Fur In The Paint

Soul is a small water soluble pencil painting (approximately 6×8) of my horse Chicory that I did some while ago. This is his baby face from when he was a 2 year old.

So, yesterday we put in a fresh round bale of hay for Chicory. This is kinda like Christmas for him. He always rushes up and takes massive energetic bites of hay while I am removing the twine. I finish up and move away and then the partying begins.

Soul - Water soluble pencil
Copyright by Mona Majorowicz

Usually he trots around it several times squealing. A couple of small bucks and a few kicks towards it, are thrown in for good measure. Perhaps, he will take a break to munch a mouthful or two of hay and ruminate. This is followed by snorting and rubbing his body along it like its a giant curry comb. He pushes it around the pen, breaking it up and then, flops down in total abandon and rolls and snorts and farts. Ah, such simple pleasures. In the course of the next few days he will have pushed all one ton of it around. Every few hours I will look out and see the bale has moved from its previous location. That part drives Mike a little crazy. It tends to waste hay and occasionally is really hard on the fence. But I think from Chicory’s perspective its the best horse toy ever!

I was in our bank a few weeks back, when one of the tellers was trying to give away a horse. A registered 7yr old quarter horse stud. Now I am soooo not in the market for another horse. And if I were, it certainly wouldn’t be for a stallion. Still … the words “free horse” made me pause. Truth is, several people in the area would gladly give away a horse or two. Their value at auction has plummeted. While at the same time hay prices are way up and winter is here. I have heard rumors that some people are just turning their horses out. Dropping them off like some people do with unwanted cats and dogs.

The reason horse prices are so low you ask? Well, you probably guessed it from the blog title. Horses are no longer being purchased for human consumption. (Yeah, thats right) Over a 100,000 horses a year are slaughtered in the U.S. for the food market. Mostly as a delicacy in Asia and France. (A true french fry in fried in horse lard.) The closing of U.S. slaughter houses only affects slaughter in the U.S. Horses can and are still being transported into Canada and Mexico for slaughter.

Livestock is a business.
Just so you know, I am a big time carnivore. I grew up in the rural agricultural Midwest, where steak and taters were the daily fare. That being said, the idea of eating a horse steak is completely revolting to me. It would be the same revulsion if someone was serving up dog roast or kitten stew. My animals are family to me. Still, I have been in the animal industry long enough to understand that animals are a business. My logical side says what puts horses, dogs and cats off the menu, while cattle, pigs and chickens are all fair game. These food type of livestock are intelligent animals, who can be just as loving as your dog, cat or horse. How easy, it is to compartmentalize things. To disassociate that roast in the freezer from a once living breathing creature.

Weighing In
This is not a black and white issue. I don’t know that there is a “right side.” I personally, am pleased that horses are no longer going to slaughter for the food market. I like to think that people aren’t going to be as inclined to puppy mill out horses as they have in the past. Hopefully, breeding will be more selective. Only quality animals will be bred to quality animals. I am not sure if this is fanciful thinking on my part on not. However, I was watching a quarter horse auction the other day and their quality horses were still commanding great prices. Most of the yearlings were going between $15,000 and $75,000. Of course, this is worlds away from the type of horses we are talking about here. But it goes to show, not all value in horses has been diminished.

I also think that there is going to be a dark time ahead for horses because of this action. The rumors of turning out horses to fend for themselves or worse yet … leaving them to starve, are a worry. Still, I don’t think that we should alter laws because of the law breakers. Anyone who would do such things should never have had a horse in the first place. If providing slaughter allows this type of person to have horses, I don’t see that as being good.

The biggest problem as I see it, is figuring out what to do with all of these unwanted horses. There are a great many equine rescues as well as people who would love a good horse. Still, 100,000 plus horses every year is a lot to handle.

I don’t really have an upbeat note to end on here. So I will supply you with a couple of places to go to for more information about how all of this came to be in the first place. And who to go to for current information. The current issue (as well as several past issues) of Apples ‘N Oats magazine has extensive coverage from both sides of this topic. Also you can check out the following:

www.applesnoats.com
www.humanesociety.org
www.unwantedhorsecoalition.org
www.avma.org

I was recently reading one of my favorite blogs. Maggie Stiefvater has both wonderful artwork, as well as a great writing style. One of her recent posts was about complementary colors. This got me to thinking of what complementary colors I use in my work.

Periwinkle is my all time favorite color for painting. (It doesn’t really appear anywhere else in my life.) Nearly every painting I do has periwinkle in it. I almost always couple it with ginger. The two complementary colors just pop when placed together. I actually purchase more periwinkle and ginger pastels, than I do blacks or whites.

The three paintings I have shown here are all recent examples of paintings where I utilize these complements in greater and lesser degrees. On the oil pastel tiger painting called Making Waves, the gingers are obvious, but the periwinkle is subtle. The black stripes are mostly a deep purple with periwinkle hightlights.

