WHRR Barn Opening

I'm so glad to be in The Valley of the Sun for winter. While the summers are hellish, the winters are lovely and the weather is perfect.

I was invited to paint at Wildhorse Ranch Rescue's barn grand opening and it was a delight to be around so many animal lovers, rescue workers, volunteers, and equine animals. There were some cats too, I think, and dogs. But I was mostly looking at horses and burros. Here are a few photos of my time there.

 Photos by Bud Anderson

Along with the finished paintings:

Yeehaw!

Wildhorse Ranch Rescue and DawgArt

Over the years, I have been privileged to forge friendships with people in the rescue business. One of my favorite people is Kim Meagher, with Wildhorse Ranch Rescue.

Kim is one of the most passionate and kind people I know. She has been rescuing horses for almost 20 years.

Last night, I was privileged to participate in one of WHRR's events, a charity concert at the historic Orpheum Theater in Phoenix with Spencer Day as the headlining performer.

I gotta tell you, Spencer Day is brilliant. Two of his songs (he writes his own material) made me cry. I met him after the concert and we talked about music and art and mental illness and I can't tell you how much his music meant to me.

You can hear one of my favorite two songs here.

So how many of you have been to the Orpheum? I've never been there, and it was pretty amazing inside. Here are some photos of the interior. I had to use flash, so the atmosphere of the photos doesn't approach what I was experiencing, but you can get an idea at least of the detailing.

I brought two donated paintings featuring WHRR horses Finn, Dunny, and Einstein, and a blank canvas to work on. You can see the set up here. I started painting before the show started and basically finished the piece by intermission. It went really fast.

Here's the finished painting:

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