An Exhibit Showcasing the Power of Persistence. This contest is a one-time exhibit to share the artistic journey with one another.

Current RESS Members voted for their favorite entry in each division. RESS Board Members and Officers were allowed to enter, but were not eligible to receive prizes.

Promising Use of Unorthodox Materials

People's Choice Tibbi Searcher Rolling horse: I sculpted this in Terra cotta. I'm not sure of the date. Another biomechanical wonder. I had no idea how to make this pose work. It's sadly malformed in every aspect. Hurray for my mom who keeps all these things so I can look back and see how far I've come.

Runner Up Simrat Khalsa Little Raven - one of my favorites. I remade her with poodle clippings for her m/t. I lost her in a box a few years ago. Even though you could still see marks from refining on her face, I loved her.

Simrat Khalsa Yikes! Fun Fur hairdoo! I must admit this was one of my customs done when I was about 12. I was enamoured with medicine hats after my aunt and uncle had sent me a signed copy of Marguritte Henry's San Domingo. Their stallion was the model for the book and my great uncle, one of the characters.

Determined To Make A Horse for School Art Project

People's Choice Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig Clay “appaloosa”, 1975, a summer school project done between 1st and 2nd grade; I was seven years old. Comments: In my humble opinion, this piece looks like something that burbled out of a dinosaur’s nose, but my Mom adores it of course…my Mom adores everything I create no matter how blindingly pathetic or inept. Note the beady eyes, the attempt at “appaloosa spots” and the oh-so-graceful elephantine legs. But how proud I was of it when I was seven! Nevertheless, this piece taught me that no matter how good you think you are at the time…you can always do better!

Runner Up Danielle Feldman Blue & Yellow Sculpey horse! Made in the early 90's sometime at a youth activity. This sitting pose was my creative genious since the sculpey wasn't strong enough to make a standing horse (let alone one with parts resembling a horse). I have since learned about armatures. I was determined though, I think the other kids made jewelry with their sculpey, but not me!

Simrat Khalsa Always Ready - POA gelding. A new picture of a spray can roan Appy I did when I was 15. He recently was Show Champ and Halter Champ in a photo show! The old ones can still be competitive. He is repainted china, a Lefton, I think.

Simrat Khalsa I thought I was so clever repainting this guy with a quesiton mark for a blaze. He is glossy black. Not sure what kind of paint I used, enamel maybe.

Longest-Running Piece that Resists Completion

People's Choice Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig Cavorting Arab, epoxy, started in 1991 and collecting dust and grimaces ever since. I started this piece to experiment with motion waaaay before I was ready to tackle such a position! Note the upsetting articulated neck and the goofy shoulder motion and what, pray tell, is that head all about?? And where’s the spine in all this?…oh…it has no spine! It’s a tubeworm masquerading as a horse! I should put feathery gills on the head! There’s just so much wrong with this thing, it’s hard to find anything right with it…though…well…the hooves aren’t so bad I guess. Anyway, this puppy taught me to only tackle what you know…stretching to meet a challenge is a good thing, as long as you understand what you’re doing! But it also has taught me that mistakes are absolutely necessary for the learning process, given that you can later identify those mistakes to avoid them in future works!

Runner Up Danielle Feldman This is simply frightening. This is actually version 2. The story is that I drew a picture (about 10 years ago) of a bucking stock colt that I wanted to translate into sculpture. You see, my art teacher taught me that sculpture should capture what 2-dimensional drawing could not. This concept plagues me to this day, as I always want to sculpt complex movement with body parts going in every direction. Anyway, the original version had a wire armature and I started sticking bulk onto it when sadly I realized that the proportions were way off. I tossed that piece years ago as it was actually painful to look at! The second attempt to bring my vision to reality is this - a sadly tormented Family Arab Foal. He remains in the sad state I put him in almost 10 years ago as a Breyer armature. I knew it just wasn't right, so I have never gotten around to finishing him. One day I will start again on my vision with a version 3, and I will throw this poor thing in the trash.

Simrat Khalsa A repainted Halla. He is a snowflake Appaloosa. I put a pulled mane on him with epoxy, though the detailing is not that great. That is why it is on the other side. (grin) This is a new photo. I have tried showing him as a race bred Appaloosa, but he has not done well and I am retiring him. I have momentarily considered putting him in the body box, but I think I will make an Indian costume for him instead.

