 |  |
This is a drawing from a photo I took several years ago, but come back to again and again. I call this "The Mimic" because the younger foal was almost exactly mimicking the expression of the older weanling or yearling as I approached with the camera. This is one of my favorite images, I only wish I had captured it in raw format so I could make much larger prints of it. I guess I may have to settle for a larger painting.
Todays drawing is a graphite study for a future painting. I was inspired by one of my previous sketches and went back and did a photo composition combining elements of two different photographs. I then had an 8x10 printed and took with my sketchbook to Borders where I started work
I started with a soft contour of the roan foal and then worked on the shading. After getting the drawing of the foal established I came back to draw the cutter and cow. I had a little trouble in the sketchbook due to format so had to reduce the size. This is the part I will work on a little more before moving to the painting. After I finished the cutter and cow I took a rest and read a drawing magazine, and then came back in about 1/2 hour to do more modeling work on the foal.
What do you do while the truck is in the shop for Routine Mainainence?
Tonight's impromptu supper is sort of a Creole or Cajun dish with Chicken Thighs. I first browned the chicken thighs in canola oil. When Chicken was evenly browned I drained most of the oil and then added a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes, three cloves of garlic which I grated fine, water, and a tablespoon of gumbo powder. I then added what I had left of locally grown sliced baby okra. I added salt and cayenne pepper to taste. After cooking about 20 minutes, I add diced fresh zucchini. Next I cook till okra seeds turn dark and chicken falls off the bone. When it is finished serve over rice.
While I was drying my clothes at the laundramat I went to starbucks and took another try at a drawing I attempted last Thursday but did not quite succeed. I returned to the drawing today (Tuesday, Aug 8) and made some necessary contrast corrections.
What happens with the camera shutter is tripped? This is sort of a behind the scenes look at a sale ring shoot. I am usually standing under the right strobe next to the steps. I have a battery powered strobe on each side of the auction stand, both set at approximately the same power. In this case the left side strobe is approximately 20% higher than the one on the right. The strobes are connected to my camera via a radio controlled device. When the shutter is tripped a radio signal is sent to both strobes simultaneously.
finally chosen for the cut. Eddie Flynn rode Stylish Baby Doll (SR Instant Choice x Stylish Oak Susie by Doc's Oak) to the championship with a score of 220.5. Walton's Rocking W Ranch, Inc is the owner of this mare. She was also in the Open Top 5 of the 2006 Super Stakes.
Paul Hansma and Sister CD (CD Olena x Little Babysitter by Dual Pep) were the Reserve Champions with a score of 218.5. Sister CD (gelding) is owned by Skip Queen and was also the 2006 Super Stakes Open Co-Champion.
The Western Bloodstock Summer Sales held in conjunction with the NCHA Summer Spectacular Cutting Horse Show in Ft Worth was a great success. The first Day was primarily 2 and 3yo colts and fillies which had been started. Most were demonstrated on cows as they sold. The 2nd and 3rd Days were primarily yearlings and mares (some with foals. Don Green (on left) and Steve Friskup were the Auctioneers.
The ring men were there to help communicate the bids from the crowd to the auctioneer. The ring man on right is using hand signals to communicate with the bidder. The auctioneer "sings" out the current price and the ringman watches the crowd for bids. When he spots a bidder he shouts to the auctioneer the price of the offer. When a sale is complete the Auctioneer will say the name of the ringman who communicated the successful bid. As a sale proceeds a handler will lead the horse around the ring setting him up so that all 
potential buyers can see. An announcer and pedigree man will stop the auctioneer from time to time with updates about the family line of the horse and the performance records of the family. He will also note any information that might have bearing on the soundness of the horse for performance or breeding.
Tomorrow I am on my way to the Ft Worth for the Summer Spectacular Sale at the Watt Arena and Justin Sales Ring. This year the first day of sales will be held at the Watt Arena with horses being sold as they are shown. Included in this day of sales will be the 2nd annual Waggoner Roundup of 3 and 2yo Buyer Choice Pairs. The photo to the left is of Peppy Playgun being shown during the 2005 Summer Spectacular Western Bloodstock Sale. 
The following two days of sales will be held in the Justin Sales Ring with production sales of weanlings, yearlings, 2yo, broodmares, and stallions. The Saturday session will include an offering of Buyers Choice Yearlings and Select Broodmares (2065-2081) from the Double Dove Ranch. The charcoal drawing to the right is of the Futurity Breeders Select Sale in the Justin Sales Ring.
These sketches were drawn at two different times. The foal was drawn last evening from a photograph I took during a recent client advertising project. The foal is a red roan but drawing does not show the roan characteristics. The thumbnail above is a reining slide that I just quickly sketched out for a friend the week before.
