Keeping It Simple

Life has been less than simple of late, leaving limited time for painting. In a vain attempt to accomplish something at the easel, I did this little oil sketch today. This is 5 x 7 oil on masonite panel, and the horse is Society's Chairman, from a photo I took in the paddock on International Day at Woodbine last October. I had intended it to be a more complete colour piece, but I decided I like it just the way it is. Now if my life would just follow suit.... :-)

Two Days In A Row!

Yes that's right...I have managed to paint two days in a row. That shouldn't really be an accomplishment, but after last month, it is! Not long, and not with particular skill, but hey, I'll just take what I can get right now! My day didn't go exactly as planned so it was 9pm before I got to the easel, and did a bit more work on this tiny little painting of Clever's boy.

Leo, the racehorse!

I neglected to mention that Leo is home for a rest right now. He spent some time in at Woodbine when the backstretch opened, and quickly made himself a favourite. I'm happy to see his personality is intact, though certain other parts of him are not! ;-) Yes, he is a gelding now! Hard to believe two years ago he was the new little foal!

Leo, the baby!

Some Days Nothing Comes Together

Today's painting started off really well - what I was trying to do was pretty ambitious, so I was happy when the first step came together so well. Instead of drawing the horse (meaning creating an outline, more or less) I massed in the shape on the panel. It wasn't perfect, but it was far better, far sooner, than I expected. After that, it was one big fight! I didn't really have a plan beyond establishing the horse's shape (duh!!), so I was left wondering what I would do for the background. Would I make it loose and nondescript, or try and set the horse in a traditional landscape? Ultimately I went with a loose, simple landscape.

Getting back to my June theme, following yesterday's broodmare, I have painted a Thoroughbred stallion. Now, it's no coincidence that I decided to do the horse that sired the last maiden to win the Queen's Plate. This is also my own Monster's dad, and I took the reference photo I worked from in 1998, so he's a fair bit younger here than he is today! I had to sort of wing it with his head, because he was playing with the chain as I was taking the photos!

His name is Tejabo, and he's a son of Deputy Minister. TJ didn't win the Plate himself, but he sired 2002 winner TJ's Lucky Moon. I remember that day very well. It was unbearably hot and humid, and as a result we watched the race up in Champions at Woodbine. Folks around us asked me who I liked, and as the owner of a two-year old Tejabo filly, I naturally said TJ's Lucky Moon...who was no less than 50-1. When he won, they all looked at me like I must've known something nobody else did! Of course I hadn't bet a penny!

The painting is 11 x 14 oil on Fredrix linen panel. Palette started off with yesterday's colours, and ended with the one I learned in last week's workshop!

After such a great start, I was frustrated it took me so long to do this one! The rest of my day didn't go so well, so no doubt that played a big role. On a positive note, my paints caught up with me today! I discovered I really missed my palette knife, which I'd packed with the paints, silly me. That was even harder to be without than my favourite colours!

Three Weeks to Plate Day!

Eye of the Leopard

Having the best horse a week before Plate Day didn’t mean a single thing — it came right down to the day itself...

Southdale

I'm quoting myself above, a line I wrote for a story about a horse on that long road to the Queen's Plate. Today, we're three weeks – twenty-one days – from the 150th running of the longest continually run sporting event in North America: the 'Gallop for the Guineas' ...or, fifty gold sovereigns, and about a million dollars, these days. The Plate Trial was run today at Woodbine, as well as a maiden race with a few Plate hopefuls. It's not unheard of for a maiden to win the Plate, hence my recall of those words above. The horse that yesterday might have been the favourite most likely will not be, come Plate Day. And everyone knows the favourite doesn't always win!

El Brujo

The Trial was won by a gorgeous horse with an equally beautiful pedigree: Eye of the Leopard, owned by Sam-Son Farms. He caught second choice Southdale for the win, while favourite El Brujo disappointed to be ninth in a ten-horse field.


In that maiden race, we cheered on another Plate prospect, who ran out of room and missed his first victory by a whisker. Will he be among the starters in the big race on June 21? He could have used that extra eighth of a mile today!

Tomorrow, I begin my third Thirty Horses, Thirty Days, and part of my motivation for getting to the track today was to take photos so I can paint the Plate hopefuls leading up to the race. We'll see if I cover all the bases, or if someone else altogether comes through in the end!

Taking Chances...or, "Because You Can!"

That's probably something only folks and Ontario will get - it's the tag line for an advertising campaign for the Super 7 Lottery. On the one hand I guess it works to some extent, because that line sticks in my head, well, kind of like this cold right now, but on the other, it hasn't enticed me to start buying Super 7 tickets!

Now to get back to where I was going with that! I had plenty of time to paint tonight, even though I didn't start until after 6pm. After all, it's not even 9pm as I write this. As I worked through drawing this one on the panel however, I was liking the looseness, and started hitting the point quite early where the little voice was saying, "Stop...okay, stop!!" Trust me, when you start hearing voices when you're painting it's best to listen! (And no, I'm *not* taking any medication for this cold!) So this is where I actually stopped, though you may have no idea how hard that was (and perhaps be questioning why??).

Anyway...this is Kimchi, a daughter of Langfuhr, in the paddock before winning the 2006 Labatt Woodbine Oaks (which I still tend to call the Canadian Oaks) . Langfuhr sure stamps his offspring - I'm not sure one would guess this was a filly just by looking at this shot.

The details - 7 x 5 oil on Raymar triple-primed cotton canvas, limited palette. I'm always curious to hear what people think of some of these paintings, so please feel free to comment! Yea or...(forgive me)....neigh? :-D