Final ideas for mounting up

I've been looking through the woodshed for ideas on how to present my work and think I will use logs as stands and branches to contain my work like above. I shouldn't need a bottom to the makeshift container or anything to fix the branches, they look really organic as they are laid on top of each other.I'm not sure what will fit in my space until I try it all out tomorrow, but I think I should be able to get the branches to fit as without them being fixed they are fully adjustable.

Final piece complete!

I've completed my piece and luckily only with minor problems like accidentally sticking it to the floor as I was working on it flat to the floor so just needed to spend a little over an hour peeling it off again..
But all is well! I'm happy with how my piece has come out, it even smells horsey which I don't know why I didn't expect, seeing as I was using horse poo..Maybe I just forgot horse poo smells. But it works really well I think to really show the real spirit of the horse. The clay stuck well and the haylage and hair also mixed well with the clay which was a little worry as I wasn't sure how it would hold when upright stuck to a quite loose canvas.

I'm currently working out how to mount it.. I experimented with towering horse poo to use as part of a stand but it would dry out and not hold. I tried wetting it but that had the complete opposite effect making it too weak to even tower up. So it's now screwed to the wall nice and high so that you can get a good view of it from a distance, which is how I'd like the piece to be viewed.
I'm going to play about with branches and logs propping it up to see if that makes it anymore authentic or organic, otherwise I'm happy with how it is.

Fabric type material experimentation & Anselm Kiefer

Although the clay does still dry and crack it holds to material and fabric a lot better that paper and cardboard and when built up it looks really meaty and thick in a way that I can't explain but just feels so horsey to me. 

This has concluded that clay will be the main ingredient to my multimedia/semi sculpture piece. I don't really like how pale the clay dries, but a little oil solves that problem and keeps selected painted on areas of clay a really rich earthy brown that I plan to use to hopefully add a little more depth to my final piece.

Anselm Kiefer

I'm looking at Anselm Kiefer because of his use of natural materials in his painting/sculptures. [That's what I want my piece to be, a painting/sculpture] 

Anselm uses natural materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead and shellac in his work.

I really like the layered, thick texturey look his paintings have, they just sort of breathe the natural environment. From his paintings I can see what what works really well, for example I love his use of ash for texture and colouring and would like to also use this in my piece to ass depth to the background.

His work is very powerful in representing the Nazi rule, I think the natural materials create a sense of truth about the subject.

Final Piece plan! & Richard Long

I was completely lost as to what to do for a final piece until earlier when I was shown a 8ft x 4ft [roughly] hessian canvas. The hessian looks organic and much more natural compared to the other materials I've previously been working on. It's just sort of happened to by chance click into place, it looks really Native Indian and at the same time perfect for what I'd like to do.

I want to use natural materials on it, like horse poo, hair, haylage, chalk, soil, ash etc and what I've found so far with my experimentation is that some of the materials are best applied in large quantities to deliver my desired effect. Also the materials like poo and hair are hard to apply to smaller areas, I found on an A3 sheet of paper hair stuck on often looked like bits of hair but hopefully what I'm aiming for is for my piece to look like hair and poo when closely examined but really for it to be viewed from a distance. Where if you step back and take in the entire canvas I want the materials to become part of horse and not just as it appears on paper as stuck on chunks of hair.

I need to just practice on hessian to check what works and doesn't especially with clay as I've found on paper it always dries and crumbles off.


Richard Long

I've also been looking an artist very similar to Andy Goldsworthy in that some of his work is made using natural materials in the landscape and disappears back into the landscape over time. He's interested in the art of mobility and freeness, using only raw materials and his human scale.

He has gone on long walks, removing stones from his pathway or the opposite by placing stones one after the other in long lines.

What originally drew me to this artist was one of his pieces where he has a large wheel like circle of hand prints much like Native Indian art. The hand print is repeated over and over in a spiral type circle and even reminded me of war paint.
I'd like to try and work hand prints into my work, just faintly into the background of the hessian. To show some of the original Indian art work ideas leading up to the piece and inspiring it. I also like the idea of linking human and animal on a spiritual level between the materials and nature.

