More Paintings

This top picture is done in colored pencil. It's little....just about three-four inches square. I wanted to prove to myself that I could still draw, and of course horses have always been a favorite. I found the picture as I was going through my old photos, and felt nostalgic for the days when horses were part of every day life. There are so many images of the kids and I at Marie's boarding place. I see Carrie standing on Peach's back, arms up over her head, or galloping Winnie around the ring. There's Jesse holding Winnie as she grazes. There's me swimming Peach across the stream, jumping BJ.

Three foals were born there during the years I was a horse owner. This one is a little part-Arabian filly born to Owaja, the gray mare. One was Callie, a bay with the sweetest diposition I've ever seen. Then there was the little colt born with deformed hind legs. He was Viki's baby, black and beautiful like she was. Marie had casts put on his legs and he did well for a long time. Eventually, though, his legs proved to be too big a problem and he had to be put down.......One of my few sad memories of that place.

The other picture is another watercolor from a picture I took of my fellow sculpture students getting ready to leave Montreal after a three day field trip. As I painted them I remembered them all very clearly. I was an adult with children older than some of them, but I saw them as contemporaries in many ways. Our devotion to art was what bonded us together. I admired them, respected them, and at times envied them. I wonder what has happened to them in the last ten years. Anyway, David encouraged me to paint more pictures of people, and I took his advice. I like to paint crowds of people in ordinary situations, like the bus stop painting. I like this one, too, and feel I am getting watercolor under control fairly well. I still have trouble with opacity, but I continue to work on it.