Welcome to my artwork!   Joni McKim, artist

I am in a constant state of balancing my riding with my artwork.  The days are short when you share hours with all that you love to do, but it sure keeps my life interesting.  Now with autumn here, the days becoming shorter, my schedule has to be adjusted.  More time outside because there is less time available, if that makes sense.
I have tried to make peace with the fact that I don't paint full time, but I am cutting my horse numbers back so I can make more painting time available.  Painting is like riding, when you don't do it everyday, you don't have the same feel and balance.  It takes longer to get your "right brain" (intuitive, artistic) more involved than the "left brain" (analytical, ego involved).  My left brain is the chatterbox of bad tidings sometimes.  It wants to tell me I'm nuts for attempting to paint my husband, the tack on the wall, the dogs, on and on.  So I turn my work upside down for awhile and paint.  That will finally subdue all that bad talk, and allow the good, quietly artistic side to work.  When that happens, it's like hypnosis, you paint from a "trance like" state of mind.  It's truly amazing.  Things begin to flow from your hands, colors aren't questioned, they're just right.

Well, I went to visit my grand kids in California for Halloween.  What fun it was to see them all in their costumes running up the driveways.  It always brings back such great memories of dressing up and running from house to house.  It doesn't matter what your age is, it is a memory that is always intact!  Plus, I got to choose my favorites from their candy!  Now, I'm back home on a diet.  Hah!!
  I'm starting a couple of new paintings soon, a branding picture and a beautiful dog.  The branding picture will probably have to wait while I work on the dog.  I'll keep you posted as I go!