The process of art

Since becoming friends with Michelle, and starting this book, I have been privileged to see the works of art she has done as works in progress. It's great to first hear about the concept of a drawing, then see the subject matter she is going from, then watch the progression of a piece of art.

I thought you all might like to see it too!

Michelle is currently working on the book cover. I've gone over photos over and over, trying to decide on "the" photo for the cover. Michelle and I began pouring over photos from the BLM and from my collection, trying to decide on what was worthy to grace the cover of a book on Oregon's wild horse herds.

Michelle came across a photo that has an artistic feel to it. We both agreed it would be simply great for the cover.

Then we went a step further ...

The photo that gave us the idea for the cover came from a trap site. A trap site is the place where the BLM contractors that gather the horses will drive the horses to for sorting and loading into the trailer to haul to the holding facility. When the horses first enter the trap, which is basically a pen of panels with jute fencing around it, they go in a bit of a swirl ... they come to the fence and follow it around in a swirling motion.

Here's the photo that gave us the idea for the piece of art Michelle is painting now:

We decided to go beyond this photo. The horses heads and backs and faces and all are so nicely depicted, we thought why not make it larger, more horses, representing pretty much all the colors the horses come in?

So here is how Michelle initially mapped it out:

She numbered the horses and decided on colors and such as she went along. Here is what it looked like after the first time she painted on it:

Today, she is about 2/3 of the way through with the painting. It's a huge painting (I'll get the exact dimensions from her) and it will shrink down nicely with lots of detail. This is what she has completed as of today:



Pretty cool, huh?

So, if you have an Oregon horse, and it has some face markings that stand out, send me a head shot of the horse ... maybe you'll see it in one of the drawings! Michelle is looking for face markings and such so they don't all look alike. There is one in the drawing above that belongs to an adopter, so send us yours and maybe you will see your horse in one of these!