PAINTING - LITTLE BITS OF HAPPINESS - SHE PAINTS FOR PONIES

Please feel free to explore my paintings for inspiration, but note the artwork you are viewing is copyright to Emily Carlson and She Paints For Ponies.

You DO NOT have permission to copy, download, digitalize, and so forth without written permission.

She Paints For Ponies is reader-supported. When you click and purchase through links or images on this page, I may earn an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. Learn More.

PAINTINGS – LITTLE BITS OF HAPPINESS

As I paint from a small space on my hobby farm, I can’t help but be inspired by the beauty of Mother Nature.

I take moments throughout my day to observe the little things happening around me for bits and pieces of playful inspiration.

Whether it’s a bird collecting a pony shedding hair for their babies to nest, watching how the sky changes from night to day, or being greeted by a dancing butterfly.

It’s the small parts in daily life that will spark the imagination, bringing a childlike feeling of joy and happiness.

The artwork is mixed media on canvas, measuring ″24 x36 ″ with a 1.5″ profile.

You’ll find a small supplies used list towards the end of this post.

This painting was designed for a collaboration exhibit celebrating the exit of winter with showers, flowers, and horses.

The show was called APRIL SHOWERS BRING MAY FLOWERS AND HORSES.

So many imaginative paintings were in the exhibit, which is always fun because when I visit any shows, I like to research each piece, wondering how they did that.

Questioning the technique and what types of fun materials they used.

MORE ON THE DETAILS

One of my favorite parts of this painting is the small butterflies that pop off the canvas. There are a total of five hidden in both the girl’s and ponies’ floral headpieces.

These small butterflies were cut out individually from mixed media paper.

Then, I painted each one with multiple colors, stripes, and polka dots.

To harden them up, they were sprayed on both sides with two coats of lacquer spray and sewn onto the canvas with embroidery floss, which made the perfect thorax and abdomen of the butterfly.

The larger butterflies you’ll see in the painting are painted directly on the canvas with many layers of acrylic paints, and then paint markers were used for the stripes and circle detailing.

The pistil or center of the yellow flowers has multiple colors and faux jewels.

The way I outlined the yellow pedals with a blue line and white polka dots makes them feel so playful.

The nest in the blue pony mane was first painted with a mix of browns, and then I decided to give it some texture by sewing on embroidery floss.

The little blue eggs, which I usually do blue because I am the mom of two boys, were cut out on paper, and then I glittered them before adhering them into the nest.

The necklace of this pretty Garden Girl was designed from a small piece of wood that I cut, stained, and painted with he half sun. I also cut strands of the orange and yellow embroidery floss, which became the fringe detail.

Hidden in the greenery of the Garden Girls’ hair are some faux green rectangle-shaped jewels that may be a bit hard to see in this photo, but in person, they help the Garden Girls’ face to stand out.

Speaking of the girl’s face area, the eye patch was designed from a piece of canvas scrap, first painted green, but then I decided it needed some glitter.

You can never go wrong with glitter, especially in a playful painting like this one.

As for the eye patch, I just think they are quirky fun, and I like to make them.

Plus, it reminds me that beauty is in the of the beholder. We all see things in different ways. What one person finds beautiful or impressive may not appeal to another, and that’s ok.

The little whimsical horse has a mane with multiple layers of blues.

Then, I used acrylic paints with a thin brush and paint markers to create the pink, blue, and teal outlines along the body.

I divided the night and day sky with the horse’s mane on the right side and then the leaves of the garden girl’s floral headpiece on the upper left area.