Barn Kitten

Tuesday morning I went on a ranch call photoshoot and while visiting with the clients I noticed this barn kitten sacked out in the center of a lariat. My camera was handy so I had to capture the image.

In the Kitchen: Slicing Mushrooms

I did not cook anything with mushrooms tonight. I was reviewing my food photo and found this image in my archives. It looked good so I decided to post it tonight.

Sketchbook: Ju Hick I

This is a drawing I did from a photograph of a horse taken the Bluebonnet Stakes this past May. I did this graphite drawing on Staedtler engineering paper so I would have a grid to work from.

Sketchbook: Sun Over Plain I

No Sketching class today, July 5, so I took some oil pastels and did this experimental piece on black card stock. I call this Sun over Plain I and it was inspired by similar works by Author Dove and Georgia O'Keefe.

Month End at the Ranch

April is already starting her life in the "Grass is Greener" school of thought. I guess it is time to mow again. I tried a number of times to convince her that the spaces between the runners was only to look through.









After rains flatten the arena floor I like to walk and look for float of ceramic shards, textures created by the rainwater, and unusual animal tracks. Click here to see a slide show, including an animal that created those tracks.







This has been a very unusual month in Texas as rains have persisted during a time when dry, hot weather is usually the rule. I have included a small gallery of storm clouds.

Sketchbook: Le Clarion

Our project in sketching in the galleries this week was to take a painting and do a interpretive and expressive drawing based on a painting in a gallery. I chose a painting entitled "Le Clarion" by Edouard Manet (1882). This drawing was done in colored pencil on a black archival card stock. Although this painting was of a French Bugler, It seemed that it could just have easily been of a US Civil War Confederate Bugler.

In the Kitchen: Italian Combo

Wedn night I prepared a combination of Central Market Mozzarella and Bell Pepper Sausage, along with spaghetti with my Marinara Sauce, on the side I had leftover Baked Eggplant with Zucchini and mushrooms.

More Ranch Photos

Wednesday evening after working at the ranch all day, I went around and captured some new photos around the ranch. The image shown is of April modeling my palm straw. It did not quite fit right so I had to help a little, but she was willing to let me hold it there, if only for a few seconds. A slide show of more images may be seen in this web gallery.

Meet the Kids (goats that is)

Meet Annie the goat.
She is one of two goats at the ranch. This pair were a birthday present for my niece.
You may see additional photos of the goats in this web gallery

A Favorite Photo

A few years ago I took this photo of a filly that was very unusual. It is hard enough to get a pasture raised foal to let me get this close, let alone put a cap on her and let it stay. This photo was created to promote my website www.americascutter.com.

In the Kitchen: Fruit Salad II

My kitchen goal for today was to create a fruit salad that was both colorful and flavorful. I combined Strawberries and complimentary Kiwi fruit, along with peaches and apricots. I served this salad with a lemon and lime juice mayonnaise dressing.

In the Kitchen: Summer Faire

Well the rain is over (maybe) and it is getting hot outside. Now is the time for a good fruit salad. I put strawberries, banana, apple, nectarine, and cantaloupe together and with the help of a dressing of mayonnaise with the juice of a large lemon.

Area 24 NCHA Day 2007

Now why are the putting us out here?

This past weekend I was at the NCHA Weekend for Area 24 in Athens Texas. I photographed all of the Amateur and Youth classes and most of the Non-Pro Classes. You can see those images at NCHA Day 2007

Sketchbook: Moonlight

This week we sketched in an exhibit about Texas Art that just opened this week. I chose a lithograph by Alexander Hogue called Moonlight which was printed in 1954.Our instructor brought some black construction paper and white pencils so that we could experiment with working with negative space. I decided after seeing this lithograph that Moonlight was the perfect artwork to draw. Some of you may recognize the church in this drawing as the Ranchos De Taos which has drawn many artists and photographers working in the Southwest.

Cowboys Shadow

During the ACHA weekend at about 7:30 pm each day the sunlight shown on the backfence boards. I looked over and saw a great shadow of the turnback and herdholder with a golden halo. When I tripped my strobes an additional larger shadow of the turnback rider appeared.

Cowboy Cooling Station

During the past weekend I have been in Brenham at the Nueces Canyon Ranch for the American Cutting Horse Association Weekend. Yesterday I had a little time to photograph some behind the scenes photos and found this Cowboy Cooling Station in the horse barn. It did not see a lot of use this weekend as temperatures were more like early April than late March.

