As you can see, the studio blog has a new address and a new look. The new look is temporary while I work on integrating all three sites – this blog, the horse color blog and the Blackberry Lane website – using the WordPress platform. Part of this change is an effort to make it easier for me to keep the sites updated, but it is also to prepare for the sales and distribution of the new books. The Equine Tapestry blog, which already used WordPress, is now self-hosted (which means no more ads) but has otherwise remained the same. Eventually that will change since the theme ("Connections") has not be maintained by its creator, making it incompatible with some of the newer WordPress features.
I cannot say that I found any magic answers about how to effectively juggle work on the books and work in the studio while I was in Boise. I have come home with renewed energy, and a sense that the last two years have not been entirely at the expense of my work in the studio. The pattern on my Juniper is taken from one of the newly discovered "W" mutations, previously known as "dominant white". In years past, we would have called this color sabino roan. It has always been a particular favorite of mine, and after having to create precise illustrations of it for the upcoming book, I was more aware of its nuances than ever before.
I should have a few more new horses to share in the coming weeks, and with luck those will be followed by the first color proofs of the new book. It might be a while longer before the Equine Tapestry blog returns to its formerly active state, since those posts tend to come at the expense of work on the books. You may also see a bit more about the books and the publishing aspect of Blackberry Lane here, especially as I gear up for some of the books targeted more directly at artists and collectors.