Chinese Year of the Horse

I spotted this wonderful transitory and alive piece of art made to celebrate the year of the horse.  Children are adding their footprints to the snow drawing on a closed overpass in Wuhan, Hubei province, Central China

Classical horses, no, not that kind!

For example, I have more understanding of what is happening in the horse's body structure when I doing free or interpretative drawings. Here I am inspired by equestrian sculptures in Rome and other places.

Greek or Roman chariot horse, Rome

Roman equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, Rome

Scene from classical Greek sculpture on Parthenon Frieze, British Museum 

Anatomy

I am working on anatomy, at last I feel this is the time.  Until now I backed off from it, thinking it would inhibit expression.  But I see that it has the opposite result.  Knowing how the nostrils are formed, or the front legs, for example, is liberating.

TATTERSALLS visit with Society of Equestrian Artists

In November I had the pleasure of visiting Tattersalls Foal Sales in Newmarket, Suffolk. 
It was a huge event.  The drama of the occasion and spiel of the auctioneers (who worked in short rotating shifts) was something to experience.

Here are two sketches I did for a current exhibition at the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket.

Good to be blogging again!

The drama of the sale ring

Entering the sale ring

Cezanne, the master

 

Landscape   Paul Cezanne

Two quotes from Cezanne:

"Colour is the place where our brain and the universe meet"

"The landscape thinks itself in me and I am its consciousness"

For more, read John Berger's piece on 2012 Paris retrospective  Cezanne and Paris

More thought processes

Original photo taken Newmarket September 2012

One of my colour studies - not sure why no feet

Trying to abstract a bit using monotone oil on board

Drawing again from memory - feet reappearing

Abstracting further and making a new picture - just the start here

Time looking at the top photo and one of my colour studies, which I was definitely not happy with.  Decided to work in mono colour, oil - ultramarine and sienna on board, making a kind of paint drawing.  Feel comfortable with this medium.  Difficult to abstract when something like a horse with all its subtleties is involved.  Relief to get beyond the study to the beginning of another kind of subject, focussing on the elements that interest me - blankets, railings, horse legs and shapes.  Way to go but feel I could take this somewhere.   And quite a surprise to look back at the original photo.

Intermediate processes

Studying from life is one thing, and a very valuable one.  But making the leap from that to something deeper and more energetic is something else.  I am not suggesting that versions (4) and (5) are successful, but they  do tap into a different sort of energy, they "unlock" a deeper source.  I work very intuitively with the equestrian drawings, and find it hard to work out what I am doing and why some things work.  I caught myself in the process here.

1. Page from Muybridge photographs

 

2. My drawing/study  - quite free

3. Getting looser but still very related to original photo

4. A leap to something different and more expressive - working on cloth

5. Similar to 4