The Painted Ponies

[Helpful Hint - There will be a lot of images in this post. They will open on a phone, but I would sincerely advise you to check out the post on your device with the largest screen. The primary image is 17x22" and so the smaller the screen the greater the compromise in image quality. I'm try\ing to figure out how to show it on our TV :-)]

So I was working on one of the images I mentioned in the post Horsing Around and the old -1966- Joni Mitchell song "The Circle Game" came on:

And the seasons they go round and round

And the painted ponies go up and down . .

And go round and round and round

In the circle game.

 

Since that time I have never been able to think of the image as anything but The Painted Ponies. So here they are:

The cast: All the ponies are based on this image that I posted in the Horsing Around post - quite fitting as that pony was "a captive on a carousel." [Trivia note: Carousels rotate counter-clockwise, Merry-go-Rounds - clockwise. Interesting, huh?]

I give you the dimensions of the Painted Ponies so you can appreciate how creating the designs inside the ponies became increasingly difficult.

The bottom row of ponies can be envisioned as fitting inside a 6x5 rectangle:

The middle row in a 5x4 rectangle

And the top row 3.5x2.5

So that is the story of The Painted Ponies. But let me leave you with a hint of "coming attractions:" I think of my images as examples of "compressionism" in that they can often be thought of as two or more separate images that have been compressed into one. With Painted Ponies you think of the Ponies as one image and the Background as another. Watch this space for a further discussion of Compressionism 😀