Against the Sky II

Today after taking Christine out for her birthday breakfast we went home passing by one of the Standarbred farms in the area.

There were a couple of horses on the track jogging and I thought I would do this little pencil sketch of one of the pacers.













I had thought about doing a series of four seasons paintings with Standards being jogged on the track. 

Perhaps at a later date I may work this one up into a winter painting.

Invitation for Black & White Plus One Colour

Today I was informed that my image of The Standardbred was chosen for one of the invitations for the Black & White Plus One Colour Art Show coming up later this month.

For the full image of the black and white drawing of The Standardbred please go to my post on 01 April 2013.

It is of a Standardbred stallion, Remlap Joe that my parents owned and raced back in the mid 70's.

He sired two foals that also made it to the racetrack.

When they retired from racing they were exhibited in Roadster classes in many of the local Fairs and Exhibitions in the area where they won many awards for their speed in the show ring.

If you have a chance please come out for the show at the Kawartha Artists’ Gallery and Studio. It runs from 24 Aug - 11 Sep 16, with the opening reception on 28 Aug 16 from 1-4pm.

Trotting

It is another nice sunny day with the temperature slightly above seasonal at 74F (23C)

After working in the garden most of the morning I decided to take a break and watch a program on Standardbreds after lunch.

I wanted to do some quick sketches and did this trotter while I watched the program.
















It still needs a lot more work before it is a completed drawing but, I have the basics down.

The back is too long, the body is off kilter and it needs a lot more detail.

I will post it again at a later date once more work on it has been completed.

Pacer 1-3 - Three Works in Progress

Last night we went to Kawartha Downs for the Harness Racing. We haven't been to the track for quite a while.














Pacer 3

They have drastically cut back on the number of race dates at the track from 95 races in 2012 to 20 in 2013 when the track almost closed to 18 days in 2014 and now 21 days for this year. It is just sad that the government is trying to destroy a local industry that supported so many people.














Pacer 2

I was able to get three sketches of the Standardbreds doing their warm up and training miles prior to their actual races.

All of them are of pacers as there are usually only two trotting races on the card compared to the eight races for pacers.















Pacer 1

When I develop the sketches into outline drawings I will post them again at a later date.

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork and I hope you will return often.

Today I am on my way to the Knoepfli Inn located at 5484 Highway 124, Magnetawan, Ontario for a couple of days to paint with some of the KAGS Outdoor Painters' Group.

Horse Heads - Three Works in Progress

It seems that Junkyard has gone out on the prowl again and I haven't seen him in the last two days. I hope he isn't going to be gone as long as he was the last time.

I decided to work on some sketches of horse heads today starting with a draft horse.

This first sketch is of a dapple grey Percheron gelding that I saw last year at one of the fairs.

Together with his team mate, they were in the horse pulling competition and did fairly well placing third behind two teams of Belgians.

Billy

Perhaps as I do more work on this sketch I will add his team mate, Bob and put the harness on the pair of them.

This sketch is simply working on the proportions of the head and how each part of the head relates to the other and where the proper placement should be to make it correct.

When I sketch I have a tendency to block the various parts and pieces in with straight lines and rectangles without using a lot of circles.

Hunter Head Study

Many other artists prefer to use circles and connect them together with lines to block in their subject. Either way works well, it just depends on what works best for the artist.

This last sketch of one of Ron's Standardbreds is drawn from a photographic reference and I haven't compensated for the camera distortion.

As I work on refining this sketch into an outline drawing, I will have to make a number of changes to the basic shapes in order to have the head drawn in the proper proportion.

Try Me Now

I will post each of these sketches at a later date once the outline sketch has been completed.

Against the Sky I

Today I wanted to sort through a box that was in heated storage. It contained some of my paintings that needed to be completed as well as a number of sketches for paintings that either had been completed or that needed to be developed for future paintings.










After finding this quick sketch, that was the basis of a painting that I had completed a number of years ago (see post on 03 June 2011) I may do a set of the four seasons using the sky as the background for Standardbreds jogging on the track.

Number 5

The weather continues to be humid with cloudy skies and an occasional shower of rain. It was 75F (24C) and it felt like 84F (29C).

It was nice Christine came out today and decided she wanted to ride Chi. It was something she hasn't been able to do in quite a while due to her injuries from her car accident.

Seeing her back up on a horse again was wonderful, even though we both know she will be sore tomorrow.

We decided to keep things horse oriented and went to Kawartha Downs Race Track and have supper there and enjoy the harness racing.

I did a sketch of one of the horses doing the warm up miles before the race.

