#684 In the field: Pronghorn Antelope and Sage Grouse

The "in the field" experience is a necessity for the wildlife artist.  There's no way to convince your viewer that your work is authentic unless you've been there yourself.  Autumn is a special time to be in the field for many reasons . . .

 especially if an artist is in search of game for studio reference as well as meat for the table.

Trish and I both drew antelope doe tags this year and were successful in putting meat in the freezer for the winter.  Wyoming antelope country is austere, vast, and beautiful.   After we filled our tags, we returned to our 

 hunting area several times with the cameras to collect photo reference material and to experience the animals.  

Below, are images taken this September and October.

Below, are images of Sage Grouse.  The big bird is not on the endangered species list but could be soon.
A great time to photograph them is in the spring during mating season . . . the male has a spectacular display!

We do not hunt them for the table . . . only with a camera. Also, from what I understand, they're not very good eating and I'm spoiled with the succulent Ruffed Grouse we hunt in the north country.  Our Brittany, Penny loves to find them after the day's hunt and I was able to photograph the secretive birds last month for reference material that will be used in the studio.  I'm currently working on a new antelope sculpture and a Sage Grouse composition is mentally in the works.  

Below, is an image of an early antelope sculpture created in the 1990s.

Go to the BLOG INDEX and Reference Page for more information.  

See post #616

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish

#673 Birthday Browns

For those of you who follow our blog, there were no posts last week on Sunday, August 23 or Wednesday, August 26. . . as you know, we typically post every Wednesday and Sunday and we will now resume our normal schedule.  

The reason for no posts:  We were afield in the Rocky Mountain wilderness and had no internet service. 

Last week, Trish and I celebrated her birthday doing what we do every year on our birthdays:  Fishing.

I've read that the good Lord does not count the days you spend fishing against your time here on earth.

If that's truly the case, both Trish and I will be around a long, long time because we both love to fish!

We spent a glorious week in the Rocky Mountain high country in search of brookies [Brook Trout] 

and browns [Brown Trout] in the remote backcountry beaver ponds that we both know so well.

Below, are pictures of Trish on the morning of her birthday.  We ate the three small browns for breakfast,

 the big one for dinner, and released the rest.  It's hard to believe that a trout the size of the big brown shown 

was caught in a small beaver pond!  It was, and on the first cast of the morning!

Happy 71st birthday, Trish!

Below, is an original watercolor-tinted etching of a Brown Trout.

Below, is an original etching entitled, "Lunch".

Go to the BLOG INDEX on the right for more information.

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish

#656 In the field . . . birthday #72

Last week was my birthday and we returned to the rustic
cabin in remote northern Colorado where we celebrated 

July 24 last year.  We lived in Colorado for many years
and know the area very well . . . we know all of the backroads,

 the best places to fish for Rainbow and Cutthroat Trout,
the trails to the little streams where the Brook Trout
hang out,and where to see wildlife.
The old camp where we stay is close to
timberline and is heavily populated with moose . . .
we never fail to see them.





Below, are images of moose taken last week in the high country.

Below, I spotted a recumbent young bull in the shade from a distance . . .
we left him at peace but got him with a telephoto.

Below, Trish is fishing at a favorite high country lake where we saw nesting Ospreys.

Shown below, is another favorite lake . . . I photographed a Mule Deer doe while enjoying a cold beer and the scenery.

The temperature dips down at night and the old housekeeping cabin is heated with an ancient wood burning cookstove.
The wood and kindling is provided for us, chopped, split, and always plentiful . . . I'm used to wood heat and love it!
Below, is a photo of the dogs warming up on a chilly morning in front of the cookstove while the boiled coffee perks.

The proprietors of the camp are fellow bird lovers and have hummingbird feeders everywhere.  

Below, are photos of Trish, a feeder outside our cabin, and along with the resident Chipmunk,
we could count on a live model and plenty of entertainment during the cocktail hour!

Below, is an early etching of hummingbirds.

Go to the BLOG INDEX on the right for more information.

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish

#622 Equine conformation and proportion . . . con't.

Please start this series of posts with blog #616

There are many different breeds of horses and nature designed them according to their intended use.  

Their individual conformation is the method of evaluating a specific breed's proportion, shape, bone structure, 

and musculature with "form follows function" used as the guiding criteria.
Generally, a breed is a man-made creation, the product of centuries of selective breeding.

This blog highlights the proportion and shape of a very popular breed, well known in this country:  

The  American Quarter Horse . . .  strictly an American breed, the foundation sire of the modern 

Quarter Horse was a Thoroughbred named Janus who was brought to this country from England in 1756.
The early mixture with Spanish mares produced a compact and heavily muscled animal.

My Dad raised and bred Quarter Horses in Northeastern Oklahoma and my roots go back to the 1950s
when I was a kid growing up with knowledge of the revered names of Quarter Horse stallions such as Leo,
Joe Hancock, stud horses from the Waggoner Ranch in Texas, and Tulsa's own:  Bert.
This was the golden age of the Quarter Horse and the American Quarter Horse Association {AQHA}. . . 

the popularity of the breed continues to dramatically increase since those early days.

Below, is an original etching of a Quarter Horse entitled, "Yucca", my Father's all-time favorite etching.

The Quarter Horse was originally bred for fast starts and 1/4 mile straightaway racing. . . thus, the name. 

