Monday 22 August 2011

Angel


Out at Ruthies animal farm I set out with the sketch book to draw the horses but was sidetracked by Angel, the eleven year old cow, down in the ditch beside the old railway embankment eating hay.
She is huge, must be over a ton, looks like a bull and people make jokes about reporting her to the SPCA because of obesity.



Saturday 13 August 2011

A Death in the Family


Eddie, my main man, in better days.
Only nine years old he fell to a heart condition
Too soon, way too soon.
There is an emptiness in the house..




Poor Paddy is devastated, missing his energetic little buddy


The artist's best friend is now a two dimensional image and a wee mound under the the Yuccas

The Heavy Metal Tug of War



A titanic struggle between an English Victorian etching press and a Danish World War 2 lathe.
The plucky pipe etching press stripped and oiled, less than half the weight of the Viking giant grey beast!!
Undaunted our roller-bowler top heavy hero, using all the cunning of an empire on which the sun never sets, gets a toe hold under the flooring while the Scandinavian cast iron monster bunches up his cast iron mass and calls to the Norse gods of Great Gravity and Iron Inertia to defy movement!!!!!

The ropes tighten, the chains creak, the tension mounts - stand back!! Something could blow!!

England wins!! Denmark must obey!! A triumph of the underdog over superior forces!!!
Hoorah!!

Monday 1 August 2011

Horses

Walking the dogs along the riverbank I saw two horses on the other bank, walked home for a sketch book and came back to find this critter in the same pose that attracted my attention and did a few fast drawings. The horse knew we were there. Wasn't too good at keeping still.


This is my favourite horse; Chase. A Clydesdale thoroughbred cross. Stroppy and naughty like a teenager. He would make a great hunter but for me he is a model, or will be when he gets his Winter cover off. I don't ride but I like horses for their mythical beast quality, the atavistic living metaphor. I don't know what they are a metaphor for (meta44) but they touch a chord in me.