This original 7-1/2" x 9-1/2" graphite pencil drawing when matted and shrink wrapped will be available for $30.00.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and look at the artwork.

Listening

My Inky kitty has been AWOL for the last 4 days, but she sometimes she does disappear for a week at a time, so I hope she returns soon.

I worked on finishing this 3" x 4" graphite pencil sketch of a Standardbred called Try Me Now for Mr. Leon Stephens of Toronto, Ontario.

Now I am off to the Executive Meeting at KAGS.

Baby

I was heading to Port Perry to meet Ron for lunch for our anniversary and as I passed through Fraserville I stopped by the side of the road where a couple of Standardbred mares and foals were grazing in a field.

One little guy came right over to watch me for a little while and I did this quick sketch of him before he left to return to his mother.

Hopefully, he will mature into a fine racehorse and do well as a trotter or pacer. Who knows, he may even become a well known-stakes winner and sire many sons and daughters of his own to follow in his footsteps.

This original 4" x 4” graphite pencil when matted and shrink wrapped will be available for $30.00.

The Standardbred

With having started a painting of Standardbred horses coming through the final turn as they head down the lane toward the finish post last month, I thought I should complete this drawing of a Standardbred stallion called Remlap Joe that my parents owned and raced many years ago.















This framed, original 10" x 11-1/4" graphite pencil drawing is available for $185.00.

I will continue to post the painting I finish each day during the course of the month. I hope you will return often to see the postings.

Between Training Miles - A Work in Progress

After 40 years of Harness racing at the Kawartha Downs Track in Fraserville, Ontario, today almost became the last day for the Track to continue to have the horses race as on 31 March 2013 the Ontario Lottery and Gaming's slots at racetracks revenue-sharing deal ends.

How the province of Ontario which receives 1.1 billion dollars from the horse racing industry, but has pledged a mere 500 million dollars in transition funding to the industry is simply ridiculous.















Why would the OLG even try to separate the horse racing industry from its gaming activity is beyond me. Whether you put money into a slot machine, on a table playing cards, buy a lottery ticket or make a bet on a horse it is all a form of gambling.

I thought it only fitting that I post the sketch for a painting of harness horses in the barns between training miles at Kawartha Downs.

I will post this drawing at a later date once more of it is completed.

Canadian Winter

I came across a copy of the 1986 January/February issue Horse Sense magazine and it brings back a lot of memories of firsts in my life, as well as how many things have changed over the last 25 years.

It was the first full sheet (22" x 30" (55 x 76cm)) watercolour painting I had completed.














It was the first colour painting that was accepted for a magazine cover.

It was the first original painting in the art collection of Mr. and Mrs. Don Kortko of Pefferlaw, Ontario.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my artwork and I hope you will return often.

Philrick Star

Philrick Star was a Standardbred mare by the grey stallion Futurity Chief out of Star Adios C, an Adios granddaughter. She was never raced, but did compete in western pleasure, trail and reining classes.

As a broodmare produced two colts, Star Holder by Title Holder who raced as a 3 year old and was later used as a field hunter.

Star Skipper by Kawartha Skipper who just before he was due to start his racing career as a 2 year old had an unfortunate accident which ended any chance of racing. When he recovered he became a favourite school horse at a summer camp.

This is an original 18" x 24” framed conte drawing and is available for $350.00.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and enjoy the artwork.

Against the Sky

We have a quarter mile track beside the house on the farm where we have jogged countless miles with the various racehorses we have owned.

This is the view we see when approaching the farm from the north on the road, just the horse and driver silhouetted against the sky.












Thank you to new collectors Towering Oaks Farm Inc. of Meator, Ohio USA on their purchase of this painting.

Thank you for looking at my artwork. I will continue to post the painting I finish each day during the course of the month. I hope you will return often to see the postings.

Flat Out 1

I often doodle in my sketch book with pencil and my imagination.

Once I have them down I will come back and ink them in. These doodles are often the basis for paintings at a later time. This one needs more work on the composition but I think it has potential.

The picture shown here is an original 4-1/2" x 7-1/4” pen and ink drawing and is available matted and shrink wrapped for $25.00.

Training Mile

A lot of work goes into the training of Standardbreds to get them into condition to qualify and keeping them sound for racing.

The regular routine of jogging the horse five to eight miles a day to keep them in racing condition and two days of the week with training miles usually three miles, each one faster than the one before.













Thank you to Jam Stables of Pickering, Ontario on their commission to paint one of their Stakes Colts.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and look at the artwork. I hope you will return often.