3D experimentation & Andy Goldsworthy

 Using sticks, leaves, horse hair and part of a branch I experimented making a semi abstract sculpture of a horse. I wanted to leave parts of the form out, such as detail to the front the legs, the back, bum and back legs entirely and leave parts airy. This was to not focus too much on the form itself but more what was the jist of what it looked like and more focusing on the natural substances that make it up. I particularly like working with horse hair as it's wirey and rough which worked great on a 2D/3D sculpture and is part of the horse. The horse hair is like the heart of the horse and the twigs and leaves make up its surrounding and sources of life.

I've been looking into how Indians used the Buffalo fully and the art they made from the skins and bones. I found some tribal painted bones and skulls and decided to recreate my own using ash, charcoal, clay, chalk and Indian ink. [This is a muntjac skull, the closest horned skull to a buffalo I could find in the woods!]

Because of my fascination with natural materials I've been looking at the work of Andy Goldsworthy. I particularly like his non permanent sculptures, I love the idea of the work being around for a short time, I just like the idea that it has its day and then passes on like with all natural sources and life in general. It fades away like the environment around it, constantly changing.

I found this quote by him; "My art is an attempt to reach beyond the surface appearance. I want to see growth in wood, time in stone, nature in a city, and I do not mean its parks but a deeper understanding that a city is nature too-the ground upon which it is built, the stone with which it is made."
Andy Goldsworthy 

This is very much like what I want to achieve with my work, I want to go beyond the surface appearance of the horse and represent its deeper spiritual side that I feel and see around horses.

I also really love this quote about his work 'midsummer snowballs';

Some of the snowballs have a kind of animal energy. Not just because of the materials inside them, but in the way that they appear caged, captured.
Andy Goldsworthy 

I feel like this is so true about his work and both how animals appear, another reason why I want to go beyond what we as humans have done to horses but to what they hold. This was another of his pieces I really liked because they constantly changed and eventually melted away, there's something about the idea that the materials return to the earth like the circle of life that I like so much. It reminds me of my research into Indian spiritualism that we all are connected as creations from mother earth and will return to earth after we have lived and another creation will be made of us.

War paint chalk and graphite drawings

After linking my project with the film Spirit; stallion of the cimarron I had to watch the film again after so many years and that made me want to revisit the war pant. Mostly because it was really fun before to work purposely trying to smudge and dirty the paper to create the rubbed back out effect with an eraser. 

After doing these two drawings I've made the decision to move away from the war paint and move back into the more natural horses I have been experimenting with, with natural materials. I feel like with the war paint drawings the eye is immediately drawn to the bright coloured paint and the horse form is secondary to the man made marks. This isn't what I want for my final piece.. I want my piece to boldly show the horse spirit and natural form in all its naked glory and that to be the center of attention, not some brightly coloured pretty 'horse make up'.

I do really like the idea of keeping the connection to Native Indians, but more to their beliefs and respect for mother nature rather than their mark on the horse. Now that I think about it the war paint is almost like man's negative touch on the horse for Native Indians, where they're bringing the horse into man's world of hate for fellow man, pain and death for war. - Definitely not something I want to portray in my work, I don't want war to be what people think of when they see my work, I want the horses to take the main stage.

Spirit; Stallion of the Cimarron

I hadn't thought about it till now but one of my favourite childhood films is really beginning to link in with my project; Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron. The film is about a wild mustang horse living in the West who is caught by settlers and Indians. It shows his time with the settlers and the control and forced oppression on the horses, even the man-made mutation of clipping mains, tails, putting shoes on and branding their horses. These horses were taken off the plains wild and forced into tack and broken in a corral. Whereas the Indians didn't ‘break’ their horses, you can’t force a horse to carry you bareback with no tack. They formed a trusting relationship with their horses where they would show them respect and love.

