Sketches From Life

gesture drawing in conte of my horse, Scottie

Fall always goes by so quickly that before I know it, it's Christmas. Before any more time escapes me, I did want to update you on the latest from the studio in this brief post. So, here goes. 

Since my last post, I've been busy getting ready for and then going to Deer Camp with my husband at the old homestead and now with preparations for Thanksgiving. It's also time to plan ahead for Christmas and begin those preparations. 

In the meantime, Scottie turned up lame once again with another hoof abscess; his third in less than a year! The vet has put him on another supplement in hopes it will boost his immune system and keep him healthy over this winter. I also ordered and put to use new blankets for him. He now has quite a wardrobe of blankets for any weather to come and has been wearing them for the past month. All the old geezers at the barn are now blanketed, and so far the former juvenile delinquent, J Willie, has not managed to damage them. J Willie is finally growing up!

The  image at the top is one I did during the summer. It's a gesture drawing in conte of Scottie when I turned him out  briefly in a paddock by himself. He was constantly moving, so this was done in something like 15-20 seconds before he moved too much to go on. 

Most of what I do at Deer Camp is go through old art magazines while my husband is out in the woods hunting. Since I'm perpetually years behind on reading these magazines, I have no shortage of them to go through. I personally don't find the "how I did this painting" articles at all useful since all artists work differently. But there are other business and studio tips articles that are useful which makes it impossible for me to throw out these magazines without going through them.  

Our cat, Molly, sometimes lies down next to me on the couch while I'm reading, and this year I tried to do some sketches of her, too. But, every time I moved to a good spot to draw her, she got up and moved, too. So, I was reduced to doing some quick gesture drawings of her. Like Scottie, she only gave me mere seconds to get down enough information to be recognizable. Below are two pages from my sketchbook. They are crude, I know, but at least I made the effort! And, already I've rediscovered the value of doing sketches from life and want to get into the habit of daily sketching. Or, maybe weekly. 

Last night my riding buddy, Ann, and I had a good ride in the arena.  We have new footing which makes it much brighter, less dusty and softer under foot. I was delighted that Scottie seemed in really good spirits, was eager to work and moved right out without much urging. Perhaps he's now been on the supplements long enough to really benefit his joints and all his body systems. It's very encouraging that maybe this winter will be better than last year's and a reminder to keep him on the supplements from now on. 

We rode to some new age Christmas music which was fun and kind of magical.

When I'm at the barn, time just vanishes, and I treasure all those moments with my horse and barn friends. Last night I was the last to leave the barn. When I turned off the lights and stepped outside, it was pitch dark. I looked up into a sky filled with stars in every direction. There are no annoying yard lights out there to intrude on those moments when you feel that connection to the entirety of the universe. 

I just love those magical moments!

Gesture drawings in charcoal of our cat, Molly

Gesture drawing in charcoal of our cat, Molly

Party Painting and Purple Wraps

“Bellator” 9x12 oil on canvas board - photo provided by fellow artist, Linda Shantz

Last weekend I participated in something called The Virtual Party. Artists are provided with a reference photo and required to paint their interpretation of it within a twenty four hour period. It’s amazing how different many of the images can be, all from the same image!

We were given five days to do this. Since I’d been sick and tending to my lame horse, I didn’t decide to give it a try until the last day. After a little over five hours of painting, I managed to produce my version of Bellator, a young warmblood, in his winter blanket. After doing the one hour paintings, this one seemed like a snap to do, and I’m fairly happy with the results, even though it’s not perfect. Maybe I’ll work on it some more some day, but for now it’s drying on the easel.

Meanwhile back at the ranch I was making frequent trips to the barn to check on my horse and to treat his leg. Some slight swelling had appeared in his knee since the vet’s visit and then some swelling of the ligaments behind the cannon bone. We began cold hosing the leg or icing it, and both front legs were wrapped for added support. With the help of bute, he’s gradually come around.

Last weekend my husband came with me to the barn to help. He’s not really a horse person and hadn’t taken much interest in my horse before now. In fact, he hadn’t seen Scottie in a very long time. But they managed to get along quite well anyway. We had Scott in the barn aisle in the cross ties, and a few of the other horses came in to the arena to see what was going on. John was standing at Scottie’s head, patting him and talking to him while I iced his leg. Every time John moved away to pat one of the other horses, Scottie started pawing. I told John that meant he wanted attention, and John would hurry back to him. The pawing stopped immediately. This scenario repeated itself several times and warmed my heart to think that two of the three most important men in my life were making a connection. John was even talking to Scottie the way he does to small children and our cat, and Scottie was eating it up!

On my last visit to the barn, Scott was much better with very little sign of a limp. He had purple wraps on, it was a sunny day and perfect for getting some photos. The first one below is Scottie who had just had a good roll before getting up from his nap. He’s still very shaggy because it’s too early up here to get rid of that winter coat. Snow and cold could return anytime for Winter’s last gasp.

The second photo is of Scott and his best friend, Mikey. I had turned Scott loose in the indoor arena, and he wasn’t quite ready to go back outside into the heat. After greeting Mikey, they engaged in a game of what looked like lip wrestling. Mikey is a Morgan with a lovely arched neck. These two never seem to tire of playing together but are separated for now to keep the lame horses quieter. I love the play of light on Scott in this photo and the way it shows off the arch in Mikey’s neck.

I think it will make a great painting.

One Fine Day

Yesterday was just a glorious day all the way around! Our temperatures hit a balmy 70 degrees fehrenheit which is most unusual in these parts for mid March.

