A Room with a View?

So in my last post, I showed you some pictures of our dining room at Oyster Haven, and hinted that I had a project in mind for that old window hanging on the wall (a hand-me-down from my daughter-in-law Ginger, wife of son #2, that I didn't have a place for until we went and bought ourselves a second house that came complete with lots and lots of empty walls to fill!).

And a while back, I also showed you a picture of our across-the-street neighbor, a sweet, stocky work horse named Buddy.  Buddy is no thoroughbred, that's for sure; my husband says he's an ugly horse-- but I say if so, then he's so ugly he's adorable.

Well, since this "horse neighbor," as my granddaughters call him, definitely adds charm to a home that already has so much going for it (hello back yard neighbor, Lake Champlain!),  I decided to incorporate Buddy into the interior design scheme...

I had these grand plans to paint a scene that looked so realistic, one would feel as if he was looking out a real window at a real horse and barn.  But it just didn't develop the way I saw it in my mind's eye.  And my little wall fresco winded up looking very much like a children's book illustration, like something I could have used in my ABC Book project.  Unfortunately, the B's are finished, or I could have used it for barn; or if the F's weren't complete, I could have used it for farm; and of course horse would have made a spectacular H word, if I hadn't finished those pages already.  It figures that I've still got 16 letters left to go, and there isn't one item in this painting that could do double-duty and work in that book!  Ah, well...

So now I've got a dining room wall that looks decidedly NOT elegant, but more on the whimsical side.  (Of course, this sort of thing fits in very well with the cat door I showed you in my last post, doesn't it?)

The window frame cuts off some of Buddy's face.  (My husband would tell you that's really for the best, considering the ugly mug on our equine friend.)  But let me show you Buddy in full.

I made him look like a cartoon, which as I said was not really my intention when I set out.

I'm not quite finished with the painting yet, but we must go back home to NH today and regroup/re-pack.  We're flying down to VA tomorrow to spend the weekend babysitting for G-Man while his mom and dad enjoy a much-anticipated getaway for their second anniversary.  So I'll be tweaking this homage to Buddy at a later date.  But for now, it will have to do as is.

The best thing about this painting is that if I decide that it's just too ridiculous, I can always paint right over it.

What do you think of this faux window scene?  Yea or neigh nay?