The Indians are treated similar to the horses when captive in the way that they are humiliated and broken, tied up to starve or taken to the stockades. It’s interesting to see how the settlers treat not just their animals and the land but the Indians too with complete lack of respect. You could compare the way the settlers caught and broke wild mustangs to the way they captured and killed Indians. 

Experimenting with natural materials

Searching for materials that work well to use for my final piece.

On paper the clay dried and cracked quickly, dropping off because there was little texture to stick to. 

Mud and horse poo worked really well when watered down and spread onto the paper in a paste form, the texture of the mud was grainy and bitty which felt so much more fitting to the horse. Even though horses coats are smooth in physical form, the grainy texture created a more accurate representation of the horse's spirit, it's personality and individual characteristics. The dirty, bitty paste says a lot more about the way the horse is tossing it's head, what it's thinking and feeling than chalk or graphite lines could.

Laying the clay on thick, I felt made the work a lot meatier. The clay is like the horses hide, it's flesh, fat and body. Caked on it looks really great when you can see the individual layers.

This was just a 3D experimentation using clay as thick as I could to see how it would look as the flesh of the horse. The layers aren't smoothed into each other so that it's clear to see them individually as I really like the texture it makes. It's also really interesting how heavy the clay makes the piece, it makes it feel more solid and horse like. Horses are half a ton animals and I don't feel like paper can capture that aspect of them.

Settlers, human oppression over animals and man

One thing that really interests me currently is this idea of how oppressive the settlers were to horses, but not just horses, it stretches out to other animals, the land and the Indians. They tried to own and control it all and destroyed the harmony between man and nature. Today I found a quote from an Indian chief that sits very comfortably with how I feel about the current problems of the world and problems from the past involving settlers.

“Man's heart away from Nature becomes hard.”

Luther Standing Bear - Link to source

I feel like this is so true and I feel like the distance between us and nature and the distance settlers had was all man made. Even to the extent that man is taking away the spirit from the horse, breaking it, putting tack on a mustang, we’re distancing the animal itself from what it is born and made to do; be a horse. 

Often in the racing industries these baby thoroughbreds are backed and raced, pushed to their limit and bred to run. The only thing they ever know is to run straight as fast as they can on a track. Once they come off the track, all used up and broken they often don’t know how to be a horse again. They will be boxed in a stable the early years of its life, fed top energy packed food, kept in immaculate condition and muscle trained, health checked, they even have them swimming now to train them! How is this anything like what a horse is supposed to be?

It’s no wonder when they’re taken off the track they’re no good to anyone but a butcher. They lose themselves; man takes away what it is they have to be a horse and what they essentially are.

There is no respect for the animal like there is in the Native Indian culture, the animal is just a means to an end and to be used. Indians have a beautiful natural harmony and connection with nature and this is what I would like to show in my piece. I want my piece to be natural, connected to nature, be a true representation of the animal and I want some of me to be in it, my relationship to the animal, my connection. This is why I think using Rocky as a source for the materials I will be using will really work and bring my piece together. He is my most personal relationship to the animal and a lot of my horse experiences come from him so it only feels right to have some of his hair, poo and bedding in my work.

I've decided to continue with Native Indians!

From my research of Native Indians I feel connected to them; they share the same beliefs as I do with animals and the earth. They believe that everything is sacred, from the largest mountain to smallest animal or plant. They respect their creator, mother earth and all of her creations. I want to show this is my piece; I want it to show respect towards nature by using only natural substances and I felt this really worked with my project title ‘Spirit of the horse.’ How can I expect to really represent the spirit of the horse using paints manufactured by man with chemicals in them? Using natural resources I feel like I can make a connection to the animal, especially as most of my sources will come from my horse or were in contact with him. Using his own used bedding and hayledge to his poo will bring a piece of him into my work. The real him, not a copy outline of his form at best, but the him I see every day, work with every day and love.

The inspiration to use natural substances came from the day I painted Rocky with creams and got really interested in war paint. I looked into the meanings for all the colours and symbols and loved that the paint was made out of natural resources. I found a book in the library about Native Indians and looked more into their art and use of animals. The buffalo was their source for almost everything they needed to live and I found in one book a picture of an Indian painting on a stretched buffalo skin with clays and berries. 

