Restoring the Magic
April 3rd, 2006“Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.”
As we go through life, we experience things that force us to “grow up” and put childish things aside and become practical, responsible adults. There’s no longer time for “silly things” like imagining mystic black stallions that run free in our imagination.
Or is there?
Approaching my middle ages, I’m beginning to see a certain amount of vanity in a lot of the things we do in our daily lives. We get up, we go to work, we come home. We earn the paycheck to keep food on the table and pay the bills.
And then what???
This next painting on my easel is a bit of a return to that “childish daydreaming” that set me on this path of becoming an artist oh so many years ago. Hard to believe that a mere book or movie could have such a lasting impact on a person, but thinking back, it was The Black who set me daydreaming. Daydreaming of a big black horse who was wild and free yet a close friend and comrade to me. Oftentimes I would find myself pretending to BE the Black, snorting and pawing the ground with my feet. Childish? Sure, but fulfulling, hell yeah! In this piece I am trying to capture that feeling.
Composition rules be dammed, this one makes me feel like the horse….tossing my head a little, snorting distaste at whatever it is this horse is looking at. THIS is more the type of painting composition I want to be doing more of. With the horse expressing emotions akin to human expressions by doing what horses do naturally.
I hope you will enjoy this piece as it progresses, setting free in me the right to dream again and restoring the magic of being a child at heart!
24″ x 36″ on primed masonite (hardboard) To be done in oils, with a pencil underpainting to begin.
Posted: April 19/06
Posted: April 26/06
Posted: May 10/06
May 10/06 (later in the day)
May 24/06 - pencil phase nearing completion
July 28, 2006 - Started laying on the colors in acrylic. At first I thought, uh oh, I’m messin this up big time! 
But working more and more on it, it’s starting to come together, as seen below…
July 28, 2006 - later in the day
Dec 30th, 2006 - Been awhile! Haven’t had much time for working on it, but here is it’s current status.
Feb 23, 2006 - It’s almost there! I can feel the finishing touches coming up soon. Yay!
[…] This one measures about 16″ x 28″, give or take…I haven’t decided how much I’ll crop it down to yet, we’ll see what I decide as I get closer to finishing it. It’s pastels on suede, of course, my favorite medium to work in and after spending some frustrating time working on my large acrylic painting, which is viewable on my other blog - Phases of My Mood - which is quite obviously not my best medium yet, but I will conquer and master it. It does lend itself a lot better to working large - very large - compared to pastels which would be cumbersome to frame and ship at such large dimensions. So, if I’m to continue offering large works of art for you, I will have to keep at those acrylics until I’ve become as comfy with them as I am with pastels. […]
I just saw your article in the sun and came to your website. I absolutely love your paintings. I also grew up loving horses, but never owning one, just loving them. I did teach horsemanship to kids at a camp every summer. When I was little my best friend and I would walk to her neighbours house and just sit and watch the horses. Then when I was 19 and working in Saskatoon as a waitress, there was this farm on my way home to Hepburn that had a Black horse in a wooden fenced field, I would stop and watch this magnificent Creature. I still have a deep love for the beautiful Equines. I also grew up with many many cars but my dad was into the antique restoring thing. Keep upthe great work, they are all beautiful.
Sheri, this is looking great! Did I miss seeing it on the EAG member forum? This is definitely one of your best works. It will make a great print, too.