Visit with the Foals of 2007

This past Saturday after work I went over to visit with the foals. April is the most eager for visitors. This is one of few images I was able to get with my long lens as she came right over to visit and stuck with me as long as I was in the pasture. Since she was an orphan foal and was nursed by people for her first two weeks, she has a weak bond to her nursemare and is most interested in people.



Colena's colt on the other hand, is more reserved and while he will come to visit, is hesitant about any human touch. He and April are now fast friends, but as a colt he is a bit curious about Aprils really large Dam. I watched as he went over to the water trough and drank right next to Aprils' Clydesdale nursemare. To my surprise he walked over and took a sample to see if it was the same as normal mares milk.

Dancing Cow?

Is this a Dancing Cow? or a cow about to make an escape from the cutter and run back to where I am taking photos? It sort of reminds me of that song when were were kids - Put you left foot out and shake it all about, or something like that.

Bluebonnet Stakes May 4-6, 2007

Bluebonnet Stakes is over and now I am in a battle to get all the images online. I have spent the better part of two days editing all the limited age, 50,000NP, and Youth Scholarship photos. I am now uploading them to the site. Tomorrow I work on the regular Bluebonnet CHa Weekend show photos. The photo on this post is Ju Hick cutting out a cow in the Open Derby.

Bluebonnet Stakes Preview

I will be leaving tomorrow for Brenham, Texas and the 2007 Bluebonnet Stakes to be held at the Washington County Fairgrounds Friday -> Sunday. The photo to your left is one of my favorite youth photo from a few years ago.

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.

In the Kitchen: Salmon Potato Green Chili Cakes

The menu for tonight was Salmon Potato Cakes with Green Chili with a Tomatillo and Yellow Squash Garlic Sauce. The potato cakes were prepared by combining 1 7oz pouch of drained pink salmon, 3 table spoons of Hot Dice Green Chilis, 3 white mashed potatoes, 1/2 cup of milk (I used goat milk) and enough Arrowhead Mills Multi-grained pancake mix, and one egg. I mixed this until a thick pancake batter consistency and then cooked on a iron skillet sprayed with a vegetable oil non-stick spray.


While I was cooking the salmon cakes I prepared a Tomatillo sauce by cooking 5-6 tomatillos with 3 grated cloves of garlic and salt to taste. I cooked until mixture was nearly thickened and then added one dice yellow squash. I cooked this til squash was cooked and sauce thickened. I served the two Salmon Potato Green Chili Cakes covered with the Tomatillo Sauce. It was so good I had another. -JA

Sketching in the Galleries: Apollo Attacks

This week we were in the 18th - Early 19th Century European Galleries. Our assignment was to pick a painting and draw a small portion of the view, maintaining composition and filling our paper with image. I chose a painting of the era which typically had a mythical basis. This one included Diana and Apollo attacking. I chose to depict Apollo and his horse and a praying victim.

Sketching at the Nasher

Tonight was free night at the Nasher Sculpture Center and as such our sketching class crossed the street to have our Sketching in the Galleries Class in this world class sculpture museum. Our assignment for the evening was to choose a fairly realistic sculpture and initially sketch our choice, then to abstract this first sketch without referring to the original. We were to the repeat this process a third and possibly forth time from the preceeding drawings. I chose Aristide Maillol's "Night", a bronze cast in 1960 as shown in this photo by David Heald.

Tree Study

This evening I photographed trees to show the line and design of spreading and intersecting lines. Most of these trees were backlit, but I included a few blooming fruit tree images.
I have posted a Flash Gallery at www.jarnoldphoto.com/trees/index.html.

My Horse moves to his Spring Pasture.

Today my horse Squirt moved to his spring home in the lower pasture. His pasture mate, Badger is of similar age and is also a gelding. I just hope I can catch him when I want to ride. Badger likes to run and the combination of those two may make a quick ride a little easier said than done when they team up and play try to catch me now.

Lunar Eclipse

Tonight after photographing a Cutting Horse show I stopped by the ranch to check water levels and found this sight. I had forgotten that I had read there was to be a lunar eclipse tonight and that there was a narrow window in North Texas in which it view it.
When I saw this I had to get out the camera and get a few photos. As I filled the waters outside I continued to watch the moon and watched it gradually returned to its normal full state for this time of the month.