Friday, September 12, 2008

the landscape drawing

I did not give it adequate attention in last night's blog. That was sort of "omg it's done yay post it!" I'll talk more now.

Okay, just to post it again so y'all can see it:


"Teton Winter Morning"
7.5 by 20 inches
colored pencil and graphite on cream Stonehenge paper
for sale, haven't figured out the price yet, depends on the frame, etc.

It's a place I've been, Teton County, Idaho. I spent ten days there when I was on The Adventure, and many times I stood leaning on the corral gate looking out across those fields at the Teton mountains. I rode Sara the mule in that field. It's stunningly beautiful. It was green when I was there, I've only seen wintertime in pictures.

There are a couple reasons I drew this. One is that I tend to avoid landscapes and I needed to prove that I can do it and this is a scene that intrigued me, and yes it was a struggle. And it was sort of a way to pay homage to a place forever etched fondly in my memory. It's not exact, but maybe it's as it ought to be. That's one of the fun things about art, you can improve on real life. Need a bigger pasture? I can draw you one. ;-)

I'm still going to be submitting work to a gallery (likely more than one, we'll see how it goes) in Jackson Hole, but I wanted to bulk up the portfolio. A lot of the horse art I've done are portraits, and though good portraits many of them lack much other substance. That's not to disparage them, but they are the sort of things where if it's not YOUR horse then it's just not going to have the same meaning. I want to engage the viewer more, draw them in. And some local scenery never hurts anything. ;-)

I think it's one of those drawings best seen from across the room. It's not photorealistic, not up close anyway, and was not intended to be. It's actually pretty gritty:
The horses (and mule!) are about a half an inch tall.


I'll frame it this weekend, and it'll go to the show with me next week.

Just for curiosity sake there are 19 colors of pencil in this drawing.