The soul of a horse

"To understand the soul of a horse is the closest human beings can come to knowing perfection."

~ Author Unknown~

In my quest to photograph western theme subject matter for an upcoming exhibition I found myself on Memorial Day at Tom Sawyers where my daughter works taking care of their beautiful horses! I have to admit that I've always liked horses but they were a bit intimidating to me. But after taking photographs and helping water them I developed a much deeper connection with them...in fact I even feel in love with many of them!! Cornbread, the cream colored one in particular was soo sweet!! Yes, there is now a horse in my future!!

In plenty there as well, were ground squirrels, rabbits and birds all pillaging the horses tender alfalfa hay! I enjoyed photographing their thievery and antics as well!!

An amazing morning spent in the company of such majestic creatures...hope I can create a drawing of equal beauty!!

looking at the world

“Drawing makes you look at the world more closely. It helps you see what you’re looking at more clearly.” 

~David Almond, Skellig~

 off the drawing board:

Soaring Scotty by Kathryn Hansen (c) 2014 9x12

almost off the drawing board, still needs some tweaking:

Cantik

new commission, Fred:

new small (5x7) drawing, Sonni:

still plugging away at Percy, as he doesn't need to be finished until April 1:

 i am finally feeling healthy again (yay!), and back at work trying to make up for lost drawing time! lots of hours now spent drawing (or playing with kittens)!!

"Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty" 

~Albert Einstein~ 

Tucker Razzing (c) Kathryn Hansen  5.5 x 10.5

 diamond just would not let me take a photo of tucker this weekend! not sure if she just didn't want me to show you all the progress i made on it (cuz that's the part she kept covering up) or if she just wanted some attention...so i finally had to put down my camera, scratched her ears for awhile, then i was able to get a shot or two of my drawing as she happily wandered off to catch some bugs!! (she's better than a venus fly trap to have around!!)

 

but i'm soooo happy to say that i am almost finished with Tucker...cuz it seems like forever that i started this piece! and there are just SO many other drawings needing to be drawn!!!

still on the drawing board...

but making progress!!

2 new drawings on the board!

 this is tucker, a horse from the wild west campground and corral in wisconsin. my youngest daughter, emily has been attending summer camp there since third grade, she's now 16! last summer she took a plethora of photos for me to use as references for my drawings. i loved this photo as soon as i saw it but haven't gotten around to drawing him out until this past weekend! i'm hoping to have him completed so i can enter him in a competition through north light books in april. i entered last year but didn't make the cut...so cross your fingers (and/or anything else you'd like to cross...eyes, legs, etc) for me this year!! 

and this is gracie! i commissioned myself to create her for my other daughter, allie, for her birthday coming up quickly in just a few weeks. she found gracie behind her work place last summer and was in pretty bad shape...skinny, fur all around her tail area gone. so allie brought her home, fixed her up and intended to put her up for adoption. well...gracie is still with allie (rarely leaves her side!), but now with a beautiful, soft grey coat and a very, very round belly!