Merry Christmas

I originally thought I'd stop painting the farm cards after the tenth year.  That was a nice round number and I was having trouble thinking of new "scenes" for upcoming years.  I shared that with some folks, probably at the Kentucky Wool Festival, and new ideas started coming in from all over...so I kept going.

I've enjoyed painting all of these cards.  It's been fun watching them progress over the years.  I invented the scenes and Tim came up with all of my favorite clever titles.  I'm not sure if we started adding text to the backs to explain the titles or maybe the design itself, but that became almost as much of the card as the fronts.

I'm so flattered when people tell me they save the cards each year and some even set them out as part of their holiday decorations.  Back in 2011 I was incredibly honored to be featured in an episode of one of our favorite tv shows, KET's Kentucky Life.  

I just went back and rewatched the story and am so grateful to have that sweet time capsule of Hank and all those good old sheep and horse friends.  I kept expecting to see Maisie and realized that she hasn't actually been here forever.  

I've made a lot of friends with these silly paintings, one in particular, a retired art teacher who I met through blogging and got up the courage to email to ask if she could help me figure out something I was struggling with. I know longer remember which year that was, but it was long ago at this point.  

I didn't have to call her for help with this year's card and I was sort of sad about that, but proud that I've learned enough from her over the years that I was able to pull it off mostly on my own. Thank you, Lori.  It's been a privilege to talk art and horses and life in general all these years.

Thank you also to another good artist and friend, Robin, who always helps bounce ideas around, especially when another artist friend who lives in Texas just laughs when I ask her a question about painting snow ;-).  It's always been a team effort, even down to the proof reading.  Thank you!

Going forward, I'm sure I'm still going to create a Christmas card each year, but I'm looking forward to trying some new ideas and techniques.  I can't imagine not sending out at least a few cards.  I sure enjoy receiving them.

Merry Christmas!