The Birthday Unicorn

Just recently I undertook a project which put me totally out of my element. My granddaughter asked me to paint a unicorn for her birthday. Explicit instructions included size (big) and color (pink with green eyes and pink and blue hair). Now I might add that my granddaughter is an extraordinarily talented young artist herself, and her grandma is very proud of her. (Not that her grandma would exaggerate, but she spends her spare time creating art a large percentage of the time!) She would much rather paint or draw with markers than fill in coloring pages, and she really is pretty good for being just six years old.


The unicorn was not a subject I have ever tried before. I know a lot of girls draw horses when they are young, but not me. The number of horses I have tried to draw or paint, ever, could probably be counted on my fingers. However, this was a labor of love, and I grew to love it and hope she will as well.

The original acrylic painting is 16 x 20 inches. I may do prints, and if I do I would put them into my shop, DreamON, sometime in the future.

So here is the unicorn, and I hope you enjoy it. Copyright 2009 by Mary M. Hamilton.

Glenwood Springs Fall Art Festival

This is the best art show! The Glenwood Springs Art Guild has been putting on this indoor open entry show for 47 years now, and boy, do they do it right! The show is held in the lower level of the Ramada Inn in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. It is one of the best opportunities both for buyers and artists around. The art is always good. In addition there are demonstrations by the three judges and sometimes an additional artist also. This year's judges are Tanis Bula, Charles Hardy and Tim Wedel, and Cindy Brabec-King, an outstanding watercolorist, will give an additional demo. Judging is done Wednesday, and the show opened when judging was completed.

My entries this Fall are "Bliss" and "Tina's Dance."

The entrants are broken down into Professional, Advanced and Amateur classes. Media accepted includes hand-thrown and hand-built pottery, sculpture, oil/acrylics, watermedia, mixed media, graphics and pastels. There are landscapes, still life, portrait-figure, animal, sculpture and pottery categories for which ribbons are awarded. Cash awards are reserved for Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion in each classification of entrants.

Another real plus for artists are the artists' Friday night dinner and Saturday night's banquet and "artists' bash." The most appreciated feature of this show would be the patrons who support this event every year, but a close runner-up would be the hours and hours of work put in by the Glenwood Springs Art Guild. These are the folks who have made this event possible for the 47 years it has been occurring. Thank you to both!