Going Hut Hopping Again!

   Yay, I'm going back to the bush! I haven't been certain that we would be able to get to any more huts for me to draw this month because of my knee and my horse's knee and Caleb's shoulder which he pulled. But we are all getting better now!  On Wednesday I went for a long tramp with a heavy pack on just to see how my knee would feel. And it didn't trouble me at all. I didn't even feel it where it had been so sore last time I walked so much. And if it dose get sore I have some special sports tape which I tried out on my knee and relieved the pain last time it was sore. So that is all good news and means that it's all go ahead and our tentative plans are being put into action.

   Tomorrow Thomas and I begin two days of hitch hiking to get down to Caleb's place in Hawkes Bay. From there we will drive out to the Kawekas and tramp around there for the next two weeks.

   I'm looking forward to more walking with no sore knee this time. And I am excited to begin work again. I've bought some pastels and am planning to do a few pastel drawings as well as charcoal and graphite and some more watercolours. I don't know if I'll ever settle down into one medium. I love working in them all, though sometimes I'm more inspired with one in particular. At the moment I am quite inspired to do pastel paintings and also some more charcoal drawings.

   The other week I spent the afternoon outside my studio drawing the old boat shed and the red wheel barrow.

When I went for a walk on Wednesday I climbed up the Dukes Nose and enjoyed the view of the harbour heads from up there. I painted a small sketch.

And we sold Lady! She is recovering from her 17 stitch cut in her leg and doing very well. I hope she will enjoy her new home. They are very eager to have her and will be well loved. I will miss her a bit though. 

But I will have more time for riding my own Tigger! The other day I rode him up on the hills. I have such a beautiful place to ride!

Good bye! I will be back in a few weeks. :)

Interesting and Inspiring

   It's raining determinedly right now which belies yesterdays beautiful sunshine. I was up with the horses yesterday morning and it was so warm it felt like the middle of summer, but then I was doing allot of running around with my four legged friends!

Lady Grey and her old paddock mate whom she is decidedly cool towards.

She has put on allot of weight on this lovely grass! 

Tigger was very boring I don't think he likes the camera!

   Well here is what has interested and inspired me this week:

 I found out about this equine artist, Emma Kennaway (interview), in the weekend and was inspired by her stunning artwork of horses especially her huge drawings.  She has given me new inspiration for horses as a subject and I have begun to think of new ways of making an old subject interesting. Perhaps it is because she is not a 'horsey' person that her drawings of them are so original, she is able to think outside the box with a new perspective on horses. I have always been faced with the challenge of originality when drawing or painting horses, and do not always meet it successfully! Here is another video of her explaining her pictures before her exhibition.

   As an artist and ever since I read the book Drawing on the Right side of the Brain by Betty Edwards (I not in passing that it is a must read for anyone who wants to or dose draw) I have always been interested about the way people see things, and what we notice and do not notice. I read this blog post a little while ago which talked of an interesting study about inattentional blindness. How we don't notice things if we aren't looking for them which explains why artists see different things in the same subject than a non artist because we look for different things.

    Now here is a short video I made this week. 

  What do you think? I was quite excited when I came up with the idea and have searched in vain on YouTube for video's like it. I think I might enlarge upon the idea! That waltz is my favorite piece of music at the moment.

* * *

  Now here is something I didn't do. This brilliant artist draws wonderful portraits. His videos are so inspiring.

 Video Link Wet Portrait

When Spring Comes Round

 

     Every spring the above landscape becomes a mass of cars and tents and people. This is the Waimate North Show which we go to every November. I guess is the same as a country fair for there are horses, cows, sheep and goats and more farmyard animals, there are also exhibits; contests from woodcutting to singing to flower arranging; cooking shows in the big cooking tent; and many rides to choose from as well as paint-balling in the little forest nearby, and then there are the stalls which people in happy holiday moods browse around all day. This year I am going to try have a stall of my own there. 

     I was going to have one last year but my sisters wedding was on the same day. And so I am planning it for this year unless something else happens to prevent me. It means allot of work painting pictures to sell as I don't really have any of my own work that is any good hanging around. I'll mostly do horses because most of the people there are somehow or other involved with the big horse event which is the biggest part of the fair. There are two days of it and on the second day there are only horses.

     At the moment I am working on a collection of horses in watercolour and watercolour pencil. I hadn't worked with watercolours for awhile so it's nice to get back to using them. 

More Recent Old Drawings.

Yesterday I showed you a sketchbook of mine from seven years ago when I was twelve. Here is another sketch book; one from 2007 when I was fourteen. You can see how I had improved in a couple years through constant practice. I also started to draw things other than horses, though rarely.

My Drawings from Seven Years Ago

   I took photos of one of my old sketch books today from 2005 when I was twelve turning thirteen. I have lots of these old sketch books all full of horse drawings. I didn't draw much else because the only reason I drew was because of horses. I always looked forwards to this day when I could look back on my old drawings and see how much I have improved. As you can see I always added the date to my drawings.

I had a whole herd of imaginary horses and knew the colour and temperament of each one.

If I had never loved horses so much I would probably never attempted to become a real artist.

I'm still here with my horses

    No, I didn't forget I have a blog, I was just waiting for something to blog about. I still don't have anything to say particularly, but I'll think of something as I go along. 

I have been doing more riding than drawing lately--almost. Last weekend I went on a 22km ride. I've been trying to get him fit for a three day ride across New Zealand in June. Probably the worst time to do it--the middle of winter!

 Tigger knows exactly which direction is home!

We rode past the big rock, Tara Tara.

I was going to go for another long ride today, to my sisters place about 25km (15.5 miles) away but when I went to see him yesterday he was lame with a sprained fetlock joint, so its a long rest for him. Hopefully he will be better for out long trek.

But all this shouldn't be related here because this is my art blog. Here is a drawing from about a year ago to compensate. It is of my neighbors little welsh pony done in graphite. One of my better drawings, it sold pretty quick when I put it in the shop.

Another afternoons work

This is all I've done on the big painting since last Tuesday. I haven't done a thing on it until this afternoon. Was away at a friends for a couple days and went and played my fiddle at the ceili (Irish dancing) but of course only unheard behind the band. And then I've been riding Tigger an aweful lot too. I need to get him fit for some long rides!

And my we have sold Simba, the horse I have been training. Which is a bit sad as I've grown to love him.

My Darling Tigger Video

Several weeks ago Nathaniel, my brother filmed me riding Tigger. I have finally finished making a movie out of the several hours of footage he took! Here it is, enjoy!

Julie Greg- New Zealand Artist

  As part of an unofficial new years resolution I have been looking at work from New Zealand artists for I realized that I know shockingly little of the New Zealand art world. I actually don't like the usually New Zealand contemporary style or 'unrealism'. However I am discovering their are allot of artists from my country who are really brilliant artists.

Julie Greg, for example. I have known of this artist for some years and she has been a big inspiration for me. Whenever I wanted to draw something and couldn't come up with good ideas I would look at her beautiful pastel work. Here are some samples:

Catherino II

Learning to Fly

Power and Grace

  I love the style of her work with the very realistic and detailed horse and abstract textured background.

  I lie how she has done the background for this, it is abstracted to show off the dear but you can tell it is a grassy woodland scene and can even see blue sky through the tree tops.

  Julie Greg has also done a series on shepherds with their horses and dogs. Beautiful pieces are they not!

You can follow her on her blog, though she dose not post very regularly, or see more work in her website gallery. Julie Greg on Facebook

So what do you think? Recon I could become that good an artist one day!

Horses!!!!!

             

Took the camera to the horses yesterday to get some photos of horses to draw.