Our Ying-Yang tree.

During the 10 years I have lived at our house our front yard tree has failed to impress me. My husband ensured me it's a "red maple" and *should* have lovely, bright red foliage in the fall. It never delivered. Most of the seasons we may get a few yellowish or brownish leaves stained with a bit of red. Some years we even had a definite reddish hue over the front of it, but it was always somehow flat and mediocre.

I've searched books and internet resources to confirm that it was in fact a red maple and found I could not identify it. I assumed it must be a hybrid and gave up on my expectations of having a striking, flaming-red tree in the front yard.

It was teasing me all these years. In early September first a tiny branch turned brilliant red. Soon many more followed. I dared not hope so I didn't look at it. Didn't want it to know my expectations were growing again. When all other trees in our area were solidly green, our tree was planning a show.

The leaves didn't turn brown and fall as they often did in the past. They remained and in turn infected more of their brothers and sisters with the crimson fever. One day I finally decided it was safe to take a picture of it. Only then did I realize our tree has turned into a Ying Yang symbol.

"He wasn't there this morning..."

Roadtrips are one of my family's favourite pasttimes and even with the high prices of gasoline, we still indulge every few weeks. My camera is always handy because I KNOW there are real gems to be seen along the road. Last weekend was no different.

On the way back from Wings of Paradise Monarch tagging we drove by a farm tucked away between copses of woods. Had I not looked over and, by habit, checked for equines in the field, I would have missed this little guy. As I busily snapped photos, the farmer came out to look at the little foal hiding behind his mom. I commented on the cuteness factor and he smiled and answered, "He wasn't here this morning..." So, it was a double surprise.

I have very few opportunities to see donkeys not to mention their newborn offspring so it was a wonderful opportunity to gather lots of reference photos as well as just simply enjoy looking at his cute face, long ears and soft body with zebra stripes on his legs, just above the tiny hooves. He will definitely end up as a subject!


Speaking of butterfly tagging - what an interesting concept. Monarch butterflies migrate to Mexico in the fall arriving around November. It is only their second or third generation offspring that comes back to Ontario in the spring. And how exactly would you "tag" a tiny, delicate butterfly?

We went to see this done to answer that question. it is done with a tiny sticker! The information on the sticker contains a serial number, telephone number, website and e-mail address to contact should someone find the butterfly.

After tagging the butterflies are put into tiny triangular boxes in the shape of half a sandwich made of hard paper and kept there until release time. Most of the visitors (all of the kids) got one "butterfly sandwich" and got to release them all at once. It was quite a sight! I did take a picture but it didn't turn out very well. The dark specks you see are the butterflies but there were many more.

There was one more thing we found on that road trip: signs of Fall. It was a chilly day making me think of November but cool days are not unusual in early September. Here and there a tree in full autum splendor popped out and the fields and pastures were full of goldenrod and wild asters. Time to pull heavy sweaters and coats out of storage and stock up on hot chocolate!

Margaret Dent Fine Art

Humbled again!

There are times in every rider's life when we think our knowledge is extensive and simply become overconfident. There is nothing like a horse to humble us and return us to reality. For me today was that day.

I have not ridden since June but had a make-up lesson scheduled tonight. Driving to the barn I was not nervous (which is a good thing as I am not a confident rider yet) and even though I wasn't sure how it was going to feel riding again after a month's break, I hopped in the saddle and felt like I've never left. Until I actually started riding...

Yeap, I got humbled all right. Couldn't find my balance in the saddle, kept leaning too far forward, flopped all over in rising trot, could not for the life of me SIT the trot and my toes, when my feet weren't bouncing all over the place, were pointing west and east!... I didn't even attempt canter. And, to add insult to injury (or injury to insult), I badly rubbed... well, let's just say female dressage riders will know exactly what I mean...

I felt like a complete fool and to think that I was actually considering part-boarding a horse. Ha, the likes of me shouldn't be allowed within a mile of non-school horses! I thank God for my coach Allison who patiently guided me to relax, lean back and just LET GO! It must have been painful for her as well.

I know we all have bad rides and they should be appreciated so that we can really see the difference when we have a great one. But really! Days like this make me think I should just stick to drawing horses...