An example of a painted skin.
Source: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/exhibits/saving_memories/

Painting on Rocky

Link to YouTube video of me painting on Rocky with horse creams> CLICK HERE

I decided to try painting on a new surface and what better surface than a horse? I loved the idea of working on the very form I was trying to create, it felt so much more hands on and I felt a better connection to the horse, the connection I've been trying to get with my work. The horses that came out on rocky were far from proportionately accurate but they were far more exciting than the ink drawings I'd done earlier this month in my A3 sketchpad. They felt like pretty Chinese/Japanese art symbolizing beauty and perfectness. -Far from what a horse really is, horses are flawed like us, they'll fart in your face when you pick out their feet and stomp on your toe. These painting I did on Rocky I feel are so much closer to what I want to show with my work, they feel realer and closer to the spirit of the horse.
I had some fun smearing the cream on my hands and painting hand prints on Rocky and this random bit of fun actually completely inspired me to look into Native Indian war paint!

I've been looking into the mark making and meanings of symbols that Native Indians use and am completely fascinated by the respect I've found for the horse in
 the culture.

I’ve kind of hit an interesting wall at the moment as I wanted my horses to stay as natural and close to what I imagine the very spirit of the horse would be and represent it in my art. But I’m getting more and more interested in the Native Indian relationship to the horse and spirit of the horse. Unlike other human relationships to horses such as modern English riding, Western riding and even the use of horses in war time I feel like the horse is never as respected and valued as the Native Indians do. I’m not sure where to go with this and so I’m going to do more research into horses used in war and the very spiritual side to Native Indians and their animals. I feel like this will better form my understanding of the use of the horse and how oppressed they are by us. Can Indians use the horse without oppressing it? Relating this to me and my horse, I ride very naturally without the traditional saddle and bridle.

My horse is ridden in a halter or parelli collar bareback and sometimes without any tack at all. I found that when I rode him when he was younger in tack he felt tight and wooden; he never felt fluid in his movement and would always have problems tripping on his front and dragging behind. My horse had problems properly engaging in canter and to motivate him to trot was horrid! The transition to tackless was hard for both of us at the start.. I found it hard to balance without a saddle and he found it very difficult to ride forward without the bit as support as my horse often uses the bit contact as a source of confidence. Without that connection to the rider he is very nervous and often will pause when in a new situation or when frightened. So as time went by without that contact he grew a new confidence in just me and our body contact, where we could read each other, what we wanted from each other with the movements of my hips asking him to bend and just feeling his muscles working underneath me. You can feel the horses muscles tighten when they’re anxious or excited or feel when they’re ready to make a gait transition from trot to striking into canter on the right leg.

I feel like humans have tried to contain and control the horse with all these gizmos we can put on them and it’s just pushed us farther and farther away from each other. If you can put your trust into the horse, show the horse that you trust them to carry you willingly without the back up of all these fixes on them, I feel like you’re making a mutual commitment rather than always just asking from the horse. Asking the horse to trust you with when to jump, turn, transition. I feel like the Native Indians felt the same as me and respected the horse and their feelings. Their tack is made with consideration for the animal not with the desire to control the animal. They often ride saddleless and therefore don’t need to tug and hold onto their horses’ mouth with metal but ask with their body language for the horse to slow and run.

The more I look into Native Indians and modern day Parelli [natural horsemanship] the more I see it as less and less of a control over the horse but more a way for the real spirit of the horse to come out and be shown. A horse will frolic in a paddock with its paddock companions and run wild with a herd but they can be very docile animals grazing for a great proportion of the day. But with the natural assistance of a human being the horse form can be expressed and conveyed. It almost makes this natural spirit more beautiful when there’s harmony between two spirits.

I'm confused now and will have to give it some thought. Is this what I want my work to represent? Do I want to expand the spirit of the horse or maybe show the spirit of the horse in war? I don't know yet. I'm going to do some further research into Native Indian culture, spiritualism and respect for animals.