This vegetable stirfry pretty much invented itself. I started by cutting a rutabaga into strips and cooking garlic and ginger root in a skillet with olive oil. I added the rutabaga and mini carrots to the skillet and cooked them til nearly soft and then added sliced yellow squash. I then remembered I had some baby spinach that was passed the salad stage, so I added that too. I continued cooking til it was ready and the served with my baked Talapia.
Yesterday morning I drove out to Texas Rock Ranch and photographed four of the 2006 foals. I have photographed foals at my brothers ranch and was wondering how it would be photographing foals who did not know me, but all foals are pretty much the same. There are some that want to get right up in your face to see what you are up to, and others that keep a good safe distance. What is most fun is when they finally get used to me and go back to playing with each other. I was afraid the heat would be oppressive and the foals would not be active, but they were quite active and playing much of the time I was there.
I have been working at the ranch for the last 6 days, and rarely got home before 9pm, which is why I have not posted very much. After the days work I often ride my horse, or walk down the hill. During these trips over the last month or so I noticed that at about 8 o'clock every evening a skunk found hunting grounds under the trees at the bottom of the hill. This skunk never took notice of anyone, horse or man except a few times when we surprised each other during a horse ride. I backed off and the skunk made his way back to his home. Today I went down the hill with specific plans to get a photo of this skunk. I started down the hill about 7:45 and when I reached the area where I had seen the skunk yesterday,
I saw no signs of her. As an alternative I went to the horse pasture and spent a while photographing the foals some more. About 8:15 I looked over the fence and saw that the skunk had arrived. I stopped my horse photography for a bit and went over the fence and photographed the skunk.
The Rose Country Cutting Horse show was a success with folks coming to try out the new dirt. The weather was quite hot for man and horse. It was a bit cooler outside in the breeze than inside the arena (oven). This time I photographed all or part of the $10,000NH,Youth/Medal, $50,000,$20,000,$2500 LR, with a few other special request images in the $3,000 and 1,000 NH classes. You can view the images from Saturday's show Here. If you are ordering it is best to go through my Americascutter.com website.
This is just the spinach salad with Asiago Caesar Dressing. 
Thursday evening we started a new month of sketching in the galleries with Takako Tenabe. Our assignment was to draw all or part of an Indian Shrine of silver and wood. This shrine as extremely detailed and presented sensory overload. How was I to draw such a complex sculpture? I started with a one corner of the shrine, drawing the shapes of elephants and riders and the columns which they supported. There was considerable perspective to consider. Detail was added with Marks suggesting the complex patterns stamped into the silver. As I draw I noticed another sketching student on the opposite side of this shrine and added her to the drawing. At the conclusion of the class I asked Takako why she had chosen such a complex subject for us to draw. She told me that was to help us see detail. If we had chosen a more familiar and simple subject such as a bench and cushion. We might have seen the general shape and structure of the bench, but have been blinded by familiarity and unable to show the subtle texture of the cushions and wood frame. In choosing a complex subject as the shrine we would be forced to confront the detail and find a way to draw this texture.
I spent the 4th and 5th of July working at the ranch. Duties included sweeping the pool (in order to finish the plaster surfaces), landscaping the area around the pool. There were also ordinary ranch duties such as watering and taking care of the horses and grounds maintaining. While filling the water troughs in the lower pasture, I always enjoy visiting with the yearlings and foals in the bottom pasture. The older foal (nearly weanling) filly is like my shadow when I am in her pasture. She loves the withers and butt rubs but still prefers I not get close to her ears or legs. With time I will be able to pick both feet up.
It has been a bit since I have been able to post to this blog. This has been a busy week. I started the this month last Saturday at the APHA Showcase sale in Ft Worth. 83 horses were in the catalog, all but a handful went through the sale, and at the end four APHA champions were added. The final horse in the sale was a colt started before the sale as part of a horsemanship clinic by Chris Cox. This is a new venue for the APHA Showcase sale. Western Bloodstock, Inc., produced this sale in the style they use for the NCHA Cutting Horse Sales at the W.R. Watt Arena. Consignors have an opportunity to demonstrate their sale horses in the arena as they sell. The photo shows Clint Haverty demonstrating Fancy Like a Diamond and his reining slide.
The filly with the question mark on her head is this years foal. She was born in early March. She dam has raised her without fear of people so she is now willing to come up and check out my camera, and even enjoys a good withers and butt scratch. This filly was following me around, all the time with a question on her mind about what I was up to.
How would you like a print like this hanging on your walls? 