P.S. In the photo is Clyde, my teacher today, with my daughter on board.

Back to Graphite...

My newest portrait commission is of this lovely, gentle golden lab named Loki. I had the priviledge of meeting Loki in person. I prefer to do it this way if it's possible. I can "read" animal's character quite well from photographs, but nothing really compares to meeting them and being able to touch and interact with them.

Loki is a sweet, gentle guy but don't let his relaxed attitude fool you. He is also very protective of his family and friends. Drawing him was a lot of fun. It would seem that white and black hair is the hardest to render in any media so I spent a lot of time making sure he looked just right! But all the work was worth it. I am very proud of this one!

All done!

And here he is: Cratic, a Dutch Warmblood gelding, my old bud. It's always fun to draw your friends, be they human or animal, but there is always that fear that we won't get that special look and character. We are so acustomed to looking at them we often don't truly see the features that are there and instead let our brain take over and "tell" us what it *thinks* is there.

It looks like I didn't need to worry about it this time. Cratic looks very much like his old self - a sweet, gentle soul with a touch of timidity in his eyes. He is 22 years old this year and I do hope he is enjoying a great retirement.

Things are going pretty well inspite of paper problems. This Canson MiTientes may be a great paper, but I'm using the wrong side. Or the right one... In other words, the side you are supposed to use (textured) is too darn textured for my liking and creates a lattice-like effect in the drawing that I definitely do NOT like! It's impossible to fill in all the little holes unless I want to sit and fill each one at a time while sharpening the pencil every 5 seconds. Nope. Luckily this is only a practice piece so it doesn't really matter, but I have definitely learned my lesson. Next time I'll use the smooth side!

Here is Cratic as he looks now.

IT'S TIME TO ADD SOME COLOUR!

Once the underpainting is done it's time to start adding real colour. This is the scary stage. The monochromatic drawing looks so good, I'm worried it will get screwed up. But here goes.

Most of the time I use Terra Cotta with some Dark Brown and Cream for hightlights occassionally adding some white to the brightest highlights. Once I put down a good layer, I blend it with a colorless blender and add more layers.

Colour my world!


New Projects!: I am currenlty working on a graphite portrait of a golden lab and in the middle of this portrait I realized I needed some colour in my life. So I started working on another piece simultaneously. It's a little practice portrait in colored pencils of an old friend Cratic - a very talented and beautiful Dutch Warmblood gelding, retired from competetive Dressage now, whom I used to work with many years ago. This will be a WIP (Work in Progress) type of post, so check back and see how Cratic goes.

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Here is the reference photo of Cratic and two updates to the drawing. Prismacolor pencils on Canson MiTientes paper, textured side.

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Starting the underpainting layer with only two pencils: Indigo Blue and White.

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Most of the face has been blocked in, but, as you can see in the photo, he has a halter on and it is throwing strange shadows on his face so I had to stop and look for some "naked" pictures of Cratic to figure out how the side of his face is structured. Come back for an update!

Sunday, December 4, 2005
Last day of racing at Woodbine Racetrack, Toronto, Ontario.

Some exciting news! Following the last race of the season, myself and three other artists (Linda Shantz, Dorothy Wintle and Debbie Goldring) will hold a small Art Exhibition at the Woodbine Club during the members' reception.
What can I say other than I am very much excited about this opportunity. What better location for equine art than one of the biggest race tracks in Canada?

There will be some beautiful art available for sale from all the ladies and I will feel very honoured to meet Dorothy and Debbie (I already know Linda and she is a super gal as well as an exceptional artist!). There will also be an opportunity to take photos of the last races, weather permitting. I will post some of them here and relay my experiences, so come back next week!

Margaret.

Welcome!

Many a time I find creating art also has other creative side-effects and often sparks interesting insights on human nature and psychology of creativity, procrastination and mental (or artistic) blocks. I often feel compelled to share these thoughts in hopes of helping other artists but lately I've realized these "musings" may also be helpful and interesting to the general public. Thus this blog was born.

It will not only contain my ideas on creativity but also up to date happenings and news in my artistic neck of the woods. I hope you enjoy reading this blog and I hope it will innitiate some interesting thoughts.

Thank you for visiting,

Margaret.