Sketchbook: Smartest Fletch

This is a charcoal sketch I did today of a the third top selling 2yo at the Futurity Sales this past December. I had worked on a pastel but needed to go back and work with charcoal so I could easily work out proportion issues. I used vine charcoal with this drawing, it is so easy to model and to erase when need be.

Weekend at the Ranch

April was the first foal of the year. She was born in March but lost her dam 12 hours after she was born. She was hand fed for a few weeks but just this week was adopted by a Clydesdale mare that lost a foal.



Colena had another colt this year, born this past Thursday. He is not yet named, but he his running his protective dam all over the pasture as he explores his world.


My horse Squirt is enjoying the luxurant growth of grass and clover in the pasture which he shares with his buddy Badger and a yearling filly.



This time of year the pasture is full of paintbrush and other wildflowers.

SketchBook: Nasher Sculpture Garden-Rush Hour

Our Sketching in the Galleries class was held in the Nasher Sculpture Garden. Our Instructor led us to Rush Hour by George Segal.
I spent all evening on this as the mosquitoes worked on my back LOL. Today I did some additional work on it with Nu Pastels to refine and diffuse some features.

Super Stakes Sale 2007

This past few days I have been in Fort Worth preparing for and photographing the Super Stakes Sale at the Watt Arena. Friday evening I went to Ft Worth knowing that some time in the afternoon a storm front would pass through. It came through starting at 3:30pm and included a few tornadoes north east of where I was at Will Rogers Coliseum. Today, Saturday, I photographed the annual Super Stakes Sale, Blue Laboon (image from 2005 Futurity at left) topped the sale at $135,000. Read more about this sale at www.SallyHarrison.com.

Sketchbook: 18th Century French Portrait

Tonight our Instructor, Cindy Hurt, directed us on a tour of portraiture. She chose a French portrait of a woman as an example and most of us followed her by drawing the same. As we drew she guided us on how to determine the proper proportions and how to measure, calling our attention to such things as how many noses tall is the head, or how how to measure the proper distance between the eyes, and their proper placement.
Cindy is one of the best instructors we have had at the Dallas Museum of Art Sketching in the Galleries class.

In the Kitchen: Chicken Tomatillo Yellow Squash and Green Chili Soup

I decided since I caught a cold, that a good hearty chicken soup was in order. I started with a package of chicken thighes (Skin on, but removed), one chicken breast, and cooked it in Chicken broth with garlic and hot fire roasted green chili. After the chicken had cooked a bit, I added 6 cut up tomatillos. I cooked this till the chicken was about done and then added about 3/4 cup of rice and 2 yellow squash (sliced). When the chicken was falling off the bone, I served the soup with field green salad with gorgonzola cheese sprinkles with basalmic vinegar and olive oil dressing.

On Location: Fasig-Tipton Texas 2YO in Training Sale

On April 3, Fasig-Tipton held their annual 2YO-In-Training Sale. The top seller was Righteous Brother (Hip 217), A Storm Passage/Sweep and Roll dark bay colt at $180,000 to Heiligbrodt Racing Stable signed for by Steve Asmussen. This colt is shown in the photos above in being shown in the walking ring. He ran a 10.00 in 1/8 mile during the Undertack Show on Sunday, April 1.


Hip #308, A Gulf Storm/ Cheyann Scout dark bay/brn colt consigned by Leprechaun Racing was sold for $170,000 to Mike Cornett for Paul Mostert.




Hip #285, A Siphon (BRZ)/Bea Silver bay filly was also purchased by Mike Cornett for Paul Mostert.






This Donkey was watching the sale from across the drive at Lone Star Horse Hospital while he recovered from ??
The trip home was almost as eventful as the sale. As the result of a semi overturning practically in front of the Lone Star Park drive traffic was forced to make a right and detour to an alternate route to I-30. This path took me through the Trinity River bottoms, past numerous stables and a huge Irving Trailer Park.