After a fiasco in rendering proportions with a cutting horse pastel yesterday, I decided to retrace my steps and try again in watercolor. This one worked MUCH better. If you did not see the pastel on this blog, it is too late, I took it off :) This time I carefully gridded my paper and the image I was painting. I carefully sketched my subject, and then moved to the painting table where I removed most of the grid lines and started the painting. This painting is on a 15x20 sheet of watercolor paper. Digitally photographing the painting really helps to see what works and what needs to be fixed or done differently next time. It is quite challenging painting a blue roan. 
Monday night I photographed a team of 8yo girls playing indoor soccer. This was one of my most difficult challenges. The lighting was poor so I had to shoot at F2.8 and I had to stay in a little box on next to the team waiting area. The game only lasted about an hour but the action was intense.
Today was my nieces 8th birthday party and she chose to have it at Exposure - Lots and lots of walls to climb. Those little girls and boys can really climb those walls. I finally gave in and put on the harness and climbed a few walls myself. I got my dad to man my digital camera and catch a few of myself on the wall. Here is one of several he got. Those handholds can be quite small. I climbed about 3 walls and then gave it up. I imagine I will feel it in the morning.
After I get some house cleaning and photography chores done today I am thinking of going downtown to the monthly Late Nights event at the Dallas Museum of Art on DART Light Rail. The last time I rode DART to the Late Nights event and encountered packed cars. I felt like I was one of the cows in the photo to the left. Tonight there will be a concert by Los Lobos in addition to the many other Late Nights Events. I was at the museum last night for Sketching in the Galleries but have nothing I am willing to post so the crowd of cows will have to substitute. Last nights drawing assignment was to choose a sculpture in the Hindu or Buddhist galleries and draw. I am still learning how to draw figures and proportions and detailing features were getting in my way. Hopefully we will be in a different gallery next week as I and many others are pretty tired of those galleries.
This past Saturday I attended the Rose Country Cutting Horse Show, not to photograph but to sell photos I took during the NCHA Weekend. I came home with a stack of orders which I have already submitted and are now ready to pick up from the lab. I make an effort to get my orders out within two weeks, and sometimes am able to mail out by Thursday. I have a couple of Fathers Day photos so I want to make sure they can be in the hands of my customer on or before Saturday. 
The lesson for my Thursday evening sketching in the galleries class was to first pick a painting in the Dallas Museum of Art Contemporary Gallery and copy it. I chose a large black and white painting called Slate Cross which Franz Kline painted in 1961. The original painting may be seen on a page from the DMA Museum Store. At first view it would seem that this painting would be easy to draw, but the overlapping vertical lines and edges with white space was a bit difficult. I learned reading the card next to the painting that Franz Kline was trying to give equal weight to both black lines and the white space between them. After 20 minutes of drawing our instructor asked that we stop, write down the name of the artist, the title of the work, and then assign 5 words to that drawing. I chose 5 descriptive words: Dark overlapping lines Vertical Gaps.
The next step in the exercise was to close our eyes and redraw the painting in five minutes. After time was called we were to take this blind drawing and consider it an unfinished drawing and take it into the "Studio" of our mind and use the five words we had assigned to our original copy as a guide to finish it. I gave my drawing a different look but with most of the same elements of the original drawing.
All over the US and Canada during the next two days (June 3-4) there will be cutting horse shows in each of the 24+ areas. Members of affiliates of each area will gather at one central location for that area and have a huge cutting. At one time this was done on one day, but with the number of cutters that day went into a second. Now NCHA Day has been renamed
NCHA Weekend and in many areas a limited age event starts the weekend on the preceding Friday. Saturday sometime during the day there will be a traditional BBQ with brisket, sausage, beans, potato salad and desert. There will be time for all cutters to get a plate, although some may be eating theirs on their horse waiting for their ride, or to herdhold or turnback for clients. I will be photographing the Area 24 Cutting in Athens, Texas over the next few days. The photos you see were taken during the limited age event preceding the weekend event.
Each Thursday night from May 11 to June 15 the crowd gathers on the Ross Avenue Plaza at the Dallas Museum of Art for Jazz Under The Stars. Tonight was no exception, except for a brief late start due to a shower. Everyone brings their chairs, small tables, picnic baskets and wine to enjoy two hours of fine jazz music.
Tonight the featured band was Havana NRG, a Cuban jazz group. Everyone enjoyed listening and dancing to the Latin beat. This event is sponsored by Chase Bank, and Promoted by Channel 11 and Smooth Jazz 107.5 "The Oasis."
Next week "The Official Texas Jazz Band" will play.
