha - this is a screenshot of a picture of the original piece lol... But the quality of her work, and the truth of his expression are still so apparent.

Eeeeeee I'm so excited and can't wait to hang this beauty up on my wall!! I've never had a portrait of a horse before (or, at least, a horse I know) - just lots of pictures. This somehow feels more special tho. Have you ever gotten portraits of your horses before? As a painting or maybe some other medium?

36 comments:

  1. How cool!!!!
    My sister did a lovely painting of our horses for my Mum. It's very special.

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    1. I bet - somehow these special portraits always feel more important

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  2. I just received mine last week! She does an amazing job. Charlie's is fantastic!!

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  3. She did an amazing job! I have a portrait of my dog but not of the horses. I may have to order one.

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    1. Her dog portraits are so fantastic too. Must always needs more tho!

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  4. Love it! I've got paintings of both Q and Grif by one of my best friends and I have another of Griffin and I by Nicole with colored pencils. All three are amazing and I cherish them above most other possessions. I'm very lucky that my two best friends are such talented artists. They've both done portraits of Kenai for me, too, and I've hinted at wanting some Stan art for the future.

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    1. That's so awesome - talented friends are the best haha. And agreed that these pieces always seem to hold a much higher sentimental value!

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  5. I love horse portraits!
    One day I would love to pay for some really nice paintings of my guys but currently the only portraits that exist where done by myself. It's not quite the same as having someone else capture what you see in your own horse every day.

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    1. Very true. I have zero ability to catch the right expressions lol, I'm better at more, uh, abstract art lol

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  6. It looks great! I've wanted to get portraits of Moe and Gina done for a couple of years, so I took advantage of Alyssa's offer, too. I can't wait to see how they turn out- this makes me even more excited!

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  7. That is awesome! I've had some nice portraits of my horses, but no paintings. Yours is truly special.

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    1. one day we'll do nice photos haha but i take so many myself that it's hard to justify!

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  8. How cool. I have a painting of Dijon and the silhouette of Nilla. I'd like to get a painting of Nilla too.

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  9. Amazing! She's very talented. I'm saving my $ for one of B :)

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  10. That is so lovely! I actually sent my deposit/pic to her last week. Mine won't be done for a month or more (apparently she has gotten a lot of takers LOL!), but am super excited to get one as well!!

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    1. ahh so exciting to see how yours will turn out too! she seems to get through them pretty quickly (equally impressive in its own right haha) so hopefully you'll have yours soon!

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  11. That's fantastic! I want to get one of Cosmo

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  12. This is BEAUTIFUL. I've only done portraits of my dogs... May need to get one dne of Georgie...

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  13. This is so cool! Beautiful yes, but just, I'm not really sure exactly the word I want, but I love it. I have a friend who does these amazing digital paintings, and I once commissioned one of my senior portraits with my high school jumper. Her gorgeous rendering now hangs over my bed. And of course there's Niamh's parercut portrait of Val which is just incredible. I love getting handmade art of my horses. It feels so much more special than a photo.

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  14. Lookin good Charlie! I love that it's now your blog banner as well

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  15. That's a lovely painting! I love Charlie's game face in the photos with a horse right by him.

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  16. Oh hey look, it's my painting! He was so fun to paint. I mean, just look at him. Thank you for for letting me paint him!

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