10,000 Hours of Practise

I have just devoured Malcolm Caldwell's 'Outliers: The Story of Success' over a few days this week, a brilliant and insightful read into some of the hidden factors that shape success. I seem to have all but given up on fiction for the moment, but this is the sort of book I pick up and just can't put down .

It seems, based on the research outlined in this book that if you want to be really good at anything - sport, playing the piano, art, riding horses - then over and above some kind of natural ability you need to put in somewhere in the region of 10,000 hours of practise.

That's 20 hours a week for 10 years or so. I started thinking about my equine art, and I think just about squeeze that in - at times I do less, at others maybe I do more, but I am not yet 'consistent'. On that note, this book has given me a good old shunt in the right direction and you should expect a lot more Horse Art to appear on this blog as I work towards more consistent practise, starting with last night and this mornings work.


In Progress Watercolour Painting (copyright A Cairns)
www.equineartportraits.com

If I keep this up, then you can expect to be the first to see some masterpieces (?!) appearing on this blog in around 9 years and 2 months time - good things come to those who wait!

Now what does this mean for our collective quests to be better riders? Well for me, it is not good, some of you who are a little younger or have your own horse may fair better.

Let us assume I have a few hundred hours in the bank, between my childhood riding, young adulthood and  my return to riding a few years ago, say 500 hours all in. So if I keep going at my current rate of 1 lesson a week and a ride on Merlyn, plus maybe a 2 hour hack a month, then it comes to around 150 hours a year. This leads me to conclude that I should be quite good then at riding if I keep it up for another 63 years or so....I'll be a hundred then! Hilarious....start young, that's what I say.

Ah well, time does fly when you are having fun!

Pop-up Horse Art on Elie Beach

Galloping Horse Art on Elie Beach - Grab the mane and go

I am a beach lover, have been from an early age. I spent a couple of years living by one as a child, which co-incided with my introduction to horses, and have always held a very special place for both since. Whenever I catch my pony I would like to think it will live beside the sea, beside the imaginary ones of my childhood.

Lovely Elie - if you have your wetsuits...brrr!

In the last few years I have become an Elie beach regular. Its a 2 hour drive from Glasgow to the east coast and the East Neuk of Fife, near St Andrews. Provided you can handle the fact that the sea is pretty much Baltic all year round and the weather is hit and miss - as anywhere in Scotland - then  you can have some lovely holidays in this area.

Elie - even when the weather is not so good, still looks amazing

The beaches are a treat and it does rain a little less than the West Coast. The whole place is full of colour in summer, rich flaxen fields with wild red poppies and a sky that is somehow bigger than the one I know at home. across the sea and rolling fields and all of a sudden you feel you can see the curve of the earth.  It is like viewing the world through a fish eye lens.

I went out on a a hack yesterday at nearby Kilconquhar, but it had been raining lately and the fields and trails very boggy. We only managed a short and very pedestrian canter, so I took to the sand this morning  to let out a little of what I felt I was missing out on



Little arty helpers gathering seaweed

My kids and nephew who searched the best rock pools for seaweed that looked like squid ink spaghetti and my galloping mare was off.

Galloping Mare on Elie Beach
Our finished (if a little temporary) artwork

There for my enjoyment and that of any passers by before the tide washed her away in the afternoon.

Some people don't like beaches unless they are sunny and warm....I think they have forgotten how to enjoy a beach.

Rough riding....and a new Horse Painting

Such a quiet week from me, brought about by first off by much activity at work and later by another terrible flat work riding lesson this week that left me at the point of despair and ready to chuck it in. My riding seems to be deteriorating week on week right now, and I have begun to approach lessons with not the usual exhilaration, but rather a feeling of dread, sometimes feeling close to tears by the end of another gruelling often fruitless hour of failing and flailing. It is all in the head now, I know that. It is one of those 'conquer you demons' and mine is an affront at any failure of any sort. By the close of Thursday lesson I concluded that it is time to give up riding the harder horses. I brokered a deal with two of my riding school mates to get there early and grab a horse of my choosing for a few consecutive weeks to see if I can remember how I used to seem to be able to ride until around 6 weeks ago when it all started to unravel.....wish me luck! 

copyright equineartportraits.com

On the Art front, it took a few days to recover from said lesson but today I found my way back on track with my art and started a new piece in acrylic and canvas....only started and 'in the rough' although maybe not quite as rough as my shockingly bad riding! Here he is, propped up on my piano so I can get a better look at him in the morning with a nice strong cup of coffee.

A friendly face in colour.

Having a little fun here with pen and ink work on the computer.....what do you think, am I losing the plot? 

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?

Living life at a canter

Just pictures today...no words. Going with the 'living life at a canter' theme in every which way, I thought today I would conserve some energy...at least that's my excuse!


copyright equineartportraits.com



Art on canter strides

A little project underway, I have a few ideas that I am going to work with this week around prints, these are some sketches that I will base them around....

 

                                  

                                      

My horse art: I wish I still had a real Sam!

Here is the lovely late great Sam, nearly done. He is coming along nicely now after a brief moment of  'nearly in the bin' earlier in the week....the artists among you may understand!

copyright equineartportraits.com


 




A horse doodle a day

Even when there are not enough hours in the day you still have to draw.....because you must, every day.  So I picked at random a horse blog and drew a horse callled Gem. It is like a ritual to know you are always moving, When I don't have the time - or patience - to work on a painting it is still always worth picking up the pens, if only to allow yourself just 1 or 2 minutes to doodle something. It stops you gettig too uptight about 'getting it right' because there are always days you will not, and if you get to scared to make a mistake you won't do anything at all!
http://wolfie-whatwasithinking.blogspot.com/

My New Domain: www.equineartportraits.com

To my horsey arty friends out there, I have a new website address as I finally went for it and bought a domain. Having made it over the 'how do you link your domain to your host' fence, it is now officially working in fine order....I'd call it a clear round to the novice IT geek that I am fast becoming.

And so, my website is now http://www.equineartportraits.com/

I have built it on wix, but wondering if the home screen is to slow on opening....I am a bit twitchy and impatient when browsing and I wonder if others are the same?

I would love any feedback or comments on the site so that I can improve it. Thanks!

Less is more...the charcoal challenge.

I thought I would take the painting that I had started of Ice back to basics and do a charcoal study of him. I like this photo I am working on as it has a lot of contrast around the cheek and he has a nice bend in his neck. 




Charcoal study of Ice, Hazelden
copyright A. Cairns

 As ever the less you draw, the more important each mark becomes, so this is different to building up a horse portrait in coloured pencil, where you can build up the artwork in layers, adding depth as you go. 
Less is more, but often harder to pull off well!

Charcoal work can look great when it works out well, so well worth putting in some practise .... little an often is best,as with all in life! It also means I can take what I learn from the study and use it to add depth to the painting.