It might seem as though I am fixated with Acadia...........I am. I miss the old days when the four-in-hand drivers were coming up to Wildwood each fall to picnic and drive, all duded up with their grooms in full livery and their passengers with their fancy hats. It was a taste of a other time. A time when things were slower and full of tradition. I liked that.This 11 x 14 casein is a scene often seen at the Wildwood barn as the grooms readied their charges..this time it is a Kladruby being groomed...what a lovely team they were stepping out on the carriage roads. This work is being added onto my website. Another coupe for me...I finally sent off an 'email newsletter' ...it was a learning experience for me...full of typos I am sure......but done, nevertheless. This is another way you can hear my news and you can sign up for it on my new website. Check it out!!
Now I am headed out to the barn while the warm weather stays...going down to paint the barn doors.....yellow to match the Tamarack trees that dot our forest line. A BIT OF COLOR , HEH!!?
The reference photo for this drawing of a young Acadia buck was given to me by a passenger who was on the horse drawn carriage my husband was driving on the carriage roads in Acadia National Park last summer. I decide to try this shot in a close up in graphite. This drawing is about 9 inch square on Bristol paper. It is available for purchase.It was fun doing this in detail, with no actual details of the trees and leaves... just the suggestion of their being there. This young buck had soft velvety antlers. He wasn't afraid of the carriage full of visitors as they snapped pictures of him from the carriage. I wonder if he couldn't smell the humans due to the draft horses being there. Les [my husband] had told the folks during the ride around Day Mountain, that his wife was an artist...and the fellow, who shot this picture, offered to send me the photo to paint, draw or whatever. So here is my first work from the reference photo.We have many deer around our farm in Morrill......[sometimes I think TOO MANY when they eat my perennials!]....and have been enjoying watching a young skipper run around our horse fields in the evenings of late. He is so full of himself. Spring is in the air!!
In past years I have enjoyed summers at Acadia, with my husband, driving our Welsh Cob mares. Lazy summer days with the pair trotting down the carriage roads built by Mr. Rockefeller, so that he could enjoy the spectacular views of Mount Desert Island and coastal Maine. If you have horses and haven’t been there, you need to go!!
At Wildwood Stables, where we camped with our horses, I took many shots of the draft horses there that pull the carriages that take the tourists through the carriage roads, so they can get a glimpse of the beauty that hides on these roads forbidden to the automobile. This casein is of one of those big boys, on a respite. I have done several versions of this draft, in different mediums- in casein, watercolor, acrylic, liquid gold, and pastel. Some of those can be seen on my website.
“A Quiet Spot” is the latest version of this gentle giant.
It might seem as though I am fixated with Acadia...........I am. I miss the old days when the four-in-hand drivers were coming up to Wildwood each fall to picnic and drive, all duded up with their grooms in full livery and their passengers with their fancy hats. It was a taste of a other time. A time when things were slower and full of tradition. I liked that.
