Fredericksburg Christmas Pyramid

This year Fredericksburg, Texas brought from Germany a traditional Christmas Pyramid.


I photographed the pyramid on Friday before the Dedication.

Saturday night the Mayor of Frederickburg dedicated the pyramid and lit the Christmas Tree and the Pyramid before a large crowd of citizens and visitors.

Texas Cutting Futurity 2009

2009 Texas Futurity Open Champions

See the 2009 Texas Cutting Futurity Photos at americascutter.com

Texas Cutting Futurity - Cattle Loading

The following images are of a pair of Border Collies raised and trained by Sweet Iron Ranch Border Collies who are getting on the job training working cattle at the Texas Cutting Futurity. Although one of these dogs is well trained, the other is a two-year-old apprentice learning from the older dog. In this sequence they are loading cattle that are ready to be sent back to the ranch after cattle works.

Update:

I have added this Web Gallery including additional images of these Border Collies working the cows.

Texas Cutting Futurity 2009

This week I am photographing the Texas Cutting Futurity. The first 3 days the open limited age classes are being held. The finals for the Open Classic and Derby are starting tomorrow.

Freckled Leo Lena ridden by James Davison and owned by Tripp Duprier is the top money Open Classic Money earner going into the finals.



Gypsy by Sunlight, ridden by Tim McCloud and owned by Ken and Marcia Hanson was the top Open Derby money earner going into the finals

Vizsla dogs take a break to rest on the porch

After spending much of the day play fighting, these two Vizsla dogs take a break and rest on the porch of Equine Veterinary Services.

Sketching at the Nasher: Joan Arp Bronze

This past Thursday, The Nasher Sculpture Center hosted a Sketching in the Galleries led by Lisa Nersesova. I chose this bronze sculpture by Joan Arp entitled "Torso with Buds" for a graphite and conte drawing.

Ranch Views

This past Sunday I Photographed the ranch from a point of view I had not yet explored.

  Vet Clinic under Oak Grove at top of hill

       Two pasture views from pond

   Hint of Fall in Cottonwood Trees  at ponds edge

Rock Creek Ranch Dispersal Sale

This Friday October 16 I photographed the Rock Creek Ranch Dispersal Horse Sale NW of Weatherford, TX. There was lots of excitment as some of the finest cutting horses trained by Roger Wagner sold in absolute auction. The photo to the left shows Auctioneer Steve Friskup selling Pet Squirrel for $400,000. Watch this space as I add a link to a gallery of horse sale photos next week. The Official Results article may be found at www.sallyharrison.com. Also read about the sale at Allaboutcutting.com.

Did you buy a horse at this sale? Here are the photos -> Rock Creek Ranch Dispersal Sale
To order photos go to WB Sale Photos

DMA Creative Connections: Tech Lab production

This is the First Tech Lab I have attended. Our project was to create a project based on special effects, either video or still sequence. My model Rousi was inspired by the installation video of Eija-Ahtila in the Performance / Art Exhibition. As she was acting for Chuck D'Arcy who was shooting a video, I took this sequence of still images and brought them together into a Ken Burns style slide show.

Last Evening in September

I was walking across the arena and a 3yo mare was following me quite closely. I had to pick up my pace so I could get some separation and then took this photo.


The sunset this evening was spectacular with a clouds feathered by strong winds aloft.

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.

Thursday Night Live at the DMA

As I prepared to head to the Dallas Museum of Art, I saw this Thunderhead and ran back for my camera. This image was specially processed to enhance the contrast of the clouds to sky.




I looked up from my Table in the Atrium Cafe and saw this image of guard on the steps to the 4th floor galleries.


Jazz in the Atrium Cafe. Two brass instruments played at once?

Doc O Lena Twist Filly in Training

This past Wednesday while I was working at the ranch, I photographed Jenny Jess riding Unquestionable Twist. Evidently this filly is a joy to ride. She had started him this past week and was riding bareback after 20 minutes. Jenny is great at starting horses, and was an Extreme Makeover Champion last year.. She is also does horse message therapy. For more info about Jenny visit her website at www.procareequine.com.

Unquestionable Twist is a 3yo filly by Doc O Lena Twist out of Ms Freckles Gold.

DIY at DMA: Rock Music 2

This past Thursday I attended a new program at in the Dallas Museum of Art Center for Creative Connections entitled DIY@DMA (Do it Yourself at DMA). In this Third Thursday class, much like the Sketching, We are led by a professional artist. At each class we create some work of art inspired by a current exhibit. This month we were inspired by the Private Universes Exhibit and came back to the studio and created Cigar Box Collages. The idea was to start but not necessarily finish. I created a painting in a box which I later discarded by painting the inside. Today after reading a section in an art book about Cornell and his shadow box asemblages I created my own which I have entitled Rock Music 2. This is not a permanent box, and I may once again paint the inside of the box and create another assemblage.

Vizsla Dogs: An Ink, Watercolor, and Gouache Sketch

Although the paper was not so good for watermedia, I wanted to finish out this ink contour drawing I did a few weeks ago with watercolor and gouache.

Foal Fun: Dog Spy

Who is that spying on us weanlings?

Foal Fun: A Little Horseplay

About 7:30 or so as sun gets low on the horizon, the foals finish their naps and come out to play.

A Little Horse Boxing as one of the dams supervises.

Foal Fun: No Cattle to Cut but there is always the dogs.

Colt locks onto dog.

Dog breaks to the right.

Equine Art: Drawing

This is a pencil drawing on Bristol Smooth Paper from a photograph I took of Third Cutting being shown in the 2008 Futurity Finals by Boyd Rice.

Western Bloodstock Sales Photography

Summer Spectacular Sale 2009

This past weekend I photographed the Western Bloodstock Summer Spectacular Preview Exhibition and Auction. Here are some of the highlights:

Seasoned Cutting Horse

Stylish Pepper Cat

3-Year-Old

Stylish House Cat

2-Year-Old

Kinda Hot In Here

Yearling

Boonsmals Remedy

Broodmare

Confetti Cat

See more images in my Western Bloodstock Sale Web page Galleries.