No Frills Live All Minis - The Resin Foals, Light, and Gaited Breeds

Two posts ago I covered the custom foals of the No Frills All Minis live show on April 20. I continue my coverage today with the artist resin foals, and artist resin light and gaited division.



First up is the exquisite little "Shanghai" painted by Katie Younger-Gehrt (a great talent, who unfortunately no longer paints for the hobby) and owned by Elizabeth LaRose.

I'm sharing this next little foal because he is absolute perfection (even though I was sadly unable to properly balance the color on this photo). So if you think he is cute here, just imagine how wonderful he is in person! This is "Cocoa Puffs" painted by Stephanie Blaylock and owned by Chris Wallbruch.

This very rich bay rabicano Mini Nahar resin is owned by Brenda Metcalf.

Here we have a wonderfully detailed Jezebel resin painted by Steph Michaud.

I'm not sure of the finishing artist, but I do know that Mekadevah is owned by Chris Wallbruch.  This piece has very intricate facial detailing.

These days we are busy funding Boy Scout camping trips, music lessons, and other activity fees for our boys, but if I did happen to have a personal "model horse budget," this next piece is one that I would have begged and pleaded to buy. Once again, my camera does not do justice to this piece. Her color reminded me of the depth one can find on a succulent piece of fruit. This Jezebel is both painted and owned by DeeAnn Kjelshus. 

Another DeeAnn Kjelshus piece follows, this one owned by Heather McCurdy. Along with the beautiful face, this mini Nahar is certainly not "just" grey. He sported a wide range of colors in his coat and very fine dappling and detailing. 

This beautiful Vixen resin is painted by Liz Shaw and owned by Elizabeth LaRose.  This piece is one of the finest examples of "hair by hair" (or in this case, more like "speck by speck") application of color to a piece. 

This vibrant golden chestnut is owned by Chris Wallbruch. 

I am uncertain of the painter or owner of this next piece, but I was delighted to be able to award him his much-deserved blue ribbon. 

Artist Laura Behning has been painting models since the 1980's, and sculpting since the 1990's. Today she is heavily involved in the breeding of gorgeous "colorful" Morgan horses. Even though the genes responsible for bucskins, duns, palominos, and greys were present, and periodically met to create an exceptionally colorful breed representative, these colors were sadly frowned upon in favor of bays and chestnuts until fifteen or twenty years ago. Knowing that Laura Behning has played a great role in raising awareness of these colors in the purebred Morgan horse, I especially enjoyed seeing this more recent Morgan mare, both sculpted (and released in a resin edition) and painted by Laura Behning herself. This piece is owned by Jeni Lambert. 

The final horse that I photographed in the AR light and gaited breeds division shows "Roansome Romantic," both painted and owned by DeeAnn Kjelshus. I asked DeeAnn how she created this color. DeeAnn is very experienced in the use of mixed media, and while she does not recall exactly what she used and in what order, I found it fascinating that she was able to achieve this extraordinarily realistic roan without the use of "hair by hair" techniques, but rather by the manner in which she applied and dusted various colors on the piece. 

Bearing in mind my lack of controlled lighting at the show, and my lack of the highest camera power, it is still interesting to section off a bit of this horse for close-up study.  That could very well be a real horse's coat! 

There are still more No Frills Minis photos to come, plus a few other types of eye-candy scheduled for the blog this week. Please check back for more!