Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Horses in The Snow by Michelle Montes

This is on my drafting table now - a little 10 minute sketch on LaCarte paper with a red Pastel Carre'. When my husband and I went up to the family farm, we drove around while it was snowing and caught this. I grew up on a farm where we raised and trained Quarter Horses, had beef cattle, and Australian Cattle dogs. This really made me miss my horses. While I was growing up, horses were the only thing I would draw. When I showed my drawings to my mother, if they weren't right she would say "Go look at your horse." Some people would say "Oh how mean, didn't you get upset when she said that to you?" Funny thing, it never occurred to me to be upset, I just did what she said, because I knew I wasn't getting everything quite right, and I wanted to draw them well.

6 comments:

Autumn Leaves said...

What a fabulous story and it sounds like an idyllic childhood. Love the sketch too.

mmontes said...

Thanks! It was a nice childhood, a lot of work, and fun too. The sketch was fun, and now the challenge begins as I make it into a pastel painting.

Julie Riker said...

I hope that if you make a bigger pastel painting you keep this sketch as it is. I love the loose quality and the red pastel makes me think of the drawings of the Italian Renaissance masters.

mmontes said...

Thanks Julie, but this was the sketch for the large pastel painting. I like keeping everything fresh and spontaneous. It reminded me of the Italian Renaissance too, so maybe I will do more as just sketches.

Dianne Lorden said...

Your mom said just the right thing. Clearly!

mmontes said...

Thanks Dianne!