On this oil pastel painting of the Belgian draft horse team called Days End, much of the shadow area is done in a wine color mixed with purple. Nearly all the highlights on the flynet and tack are periwinkle.

And with the mare and foal oil pastel painting called Devotion, yet again periwinkle colors are used instead of all grays for the nose and eye areas. The lavendar color adds a softness which lessens the harshness of the grays.

I am not sure how I got to the point of loving this color combination. It just sort of happened. My techniques develop almost organically, without a lot of directed thought. I think that is why I am a self-taught artist. It is all about the exploration and discovery.

Todays weather forecast: Blowing Snow

Actually these photos were taken 2 days back. I didn’t have my camera this morning but he was completely covered in snow. The only dark spots on him were his eyes and nostrils.

For the past two days it has been in the low 40’s temperature wise. Sunny and glorious. (Brings to mind, planting the garden and enjoying the great outdoors.) Today, I woke and was greeted with blizzard conditions. I could barely see to the barn. Whoh! As I staggered inside the barn I was greeted with my usual good morning nicker from my snow encrusted horse. I am always a little surprised to see him coated in snow. He can come in out of the wind whenever he wants to. But apparently he doesn’t mind the wind and snow. Rain however, now thats different. As soon as he feels the first little sprinkle on his backside he is inside the barn, peeking out the door.

I received this photo from Carol Eilers, the editor of Apples N’ Oats magazine, and just had to post it. Catch is a 27 year old morgan and he loves to give kisses. And not always when you expect it.

So I have to pat myself on the back. I completed my column for Apples N’ Oats magazine a full 10 days ahead of the deadline. This is my second year writing about painting horses for A&O and I have never completed an article (and got it emailed off) sooner than 48 hours before it was due. Most often, I am squeaking it in, in the last 24. You know, much like painting, there is always more tweaking that could to be done. (Just a little more, no wait…just a little more.) So kudos to me! WhooHoo!

Apples N’ Oats, by the way is a great magazine, if you have horses or just love them, you need to check it out. It has great articles on just about everything equine related. Also Carol Eilers, the editor is excellent at what she does and she is just a sweetheart to boot. (And I’m not just saying that because I write for her.) You can check out the current or past issues at the Apples N’ Oats website.

We’ve had blowing snow for a couple of days now. And while I could have gone out and taken some photos of snow laden pine trees, frost covered grasses or our lovely drifty creek. I chose to illustrate our winter weather with these photos.

Hey, nothing says winter weather more than a frosty butt

This is my drawing thus far, for my new horse piece, tentatively called The Gladiators. I am not completely happy with it so I’ll be making some changes to it yet before I begin to lay in the color. I plan to show this painting through it’s various stages of creation. This is something I do quite a bit actually. If you would like to see the stages of creation for some of my other paintings, visit my artist journal on my website.

What I have so far.
I always start out with a completed drawing. I work primarily in oil pastels which have staining properties. What that means to me is that if a put a glaringly wrong color in. I most likely will not be able to lift enough of it off to make corrections. So all major decisions need to be made before I begin with the color.

The inspiration for this piece came from a couple of different sources. First, the Minnesota Horse Expo last year had a chariot pulled by four Friesians. (Enough to make a horse painters heart go pitter pat.) That had been simmering around in my head when I attended the Albert City Threshermens event this year. There, they always have people movers pulled by four drafts. This year they had a particularly handsome foursome of Percherons. (again, with the pitter pat.) So this is a creative hybrid. I have not really decide whether they will look like Friesians or Percherons or just be big dark horses. I am leaning towards not making them too much one or the other. I am also pondering medieval tack. (That may be just a little bit too much.)

Where I’ll go from here.
I am reasonably happy with the two horses on the left. But I think the two right hand horses are too small. Whats really bothering me though, is the negative space. (Essentially the background area) I just don’t like the shape of it. Some of this issue will be helped by enlarging the two horses. But something more has to be done. I’ll rest on it and see what brilliant insight comes tomorrow.

Well I was able to put in a few more hours on my latest study of the paint mares and foals. I am liking this composition so far. I got it past the ugly stage. That is where I can barely tolerate to look at it and want to tear the painting up into little pieces and set it on fire. This happens with nearly every painting. So knowing this, I just have to push through until I feel better about it.

I have been experimenting with this herd of horses for some time and I am pretty sure I will paint them many times more. I found this group of about 30 paint mares and nearly all had foals at their sides on a trip with a friend. Since both of us were horse painters we pulled over and hopped out camera in hand. I find the interactions and herd dynamics fascinating. I think what attracts me most is the way that the spots kinda make them all blend into one another. Hard to tell who is who. Anyway, I am doing several small studies and may (or may not,) redo the studies I like into paintings of size. Or who knows I may just burn out on doing this idea and move on.

My only uncertainty on this painting is the foreground horse. I think this piece might be considerably stronger if I put her at the same 45 degree angle as most of the others. I’ll wait until I’m done to make that call. I’ll try to get an image posted of this soon.