Chalk, graphite, paint and a rubber

These drawings are inspired by my sudden interest in Native Indian war paint. This is my experimentation with this theme of war in mind, the hazy graphite smudges that are erased back through are how I imagined the setting of dust and hoof beats. The rings around the horses eyes and noes symbolize good sight and smell through this dusty, distorted scene. The colors mean endurance and wisdom.

This horse is in a similar setting to the other two but I wanted to compare a horse without war paint as I'm still really conflicted about over contaminating the horses. I don't want my horses to become tainted by man, but what really pulls me back to this war paint idea is my question, did the Indians really taint horses and use them?

Chalk and paint experimentation

I'm still really quite lost as to where I want to take these horses at the moment. I'm currently trying to work loosely with the basic black, white and grey and make the horses look free and messy. I think they're closer to expressing the spirit of the horse but still definitely lacking, so I'll continue experimenting in different mediums until something feels right and feels like a horse to me.

Sunset clips of Rocky

Click for YouTube video!

Ponies by sunset

A collection of video recordings of ponies in a paddock by sunset with interesting colour effects from the lighting on the horses and blackouts against the sun.
Click for YouTube video!

Chalk horses!

I really wanted to push away from the confinements of paper and border boundaries.So I took some chalks out to Rocky's stable and drew on the concrete. This was rather spontaneous so the colours are random and the legs disappear.

CLICK >
Link to video of creating chalk drawings on YouTube!

Ready mix paint and sand/stones experimentation

To break away from using traditional mediums I tried mixing ready mixes with sand, grit and stones. Pouring on the ready mix, straight from the bottle created some exciting unexpected lines and shapes  that worked really well to loosen the paintings.

Chalk and charcoal drawings

Some of these drawings worked really well and come out expressive but really feel to me like they're a bit empty and lifeless. Like they're missing bulk. I need to work on building more into them possibly with different mediums?

Developing paintings

Click for>

(Much better quality YouTube version)

Little animations

A collection of progression drawings, trying out different ways to express the horse movement in inks.

Painting experimentation & Egon Schiele

I really wanted to work on something that wasn't paper and am really glad I did as these cardboard/multimedia paintings are much more exciting than the repetitive ink drawings I was coming out with. It also gave me a chance to work a lot bigger than the paper I was used to so I could really push the space and use bold full arm paint strokes.

A lot of this paint was applied using all sorts rather than a paintbrush like twigs to flaps of cardboard, stones and polystyrene. My favourite effect was from the polystyrene where it dotted and bits broke off and stuck on.

CLICK>
Link to YouTube video of development of these paintings!

Egon Schiele 

I'm looking at Egon Schiele's figurative paintings and drawings because I think he is more the direction I want to take from here. For a while I was comfortable working with the pretty horse form with inks in my A3 sketchbook but I think that is far from where I want to be.

So I'm looking at Egon's work because of his subject. Egon drew and painted people, mostly women and himself but what I find so important about his work is that unlike most of us he wasn't focused on 'societies perceived perfection' when he painted, his works are so organic and real. His subjects are in ways the supposedly 'less desirable' of society. He often drew prostitutes or anyone who would pose for him. He didn't draw and paint to create something that looked attractive and pretty for someone to hang on their wall and admire as a false representation of humanity. He wanted to show the real thing and so some of his work has it's uncomfortable bits that make it so real.

What I also really like about his work is that he uses himself a lot as a subject to draw and paint. He subjects himself to the same treatment as he does the women, so that he isn't exposing just women in all their naked, unmasked by society goodness but does the same to himself. He exposes his true self.

The reason I find this so interesting and relatable to my work is because that is where I want to end up with my work. Even if I don't get there by the end of this project I want to make a step in that direction. I don't want my work to be a pretty representation of the horse I want it to be the real thing. As real as Egon's slightly crude, nude paintings. I want to expose that true side of the horse that man has done so well to cover up and hide with a veil of perceived perfection.

I think theses paintings are one step in the right direction away from perfection and more into abstract feeling of the horse.