Horses and grapes

I've been steadily working away in small bursts on the portrait of Lady. Its one of the few times that I've included a 'real' background for an animal. I'm usually in a hurry and end up with a generic colour background instead of a detailed image. This time it just seemed right to add her common surroundings. It is slow going as the background takes as much time as the horse to complete and the size of the image makes it slower still.

Artists are such self critical animals. We are so rarely satisfied with our work and no matter how long we look at something we will always find a section to change or a section that doesn't please. I can be satisified overall with the image and its usually best that it leaves my hands at that point or I'll pick at it til I am either satisfied or I overwork the piece.

Most of the grapes have been harvested from the greenhouse. They are so very ripe now and almost unbearably sweet, like candy. They are white seedless grapes, called Interlaken and there are two grapevines in the greenhouse. The third vine is Pinot Noir- a purple seeded grape. They have all borne copious amounts of fruit this year. This bucketfull is destined for the freezer to be made into grapejuice or added to wine when I get around to it. Ice wine perhaps?

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