I spent most of the day painting in the studio on this painting after dusting it off. It's been almost a year since I last worked on it; hard as that is to believe; so the first step was to wipe it down with turpentine to soften the paint slightly for better adherence of this fresh layer. Next, I oiled out the part that I was going to be working on and began the paint application. You can see that I've painted the upper part of the trailer and will finish it before moving back to the horses.

My mentor had suggested using a straight edge for getting edges nice and straight in paint, and I happened to think of my old plastic triangles from my old graphic design days. They proved perfect for this task! They were designed for using with ink pens and, unlike a straight edge, there is a slight recessed area underneath the edge of the triangle. This prevents the ink or paint from bleeding under the edge and then smearing. I used a large triangle and a small one to make the edges straighter as I painted. A bristle brush worked well and probably better than a sable or blend for this purpose, and there were no smears. The chrome strip on the roof still looks messy from the underpainting, but I'll clean that up once this layer is dry and the chrome strip can be painted.

Due to the tediousness of painting all those edges, I can see that the trailer will be a time consuming project. It's obvious already, though, that it will improve the appearance of the painting tremendously.

The second half of my day went equally well. I headed to the barn in a short sleeved t shirt and had a lovely ride inside where it was actually colder than outside. There's still far too much snow outside for Scottie and I to go on a trail ride, but we hope to soon. He is still sore, and we are both very out of shape.

When I turned Scott loose after our ride, instead of eagerly heading off to join his buddies, he stayed by my side nuzzling and licking me as if to say how much he's missed me or perhaps to comfort me. I swear sometimes that he reads my mind!

I headed home from the barn with a very full heart and a feeling of deep satisfaction. It had been one mighty fine day.

A Rare Day of Sunshine

Most of this winter, this is what we've seen from our kitchen window; dreary, endless whiteness. You can see how deep the snow is on our deck railing and deck in what is turning out to be a good old-fashioned snow filled winter; just like we used to have 10-20 years ago.

Two weeks ago the sun came out for the first time in ages, and I grabbed my camera as I headed out the door for the barn, hoping for a good photo shoot. The horses were too busy eating or dozing to do anything interesting, but I did manage to get some artsy shots anyway.

This is the barn where I board my horse. It's a small private farm that only accepts a few specially selected boarders. The barn sits up on a hill in very hilly country. The driveway can sometimes be a challenge.


Through the big door on the right is the indoor arena, a spacious 72x120 feet. Through the large sliding door on the left are the stalls and roomy tack room.

Here's my horse, Scottie, looking very pudgy and fuzzy in his winter coat.

This is Mellissa, a Hanoverian mare who is something like 17 hands. I liked the backlight in this shot and definitely plan to do something with it; white horse against snow, backlit with maroon blanket. Hmm, could be interesting.

Here's Mel peeking over Jack's back. There are some interesting things going on here and definite possibilities for something more abstract. I'm calling this one "Incognito" for now.

Finally, this is the run in shed in the front paddock. I like the play of shadows across the snow and may do something with this image, too.

I'm definitely ready to start painting again now that the record management chores have been finished for the new year. In fact, as soon as I send this off, I'll be selecting and printing out a snow image to begin work on tomorrow. I can't wait!

Back On Track

The news about my knee wasn't nearly as bad as anticipated. The x rays looked good, so the conclusion is that I must have torqued it wrong and over stressed it with all the gardening. And, I have been reminded in a very painful way that I need to get back to doing my exercises. But, at least I can walk normally now.

After this little interlude, I managed to finish mulching the flower beds which was the end of the urgent gardening for this summer. Pictured above is one of the new flower beds; the same view as in an earlier blog post but this time with plants and mulch. The plants are so small yet that they don't show up much, but, trust me, they ARE there: heuchera, ferns, lavender, fox glove, shasta daisies, bee balm, dusty miller, Asiatic lilies and some snap dragons. Oh, yes; and a new lilac bush.

In the middle of this area, you can see a bare space. That's where the old driveway used to be, and it's all hard packed gravel, going down at least a foot or more. I gave up on it for the time being so it will remain an eye sore until we dig it out and put in some good garden soil. Since the gas line goes through this area, we have to be very careful about digging.

My plan is to install edging blocks all along this bed to keep the grass and weeds from creeping back into the beds. We bought them on sale last year. I'm also using some plastic landscaping edging along the fence for the same purpose. Where it's already installed, it has done a nice job of keeping the weeds and grass at bay.

Around the maple tree in the background we plan to install a tree ring of more landscaping blocks that match the ones in the beds up close to the house. Smaller ones will be used for another tree ring around the flowering crab tree which is in the foreground above. These two rings will function to give some unity to the landscaping, connecting the house beds to the fence area along the road.

Last night I was finally able to get back out to the barn and even managed a short ride. One of the other boarders had just finished riding Scottie and turned him out, so he wasn't exactly enthusiastic. And, all of my riding muscles have now atrophied, so they need building up and some major stretching. Needless to say, the ride didn't go particularly well, but it was still good to get back on my horse and enjoy some social time at the barn.

The photo below is of the two of us before I turned Scott back out. He looks a little odd because I'd put the roll on fly repellent around his eyes and on his nose to give him that war pony look. He's also a little miffed that I wasn't allowing him to graze, and it took some coaxing to get his ears forward. By that time the shadows had advanced to put us in shade.

When the two of us are side by side, he looks pretty big, but in fact he measures a "mere" 15.3 hands. I'm only 5 ft 1 inch and shrinking, so to me he IS a BIG horse!