Sketching in the Galleries: Gordan Parks Photograph

Tonight our instructor led us into the exhibit All The World is A Stage where we drew from a selection of small drawings, lithographs, and photographs. I chose this photograph by Gordan Parks of Ingrid Bergman at Stromboli, Italy. I was most interested in the relationship of the very dark shapes within this image and used a carbon pencil, H, and Ebony Pencil on Bristol Paper to reproduce the contrast.

This was the last artist facilitated Sketching in the Galleries at the Dallas Museum of Art. Sketching in the Galleries will continue to be encouraged but there will be no regular artist led program so that they can focus their public programs funding toward Thursday night adult events in the new Center for Creative Connections.

Wet September Weekend

This weekend was mostly rainy with nice fall temperatures. Not much ranch work this weekend, but I did spend most of the day photographing an indoor Rose Country CHA show in Terrell, TX. You can see the photos I took of this show in my America's Cutter September Show listing.

After the show I went back to the ranch. Just before the rain came back for the rest of the night I went to the pasture and photographed the two foals in the lower pasture. The highlight was the buckskin roan. He has been shedding his baby coat to reveal a wonderful roan, like his dam. You can see more foal photo in this Gallery.

Grandfathers Box II

Last month I attended a DIY@DMA program where we worked with cigar boxes, creating assemblage sculptures. After I returned I recreated my box, painting the inside black and photographing the assemblage. I have returned to this box, this time with the inside painted white, and the assemblage created from a brass safety razor and blade box, along with a two belt buckles which belonged to my grandfather. In the spirit of Joseph Cornell and his assemblage boxes, This is a Homage to my grandfather who passed away in 1985

Sketching In The Galleries - Rodins Shadow

Our instructor this month is Brad Ford Smith. He took us to the European Galleries where we were to look at shadows, either from Sculptures, or how they were depicted in paintings. I chose to work on a shadow of a bronze by Rodin cast on the wall. I was particularly interested in the aura of light around the head and arm in the shadow.

Wild Hog Trapping

For the past year we have been having a serious problem with feral hogs coming up from the creek bottoms and tearing up the pastures. You can see in this photo, a Feral or wild hog in the center and an example of what they do to a pasture in the lower right corner. It makes it very difficult to mow the pasture and is if large patches had been plowed up. This has been a widespread problem throughout East Texas and many parts of our state and the country. After dealing with this for far too long, a local hog trapper, Neil Brockaway, was called and he came and placed two traps in their path to our pastures.
Wednesday morning a hog was seen to be trapped and Mr. Brockaway was notified. Just about lunchtime he arrived and I went down to the trap area to watch him load his catch into a truck mounted cage. This was a great education in the craft of hog trapping. While he prepared the ground so that he could safely match his cage to the trap, he told of what he was doing and why. During the next 20 or so minutes it took to get the hog into the truck cage and rebait and set the trap, we learned a lot about the art of hog trapping and behavior of these wild feral creatures. There were stories about what happens when you get between a piglet and a wild boar and how to climb a tree, FAST! We were shown how to set up the cage to the trap, and close every little access point that would allow for an escape. I have prepared a story board using photos from our visit in this Web Gallery. Be sure to click on the first image and then go through the images, so that you can read the captions for each.

Fasig Tipton Summer Yearling Sale - 2009

This Monday I photographed the Texas Fasig-Tipton Summer Yearling Sale. The sale has been a two day event in the past but this year was only one day with 370 catalog entries.

The days was much cooler than in years past, but many of the horses went through without selling or even meeting the upset price of $1000. The Sale Topping horse was a Purge x Ballagren Chestnut colt consigned by Inside Move, Inc, Agent and sold to Midwest Thoroughbreds for $87,000. Here is a Gallery of images I took during this sale. Read Shelby Downs article on the Blood-Horse magazine website.