Rohan Sajnani This is a sculpture that I started at Lynn Fraley's Wire2Whinny workshop in April 2001, and he still has MILES to go. I think some parts of him are nice, but others need tons of work. I'd love to sit down and work on him, but I can only go for about an hour or so at a time, and then I need to take a break (PS - my current break is going on 6 months).

Tibbi Searcher sm horse: Look apone this and know there is hope. I sculpted this little lovely about 15 years ago. It's a bit of a biomechanical nightmare. But the conformation is vaguely horse like; in so much that it has four legs and a head.

Successful Mistake/Surprising Effect (or "How the heck did I do that and why can’t I do it again?!")

People's Choice Susan Hurst Technique/Medium: Airbrush and hand applied acrylics on Hagen-Renaker Zilla Date: 1988 This piece qualifies for this category for two reasons. First, I had envisioned the piece as a much lighter chestnut, but the color I had mixed and applied was just way too fluorescent. I didn’t want to have to start over, so I just airbrushed a fairly heaving coating of burnt umber on top of it, and ended up with a very rich liver chestnut that I’ve never been able to duplicate. The second reason she qualifies for this category is for the way her front white socks got painted. She initially had very small socks, but the moment I finally finished painting her and left my bedroom-based work table to get a drink, my sister decided she should turn the lights off in my room. When reaching for the work lamp switch, her sleeve caught the china horse’s ears and sent her crashing to the floor. I heard the crash, then she came down with tears in her eyes and her voice to explain the accident. I kept my cool, asked how bad it was, and she broke down sobbing, “There are legs everywhere!” The repairs required that I paint much higher white socks to cover the epoxy and breaks, but the finished piece was actually much nicer. This is the only piece that she and I have collaborated on. ;->

Runner Up Susan Hurst Technique/Medium: Airbrush, hand and sponge applied acrylics and mohair on Breyer Indian Pony Date: 1987 Although I’d given up on leopard Appaloosas as being beyond my skill (and mostly my patience!), I still wanted to try to find a way to depict one of the other lovely coat patterns exhibited by the breed. I decided to give the snowflake blanket/roan type a try, and thought a small natural artist’s sponge might be just the tool to do this. It was quick, and turned out relatively well, and also worked for the mottled skin that Appaloosas have, although I will admit I got a little heavy handed with the technique. I tried this on several other horses, but it never turned out as nicely as this piece, mostly because I think I was playing with her and got way too serious with the subsequent horses. With today’s very high standards of detailed paint, and upon close inspection, the technique applied in such a broad fashion across the whole piece is not quite as effective as it was in 1987. However, in limited locations and with careful application, the sponge still has its place in the artist’s toolbox.

Simrat Khalsa Cochise was one of my better remakes with mapped spots. He was lost in a move and I wish I still had him.

Unrealistic Attempt at a Realistic Color

People's Choice Simrat Khalsa Chestnut pinto PAS with my friend's hair. My best friend, had just gotten her long hair cut, so several models were haired with it! At some point I repainted him. I am not sure when. I also trimmed his m/t, but now I wish I had left him as is. Sometimes, I just had to repaint something and used what was at hand. Some models were painted several times. This is a new photo. When I first came back to the hobby in 1999, I took him to a live show and photo showed him a bit. He did not do well and is permanently retired, but will alway be with me. A sentimental favorite, now named Maiabey, an Arab/Paint cross.

Runner Up Susan Hurst Technique/Medium: Hand painted acrylics and craft fur on Breyer QH Yearling Date: 1984 This poor creature originally depicted an unrealistic dapple grey using Testor’s enamel and pieces cut from my grandmother’s wig (yes, I did have her permission to use it!), but since that didn’t work out, I decided to try my hand at a leopard Appaloosa. When she was completed, I was relatively happy with the results and had named her Spot, but my mother mildly teasingly said that her “blended” white and black tail made her look like a skunk, thus the new name. My mother is also an artist, so her gentle joke made me look at the piece a little more objectively, and I learned that I needed to know a lot more about Appaloosa coloring before I could paint it! I’ve since also determined that I personally have a lot more fun painting solid colors, so all the Appaloosas and other intricately painted horses in my collection are done by other artists, and I’m not ashamed to tell you that! You don’t have to be a master at all aspects of painting to enjoy it.

Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig CM SM Silky Sullivan, palomino “pinto” in acrylics, 1988. I originally sold it for $10 ppd. When I first discovered customizing in an old JAH, I attacked my old SM collection first in the learning process, which this piece is from. Now the palomino color came out quite nice, I admit…but what is that pattern doing? Hey!...who knows! I just made it up! Why not!? Pattern genetics?… Pah-SHAH! This piece definitely taught me to look at a photo for reference!

Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig CM SM QH Stallion, bay “pinto” in acrylics, 1988. I also originally sold it for $10 ppd and this piece is also from my original collection that got ravished in my first customizing attempts. Again, the bay color is serviceable, but what in the holy heck is going on with that pinto pattern?! It’s worse than the palomino! I’d like to think that I was just so enthusiastic that I was swept away…but the truth is that I hadn’t a clue about using reference photos or that pinto patterns had anything to do with genetics! I was in the dark and bumping my head…hard…into everything, obviously! He also taught me that there’s far more to painting that simply slapping pigment onto a model…research and knowledge are fundamental for quality work. Thank goodness he only sold for $10!…though that’s $9.75 too much!

Simrat Khalsa Wonderful appaloosa type dapples done by me. (grin) The Silky Sullivan with huge grey spots. I don't know if he was supposed to be appy or grey!

Rohan Sajnani This is my very first attempt at a RR, from 1998. There's a Breyer Action Stockhorse under there, who was, interestingly, the first model horse I ever bought. From this point on, every model I owned was now viewed as fodder for my hair dryer (until I found my dad's heatgun :-) OK, so the neck is scary. Just downright frightening. I clearly had no idea what I was doing, but I had an eye for expressivity, even at that time! And the colour? It was supposed to be (get this) DAPPLE GREY! The fact that foals can't even BE dappled... I put BLACK dapples on a grey base... and what is with those leg markings? OK, so it is an utterly deformed beast. But he still sits on top of my curio as a reminder that no matter how frustrated I get, I've come a LOOOOONG way!

Striking Biomechanical Boo-Boo

People's Choice Patti Miller I hadn't been in the hobby for more than eight months when someone said to me in rather a scornful tone of voice that no one wanted the Family Arabian Stallion because there was nothing you could do with him. Always up for a challenge I rose to the bait! This horse is originally a family Arabian stallion. My vision for him was to end up with a warmblood horse that was doing a nice (upright) collected dressage canter. At this point I had customized two other horses and neither were as extreme as this was going to be! I borrowed my husband's hacksaw and went to work. I cut the horse in half at the barrel and added about an inch to an inch and a half in the mid section. I swapped all four legs around. The legs themselves were each chopped in at least two places. The two rear legs were swapped with each other and the two front legs with each other. I gave him a new mane and tail and new muscles all around. I chopped his head and neck off and resculpted them. In fact, it's hardly the same horse at all! What I learned from this was not to be afraid to just jump right in and start cutting. I also learned that when you do start cutting on One thing, you best be prepared to change a lot more. If you even move one leg, there is so much you have to do, not only biomechanically but heck, just to make the horse stand even again! :-) You can see by the fact that this horse is Leaning drastically that there was a lot going on that I hadn't planned on! I have also learned to look around for a model that more closely resembles what I had in mind to begin with! He is done in pastels and I did them before pastels were the in thing to do so I was experimenting with that medium too. It only proves that I have struggled with the chestnut color in more than one medium! :-)

Runner Up Tibbi Searcher Carousel horse: This was done in 91. Note the bulbous head and buggy eyes. This was no doubt a direct influence of the "My little Ponies" area. I couldn't help it. My sisters had hundreds of the things. They were everywhere.

Most Improved

People's Choice Patti Miller Previous Work: Example of Current Work: I am enclosing a picture of a horse that I finished recently. It is the Strapless mold with an ISH head. The customer requested a horse that would fit the Budyonney warmblood breed. They come mostly in the color chestnut! (which, while I still struggle with I think I have improved on) This horse required tweaking in all areas as I changed it from the Strapless half pass mode to a nice extended trot which involved moving legs a bit and changing all the muscles. Again, practically a brand new horse!

Runner Up Danielle Feldman Previous Work: Example of Current Work:

Simrat Khalsa Previous Works: Example of Current Work:

Tibbi Searcher Previous Work: Example of Current Work:

Susan Hurst Previous Work Example of Current Work: SM sized Maar resin done in acrylics/colored pencils