Portrait of a sitting child.....what no horse?

This is somewhat off piste on my usual post, so apologies. If you have been following you will know I am working on a bigger horse painting at the moment, and I am not the sort who has a few paintings on the go at one time, I'd much rather give my creative energy and time to one piece, especially when working large. So as a little light touch creative detour I thought I'd introduce my Petite Ballerina -  my young daughter - doodled in a ruled note book in between ballet and swimming lessons at the weekend.

I doodle a lot like this, but haven't found a way yet to mesh it in with my horse art  so that it doesn't wind up looking like a piece of clip art! It will probably re-surface in some way or another as it comes very naturally to work in this way.

Next time I pick up a pen to sketch one of my kids I'll be sure to pop them on a horse so it's a little more relevant to my blog topic!

Bad Riding....Good Art!

All in life must balance itself in some way or other, I tend to find. Yesterday I had the most shocking awful riding lesson in about a year on the lovely Rocky. I have only ridden him twice before and both times found him a wonderful little horse....a push button pony they would call him if he was a little shorter in stance. Not last night however, as I struggled with canter transitions for fully 40 minutes on him.  As my difficulties turned to despair my technique went from bad to worse, and I wound up looking like I was dancing the funky chicken on his back. So badly wrong and so humiliating -I don't take failure well in any aspect of my life, if ever there is a chink in my armour, this is it.I dismounted sweaty, with cramp in my right calf and ready to chuck in riding all together....whats the point, thought I, if I am still as poorly as this after all this time? What if I am one of those riders who can only ever ride a great horse. Is that a bad thing?

Anyhow, last nights despair over, the dark cloud has passed and today I took to paper and effortlessly drew a pen and ink of a gorgeous horse called Hudson.  It was just one of those days you sit and draw, no hesitation or indecision.... do they call it 'flow'? Whatever it is I was in the zone.

I wondered how one thing I love can come so easy and another thing I love feel so impossibly hard.....then I realised that this was just the artists equivalent of a good riding day.  Now I just have to relish the moment and hold onto the feeling....... magic.

Maybe I could bottle it and sell it on my Etsy as handmade elixir of creativity?

Catching Ponies

Since I can first recall at the age of seven I have had a love of two things; drawing and horses. I will come back to the drawing, but for now let me speak of horses.

I was fortunate as a child to have a couple of years living in the country to introduce me to how riding should be for every child who takes to these wonderful animals. At the stables in near Oban where I lived, the schooling was relaxed and the trekking was great wth the ponies well used to being hacked out. I don't recall ever seeing a horse bolt or buck, and we happily rode them bareback to the fields at the end of the day to turn them out.

Requests for a pony of my own were not successful - as a parent myself now, I have sypmathy  - and so at weekends, I would romp around the fields near to Ganavan quite literally try to catch ponies ...thinking back only a child would be so daft as to try and approach and befriend strange horses, and I did come a cropper with a bite once or twice.

Now, at the age of thirty six, I am no closer to catching or getting a pony (or horse) of my own. I ride every week, but a job, two kids and a mortgage have put my dream firmly in the 'as if' camp. No number of requests to Santa will deliver a gift with such a great financial and time burden to my family, not to mention the inherent increased risk of accident associated with riding more frequently. And yet even with the limitations of living in the city and rarely going out on hack, I still adore these animals and yearn to ride more.

In short, I still want to catch that pony! I am now changing tack, and finding new ways to catch them through my work as an artist, through Horse Portraiture.

I am discovering new outlet for my love of horses. In between riding them I now draw them and work on catching them in a different sense.....catching their essence, beauty and expression in the art. This is such is a special thing and I feel extremely lucky that I have a talent that allows me to do this.

I have started this blog to share my experiences creating Horse Portraits alongside my own personal horse experiences as I continue to grow and develop through my riding and my art. My hope my art will bring delight to owners and horse lovers, and that through doing something that I truly love well, may even inch closer dream....