illustrations

...decided to get a bunch of cream-colored Canson Mi-Teintes paper yesterday....

I would like to do charcoal portraits of some of the stallions, and the cream paper will give the drawings an aged, archival look....

Above image is The Gentleman, a drawing I did last year. It's charcoal and pastel on the cream Canson paper. Love that paper!

Research trips!

On the "must do" list:

Go to Vermont and dig through the archives at the National Museum of the Morgan Horse. (Sigh. It's a hard job, but somebody's gotta do it....)

Vermont is a lovely state full of Morgan horses and Morgan horse lovers--can't wait!

My copy of The Morgan Horse by Jeanne Mellin arrived this weekend, and wow--what a fantastic book. I wish this book was still in print and widely available--Jeanne Mellin did some exhaustive research on the history of the Morgan breed and presented it with some amazing photos and her wonderful artwork.

Oh, and be still my heart--there is a photo of the mighty stallion, Mentor, standing in a field with the old UConn horse barn in the background. Lovely piece of UConn history, there.


today's image is a freehand sketch of a Morgan stallion. I did this drawing last week when I wrote more in the UC Doc Daniels chapter--he inspired me. :-)

Happiness is....

...Having an ENTIRE WEEK to do nothing but write and paint!

The word continues to spread, and many have shared their stories with me. I am so grateful. It's your input that will give this book a true heart!

THANK YOU!

Oh boy, I have three gigantic blank canvases in my studio right now (five foot by six foot, to be exact), and I can't wait to take a vine charcoal to them! (Whatsie whozit?)

Let me explain. Vine charcoal is a very soft drawing medium that allows for easy erasing and re-working. You can wipe the line away with your hand--no gum eraser needed. I use vine charcoal to draw my sketch directly on the painting surface. I sketch, step back, correct, re-work, fix, etc--I don't use a projector to trace a photo or drawing onto the surface. I like working this way, using memory and imagination really gets me connected to the work. It also keeps my knowledge of horse anatomy fresh and my drawing muscles strong.

When the sketch is done, I veeeeeeeeery gently wipe away most of the vine charcoal on the canvas or gessboard so that only a faded outline appears on the surface. Then, I paint. I start with a diluted underpainting over the entire surface for the background, then I paint the outline in so it doesn't disappear.

I can't wait to get started--- I'm chomping at the bit! (pun TOTALLY intended!)

(By the way---UC Ringmaster gets one of these canvases....) (yippppeee! I love painting him! He's SO expressive)

Things are really picking up in the research department, too. So much to do! So much FUN!

Watch this space....

image is a detailed crop of My Horse, My Heart from 2009. Pressed charcoal was incorporated into this work, and varnished in. (I love charcoal! I like to give it a starring role every once in a while...)

new chapters started

Yesterday I started the chapters on the stallions Canfield, Goldfield, Magellan and Mentor. I was in the zone--the words flew off my fingers! LOVE IT when that happens.

And, the UConn men won! Congrats!

Mama "O" aka UC Ovation

(detail from "Concentration", 2007. Charcoal and Conte crayon.)

She could sense if the rider was nervous and she wouldn’t go too fast or toss her head impatiently if the reins were accidentally pulled too hard. If a rider had more experience, Ovation would size them up and offer more of a challenge by getting a little sassy.

~from the UC Ovation chapter


oh, and CONGRATS to the UConn Huskies! FINAL FOUR!