For Love of a Gray Horse: 2012

Monday, December 24, 2012

Brandy

Tenderness...Mouse and her newborn, Danny

Django the "snowman"

Riley

Sadie

Merry Christmas from me and all of the critters!

Saturday, September 29, 2012

New Website and Updated Storefront

At the beginning of this week, I wasn't too happy with my choice in web hosts. I went for a savings and at first it looked like I'd ended up buying that proverbial "pig in a poke" but after a few frustrating days using their web building program instead of my own, I'm not only satisfied with my site, I'm overjoyed with parts of it...namely the built in slide show! WhooHoo!

I can't share the slide show here but I can give you a link so you can check it out! SLIDE SHOW
While you're there, check out the entire new website and let me know what you think. The new website domain is, sandeelkinsart.com.

I've also totally updated my Etsy Storefront.

And a new Facebook page (click the image for link) that encompasses all of my shops, blogs, and lines. Like the site, too...I need more than 28 fans:)

There's also lots of news, new treasuries and the like on the GHD Facebook page.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Cash

It is with great sadness that I report of the passing of one of my favorite equine models and friends, Cash. Cash passed away yesterday and his death has broken many hearts but none more so than the heart he owned, his "Mom", Juli Matz. I created the image above as a tribute to him and have had it printed and sent to Juli. The base image of him was taken last August and he was trotting by looking straight at Juli not me. I think you can see the love in his eyes. He was an exceptional horse, not only obviously beautiful but so smart and full of so much personality. He will be missed. Cashy, I hope you're jumping over the clouds today.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Larger Prints-Lower Prices!

As I've heard said here in these Tennessee hills, "You can't beat that with a stick!" I'm offering larger prints for a lower price and still FREE shipping!

Three Prints that I've recently added or updated and I'll be adding more over the next few days:

Heavenly Light

11x16 print for $26.00 and shipping is on me.

Photographers call the fog atmosphere and light beams like this are called God's light. It's been several years since I clicked the shutter on this image but I still remember that amazing morning when all of the elements and the horses came together to make magic!

Tenderness

11x14 inch print for $22.00 and again no charge for shipping.

At the time of Danny's birth, I was very scared being a first time horse mom but this was Mouse's second foal and she had the process down pat including the bonding. This "photo montage" was created with a photo taken just two hours after Danny arrived. I think we all fell instantly in love with him but Mouse most of all. I tell the entire story of that morning in May in the description of this image on its Etsy page. It was very traumatic for me and at the same time totally joyous and amazing. Watching a new life come into the world is truly miraculous. I hope this image conveys at least a small bit of the joy and wonder we felt.

Rainy Days and Mondays

11x14 inch print for $22.00

An older print taken with a camera that didn't allow very large files and certainly didn't provide sharp detail but this is one print from that camera that I love just for that reason. It's almost abstract in both design with its strong contrasts which accentuate the strong lines and beautiful forms and balance of the image and only the horse's head is in sharp detail and focus while the rest of the image seems to melt into the muddied and puddled background. I guess I'm showing my age with the title;-). For those of you not born before 1972, it was a song by a brother and sister duo known as The Carpenters. He played the piano and she sang like an angel. The rest of the line went, "Rainy days and Mondays always get me down." Here's the video...enjoy!

Saturday, June 30, 2012

An oldie but goodie that I came across last night. It's made up of old shots of my sweet girl, Mousie and a wonderful song by The Waifs, Pony.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

COMING SOON!

I'm in the process of cleaning out my old workshop which has stood neglected for over six years now but sadly not empty since Steve, my husband, has been using it as his personal storage unit, haha. I'm also converting one of our bedrooms into a very nice studio space for "clean" work such as painting, drawing, and jewelry design. I know that none of those are necessarily what you'd think of as "clean" endeavors but trust me, compared to wood sculpture, they all can very much be described that way.

Still, mess, sawdust and all, I'm eager to start creating wood sculpture once again. My enthusiasm has returned and my creative juices are boiling! There are so many ideas and creatures in my head who are just leaping about trying to get out. Hopefully, the prep work will be done soon and I can start building an inventory, stock my two Etsy stores (Gray Horse Designs & S.Elkins~Folk Art,) finish my new websites (which are coming along nicely...you can see an example in the post below but I've done quite a bit of tweaking since I posted that image; the pages look even better now!), and post some links on here. There will be a directory of the website which you can link to directly from this page just as you can link from any of them to here (Home, Buy, Contact, Blog/News.) There will also be a listing of "brick and mortar" stores and galleries where you can view and buy my work (I'm really excited because I've already been approached by several galleries and I plan on contacting others to see if they are interested in carrying my work.) There will be a listing of LINKS to my other blogs, Facebook pages, other websites and other outlets for my work as in sites like Zazzle and others that sell products branded with my GHD designs.

I'm really excited about all of these changes and I'll announce each one of them here as soon as they are ready to launch.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Preview of New Website

As many of you may have already notice, my website has been down since January. I haven't been in a big hurry to get it running again because I want to not only add new mediums with wood sculpture, paintings and drawings, and hand crafted jewelry but I also plan to revamp the entire site. This blog is a small example of how it will look. Here also is a mockup of the new home page which shows the layout and style of the entire site. There will be four photos representing each medium instead of the single photo shown here but I had to have a photo to get my sizes and layout right. I hope that this new sight and my new online stores will be up and running by the end of July.

Friday, May 4, 2012

SOLD!

It's been a bit of dry spell but a print of this image, Olaf Contemplates, just sold over in my Etsy store, http://www.etsy.com/shop/Grayhorsedesigns.

Danny Turns Two!!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Photo a Day

Well, maybe on the blog, it should just be one a week or the entire blog will be photos ;-).
For this beautiful Spring day, Danny's first run, May 2nd, 2010.

