Tag: equine

Truckers Like Horse Art Too (conclusion)

After having so much fun adding vibrant colors to Valraven, I was a little reluctant to bring it back down to grayscale. I had to do it for the book though, and I couldn’t wait to see which colors other artists might choose for it. It took its place as page fourteen in Fancy Prancers – A Fine Art Coloring Book of Horses.cropped-valraven-72ppi.jpg

Truckers Like Horse Art Too (cont.)

The sketch was originally intended to stand alone and I called it something generic like “Pony in Motion.” Later I grew bored with the plain graphite image. I wanted a more dramatic background, some color, and I wanted to play with acrylics. After some collage work, I mixed up a bunch of paint and carried everything out in the front yard.

My two boys were hopping around like fleas in their excitement over me being outside with cups of paint. They’d never seen me splash paint on a canvas before. Not that I hadn’t done it a thousand times already with watercolors, but that was mostly before they were born. So I splashed and flicked and poked and splattered to the tune of “Can I do it??!! Can I do it??!! Can I do it??!!” Not that they hadn’t done it a thousand times before with finger paint and watercolors, but this was different – this was Mommy’s “‘spensive paint”.

So I let them each flick some paint on with a large brush, and they were somewhat satisfied. What they really wanted to do was fling the paint at each other. I was more satisfied after gluing the graphite pony on and adding a coat or two of varnish. Valraven was fun to do, and I believe more fun to look at than a plain graphite pony.

Truckers Like Horse Art Too

Not long ago while on vacation, I was riding in our van with my sketch pad in my lap. I was working on the horse in Valraven, a mixed media painting. Wearing motion sickness wristbands, trying to convince myself they were working, I scribbled, erased, scribbled, erased. The guys were listening to a book on CD and my husband was in a driving trance.  We were on a four lane highway in Northern California, heading south.

An eighteen wheeler inched up along us on my side. He was keeping the cab of his truck right there, next to me. There wasn’t much traffic, and just as I started to wonder “What the . . . ?” he tooted his horn very briefly. I looked up and saw him leaning forward, pointing down at my sketch, which was almost finished. He smiled, gave me a big thumbs up, and then rolled on past us.

My husband glanced over. “What was that about?”

“Oh, just 80,000 pounds of art aficionado . . . “

There’s A Problem With My English

I know there is a problem with my English because my youngest son is hearing different messages than what I believe to be issuing from my lips. Early this morning, while trying to get out the door to go to work, after directing him to wash his face, brush his teeth, and put his shoes on, he met me in the foyer with a loud “Bang Bang! Stick ’em up!!”.

The message that actually reached his ears was “Go put on your cowboy belt with holster, your Indiana Jones hat, and a pair of Zaffre blue latex exam gloves (they’re in the veterinary bandage supply cabinet which you aren’t supposed to mess with, but it’s okay this once) and then come back and pretend to be a cowboy with OCD as if I don’t have to be at work until noon.”

The Greatest Thing About Drawing (Conclusion)

In the wee hours of the night, The Muse came calling. She looked like a mermaid, scales shimmering in the moonlight. I followed her lead, an earth type seeking relief from the unaccustomed heat in the chill waters of the sea.

The Greatest Thing About Drawing (cont.)

The oil change turned out to be a bust. I was only waiting for ten minutes and a German lady with a little black poodle wanted to talk about the woods fire that was happening right down the road. I conversed just to hear her accent, in between five fire trucks that screamed down the road to do their thing. The oil change was over in a jiffy, not even time to open the pad. Next time I’ll look for a Muy Lento Lube instead.

Managed to continue the piece late at night after everyone else was asleep. It spoke to me of cool ocean waters and winged kelp.