Remember Barbara Prestridge?

Barbara Prestridge was one of the premier hobby artists of the 80's and early 90's, along with such names as Kathy Maestas, Linda Leach, Sue Rowe and a few others. Of all of them, Barbara was one of my favorites and I owned a bunch of her custom Breyer horses. Out of all of the artists during that time, Barbara's work was very neatly done, with neat tidy rooted manes and tails and glass eyes. Her colors had beautiful shading. Next to Maesta and Leach who did extremely sloppy work, Barbara's stood out like perfect gems.

Since then, Barbara has slowly faded out of the hobby lime light and I have often wondered what has become of her. Well, the night before last, my question was answered. As I was surfing the web, I happened across her current website. At first I wondered if it was a derelict sight that perhaps, had been put up during a time of sudden ambition and then forgotten, as many are but then I decided to click and go in and have a look around. I was extremely pleased. The sight is current and active and Barbara is customizing again. What is even more interesting is that, she has branched out to another artistic endeavor, one which I just adore and that is, painting gourds. I have always loved painted and carved gourds and I own several that were created in Peru.

I don't know about any of you but I always enjoy seeing what other types of art, fellow hobbyists are interested in. I have a feeling many of you, are just like me, so that is why I decided to share Barbara's website with you. Her painted gourds are absolutely beautiful. Many of them have horses on them. If you enjoy fine art I think that you will enjoy checking out Barbara's gourds. Her website is called "Round 2it Ranch and Rocking J Ranch ". Have fun!

How To Finish a Breyer Model Horse In Oil Paints.

One of my reasons for starting this blog, was because it seemed like it would be a great way of sharing knowledge. I decided that it would be fun to start off with a simple tutorial on prepping a model to paint and then painting it in oils. There are a lot of tutorials about pasteling but you see very few on oil painting. I feel that this format for a tutorial, is a lot better then something like You Tube because it is easily accessible by people with old slow computers, or by people on dial-ups. If you've ever tried to watch any thing on You Tube with a dial-up, then you will understand what I am talking about. It doesn't work very well. Sometimes it doesn't work at all.

Shortly, in the next few days, I will make the first post in the tutorial series. That post will consist of the list of supplies that will be needed, to complete a model horse, in oil paints, from start to finish. The demonstration model will probably be a Breyer, stablemate. At the end of the tutorial, the demonstration model will be given away to a Blog reader. I thought that if anybody works along with me, it would be fun to have everybody who participates, send in photos of what they created, so that we can all see how they turned out.

So check in again, for the first installment in the oil painting tutorial.

Comparing Model Horse Hobby Forums

It's Model Horse Blab's big 5th Birthday. Here is the URL to the big celebration bash going on. Happy Birthday Blab, and here are some best wishes for another successful 5 years.

And speaking of model horse forums. I decided to do a little write up of each one and compare them. Feel free to chime in with any thoughts that you may have about your favorite or least favorite forum, in the Model Horse Hobby.


Model Horse Forum Stats as of Sept 23, 2008.

Model Horse Blab

Always has a crowd visiting. Usually 100+ on-line, during the peek hours. Right now at this posting, there was 60 members and 36 visitors.

Threads: 66,380, Posts: 950,670, Members: 4,445, with new members signing up daily.

The clientèle of Blab is a nice mix of young and old hobbyists. The atmosphere is one of comradery. If you want drama this isn't the place for you. This board draws a more upbeat and mature crowd. Lots of current and interesting threads to enjoy reading and responding to. The lay out of the Blab forum is relatively simple and straight forward. Very user friendly and the staff is helpful and friendly as well.

Fallen Leaves

Always has a big crowd during the day. Usually 70+, on-line.
Right now there are 40 members and 35 guests.

Total Members: 2440, with new members signing up regularly.

The carnival like, atmosphere of Fallen Leaves points to a much younger audience. Threads are fresh, flowing and lively all day here . I don't find Fallen Leave to be as user friendly and easy to navigate as Blab. The one big problem that people on dial-up, or an old slow computer, are going to find here, is that the Fallen Leaves site is extremely slow to load. However, If you are having insomnia, it might be worth your wait, you can pass the long night hours playing the many Arcade games available. Be warned, some of them don't function properly.

The Watering Hole

Not much of a crowd here. I don't believe that I have ever been on this board when there was more then 3 people online. Right now it says there are 5. Hummm, most of them must be hidden.

Threads: 1,916, Posts: 20,052, Members: 194, I think that this forum must get new sign ups but certainly not at the rate that the other two boards do.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that this forum is only for the adult crowd. Considering the morgue like atmosphere, I have to wonder if any of them are alive. This board is very quiet with relatively few new and fresh threads. Most threads tend to stagnate. This forum is user friendly and straight forward. Though it doesn't emit the same warm, inviting vibes as do the other two forums mentioned.

Are there any other Model Horse Hobby related, forums that I have missed?

Success! This was easy.

I've been putting off starting a Blog because I thought it would be difficult but it's not. This was super easy and fast. I decided to make this my first post just as a way to test things out and see how it looks. After I go eat dinner, I'll return and see what all there is, that I still need to figure out, to make this look a little more individual.