Friday, March 30, 2012

Facebook Updates

Yesterday was a busy day for me. It started with an escaped horse, Mouse (the original gray horse :) and ended with my tax files finally being restored after either my computer or software (still not certain which one to blame) ate an entire days worth of work. Luckily, the receipts were still sorted so I put them into the computer much faster this time and I also remembered to SAVE. In between those two adventures, I managed to design new banners for my Facebook "fan" pages. The new Timeline format allows for a personalized banner or as they call it, cover photo, at the top of each page. Tomorrow, all pages, both personal and fan, will automatically switch over to the new format so I had no time to waste or I'd have an empty spot at the top of my pages.

These are the banners that I came up with for each of my business pages. I'm very pleased with all of them. What do you think?

Gray Horse Designs (my base page, base businesss, that encompasses all of the others):

LINK To page

Sande Elkins (I wanted one that used my name so that those that only know me that way could find me.):

LINK
I love this photo of Django.

S. Elkins ~ Folk Art (When I finally get my workshop and studio space finished, I will be adding any equine sculpture I do to my Gray Horse Designs gallery on Etsy.com but all other sculpture will be going into the S. Elkins ~ Folk Art gallery and will be featured on this Facebook page and accompanying blog.):

LINK
The mermaid worked perfectly for the banner because of her length and I love this funky font I found to do the title. It fits to a capital T.

The Tennessee Equestrian (As many of you know, this project has been in the works for a while. I hope that I can finally bring it to fruition this year with an e-zine and possibly a print version to accompany the already popular Facebook page and group, Tennessee Horse Owners and Businesses.):

LINK

About Me & Gray Horse Designs

I've always had artistic leanings. I was drawing stick figures before I could talk. Friends recall that I was constantly drawing or painting as a child. I grew up and I did major in art in college but I never could find direction. I kept switching majors and trying so many different things trying to find the one that fit, the one that fulfilled me. I seemed destined for a while to be a lifetime student. Then one day, I found myself out of work, burned out on school, and very depressed because I'd also just suffered a miscarriage. I was alone at home and totally at loose ends when I picked up a piece of wood and began to see a horse in it. The irony of that will become more evident later in this story but the truth was, that as soon as I touched a knife to that block of wood, it was magic. I felt as if I'd come home. From that one piece of scrap wood and a small cheap craft knife, a business grew and took on a life of its own. I started creating whimsical, wood sculptures and I sold my work all over the world. Then one day, at a crafts exhibition in Chicago, I met the head of Enesco's new gift wares section and my career took off in yet another direction. I designed several very successful lines for them over the next five years but after fifteen years in this business, I started slowing down and losing my enthusiasm. I decided that I'd try another medium but like trying to find my direction in life those many years before, this wasn't an easy task.

I knew that I still wanted to be creative but I didn't know what medium I wanted to try next. So, I tried many but no magic, no flashes of inspiration. Then one day, my husband and I were sitting on a Mexican beach relaxing and enjoying the salty breezes and beautiful views. It was his 50th birthday. He told me how much he was enjoying himself and he asked me what I was going to want for my 50th birthday which would be coming around in two years. I didn't even hesitate before I answered him. "A horse!" I said simply and to the point. I'd wanted a horse for as long as I could remember and I knew that if I didn't get one soon, I'd never get one. So, from the moment we touched down on US soil, I began my quest. There were two things that I didn't realize at the time, that my horse would actually arrive soon after my 49th birthday and that she would totally change my life. Everyone told me that at my "advancing" age, I surely needed a gaited horse because their smooth gait was much easier on aging joints. I began my search knowing nothing about horses or even what I really wanted and certainly nothing about what I needed in a horse.

I was lucky because I met two great horse ladies who pointed me in the right direction. The first told me that the horse I wanted was a Missouri Fox Trotter and the second lady, Fran Forester, offered to help me find the perfect MFT for me. She told me about a man she knew who knew more about horses and specifically more about MFTs than anyone she'd ever met. The only problem was, he very seldom agreed to sell one of his horses. Then one day, she contacts me and she is very excited. The man, Huston Jenkins, was selling some of his horses and one of them was the dapple gray that I'd been dreaming of. I'd told everyone that I wanted a dapple gray horse and when I found her, I would call her Mouse. Huston's niece had promised to take some photos of the gray horse and email them to me. They arrived in the middle of the night but I had been waiting for them. I printed them and thumbtacked them to the bathroom wall beside the mirror so that they'd be the first thing my husband, Steve, saw when he got up the next morning. I wrote across the photos, "This is the ONE!!" I'd decided that as soon as I saw her but I was even more convinced that it was fate when I saw her papered name, Mouse's Funny Face. My fate was sealed.

That was over five years ago and that beautiful, dapple gray mare has since become my muse, my inspiration, my teacher and my life. I started doing equine photography and art because of her. I've met so many wonderful people and horses because of her. My herd has grown from one horse to five now. The latest was a gift from Mouse two years ago, our sweet, lovable and beautiful Danny (Traveler's Sensational Flyby.) I have a blog dedicated to Danny called Fly By Danny Boy that tells his story.

For several years, I tried to start a new business doing strictly equine photography but I soon discovered that this is the wrong economic climate for starting a new business of any type but especially one that's primary product is a luxury. I've been doing art my entire life so I'm not ready to give it up. In fact, my solution is to diversify. I plan on cleaning out my workshop and studio and starting to do wood sculpture again as well as painting and drawing and hopefully handcrafted jewelry. My old enthusiasm and creative drive have returned in force. All of the mediums that I'm delving into will be diverse in subject as well but I'd be willing to bet the farm on the fact that the majority of art work will be equine in theme.