"Snowman and Harry"

"The Eighty Dollar Champion, The Horse That Inspired a Nation", a New York Times bestseller by Elizabeth Letts has introduced the uplifting story of Snowman and Harry de Leyer to a whole new generation.

In keeping with this new stage of a wonderful story, I’ve created this original painting to honor both the memory of Snowman and his best friend, Harry de Leyer. Harry is now 86 years old and still going out to the barn everyday working with his beloved horses. When Mr. de Leyer saw a photo of the painting in its final stages, he said the following:

“It brought tears to my eyes…you got the slope of his shoulder that made him such a good jumper…and his eyes…they are perfect…the soft eyes that I first noticed about him…it is exactly Snowman”    Harry de Leyer

It has been an honor to work on this project for The International Museum of the Horse. This 14 x 18 oil painting will hang in its permanent collection in Lexington, Kentucky.  A formal presentation took place at the Kentucky Horse Park’s Rolex Stadium on July 27, 2013 during the Hats Off Day celebration. The author, Elizabeth Letts and Harry de Leyer were in attendance for the festivities. To say it was a memorable experience to be able to get to know both of these very talented people would be an understatement!

Limited edition giclee prints of "Snowman and Harry" are now available.  100% of the proceeds in sales from this giclee print edition of 250 will be divided between the Kentucky Equine Humane Center and The Kentucky Horse Park Foundation.  This year marked the 10^th anniversary of Dr. Tom Riddle’s dedicated support of these two organizations through this fundraising event sponsored by Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital of Lexington,KY.

Order forms for a giclee print of “Snowman and Harry” on 100% cotton paper are available through a downloadable order form found at www.lakehillstudio.com

Check back….I’ll post some pictures of this memorable weekend soon………

Summer is Flying By !

Since my last post at the end of April I've been to Alaska with Len and a group of friends, to Delaware to visit family and to Florida for our summer family beach trip ( ahhh..my blood pressure just went down thinking of that one .... :-) ) So....when I stepped foot back in the studio I have been working long hours on some commissions and a very special project that I'll blog about soon.
Recharged and excited about all of my in progress paintings.

 In the meantime,  here are a few shots from Alaska .... an incredibly wild and beautiful place. If it's not on your bucket list, it should be ! The first picture is a view of a glacier while flying into Taku Lake Lodge near Juneau on a float plane.  The next one are some of the incredible sled dogs who were anxious to give us a spin on the training sleds at the summer camp near Skagway.  The Third picture is the black bear visitor who cleans up the good juices in the sand under the big outdoor salmon grill at Taku Lodge.  No he is not tame.  I had a long lens :-). The last shot was a crab from a very fun 3 hour cruise on the Aleutian Ballad in Ketchikan.  Yes, the vessel is retired from the t.v. show "Deadliest Catch"..... I'm thinking this life is much easier demonstrating rather than actually heading out to the Bering Sea!
No wonder the summer is flying by.... back to the easel......