The legendary "cow sense" of the Quarter Horse makes the breed the rugged and durable horse of the West.   

In the early years, the stocky horse originally averaged 14.2 to 15.2 hands and had a low center of gravity which 

enabled great "turn on a dime" maneuverability.   More recently, Thoroughbred crosses have refined the animal.

Below is an original etching entitled, "Headin' a Quitter".

The breed has powerful hindquarters, low withers,
deep chest, very short cannons, wide-set forearms,
close-coupled back, a thick neck, and a short,
broad head with little fox ears and a short muzzle
. . . the ideal ranch horse.


At right, is a silhouette of the American Quarter Horse




Below, is a sculpture of a mare and foal entitled, "Southern Comfort".

Southern Comfort
11"H 16"W 6"D

Go to the BLOG INDEX and Reference Page for more information.  See posts #616 and #655

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish

#617 Reference for the horse artist . . . Sam Savitt

When I left art school in Kansas City in the early 1960s, I entered the realm of commercial art and animation.
My heroes then remain my heroes now . . . one of them was the outstanding illustrator of horses:  Sam Savitt.
 Born in 1917, he passed away in the year 2000.  He illustrated for outdoor magazines but horse stories
was always his specialty . . . be it racing, polo, western, rodeo, dressage, or fox hunting and I remember him
as a youngster when my Father would give me his magazines to tear the pictures for my scrapbooks.

He authored numerous books, illustrated over 150 books, and among many other publications,  illustrated a line of comics for Gene Autry's horse, Champion for Dell Comics in 1951 which I eagerly collected. . . and wish I had saved. 

 Not only was he a great illustrator, he was a horseman with a great knowledge of horses.  

Below, is the cover of one of his best know books, "Draw Horses With Sam Savitt", originally published in 1981
by Half Halt Press, Middletown, Maryland.  Also shown are images of pages from the book.
This is a very informative book and he shows you how to draw and understand the horse in motion, 

conformation and markings, anatomy, and breeds of horses, and much more.

In 1995, while teaching a bird sculpture workshop at Scottsdale Artists' School,  Mr. Savitt was also an instructor there. 

 I had the great pleasure of meeting him and was truly star-struck!  Trish and I had just picked up our new West Highland Terrier puppy and he was totally charmed by the little dog and would play with it every day when we took our breaks. 

 A few years later, after he had died I found the book, published 1969, shown below in a flea market and rescued it.  

To my delight, when I opened the book, it had been signed to someone and had a sketch of a horse 

which is also shown below.  His elegant style and presentation of the horse is my ideal.

www.samsavitt

www.samsavitt.com/books

Go to the BLOG INDEX and Reference Page for more information.  See posts # 616 and 655

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish

#614 Snow Moon

Since the heaviest snow usually falls during this month, Native American and Canadian tribes of the north call

February's full moon the Full Snow Moon.  Some tribes referred to this moon as the Full Hunger Moon 

since harsh and frigid weather made hunting food difficult.  

Shown below, a Mule Deer doe slowly passes under last night's Full Snow Moon in the sub-zero cold.

The night before last, a snowstorm dumped over ten more inches on our studio headquarters at the foot of the Wind River Range in Wyoming.  We woke up this morning to -16 degrees temperatures and as usual, the first thing one thinks about are the animals . . . both domestic and wild.  We have horses, goats, poultry, and feral barn cats that share the property with a resident herd of mule deer and wintering pheasants.  At the base of heated buildings such as the studio, animals congregate because the temperature is actually a few degrees warmer.  We keep a water heater in a big rubber tub and put out hay and corn for the geese.  The chickens have a heat lamp in their coop and we enjoy fresh eggs in the winter because the light induces laying eggs.  While all of this is a necessity for the domestic animals, we are careful not to tame the deer which would inhibit their wildness and ability to survive . . . after all, in the big scheme of things, we are predators.

Below, are images taken at our place along the frozen Popo Agie River in Wyoming.  

Although the surface is frozen, the big river flows underneath to join the Wind River downstream.

This photo was taken from the studio deck this morning . . . below zero but sunny!

 

The barn protects horses, goats, and barn cats but on this sunny day, the warm sun will feel good on their backs.

Geese are amazingly adaptable to frigid weather and like all creatures, require an open source of water.  Water, in this climate, can freeze in less than an hour!

Below and at right, the big domestic geese are fed corn and hay is given to the deer when snow covers the ground.  Trish cries,"goose-goose-goose" and the geese come running!

Below, Trish and Penny enjoy a warm fire after chores are done.

Below, no sun yesterday but the deer, with their long winter's coat, nestled in the snow
and bedded down for warmth and the pheasant found morsels by scratching through the snow.

In the bleak midwinter, Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,

In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

                                                                                     - Christina G. Rossetti



Deer have always been a favorite subject.  Below is an early etching (1979) entitled, "First Snow".

Go to the BLOG INDEX on the right for more information.

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish

#601: Paris: Barye, Fremiet and the Natural History Museum of Paris

While in Paris last month, Trish and I spent most of the three-week stay in museums and tracking down the 

notable sculpture and monuments that the beautiful city is famous for.   While all art viewed was meaningful, 

we concentrated on Greek sculpture and art from antiquity and importantly,

 the work of the French Animaliers of the 19th and early 20th centuries. 

The focus of this blog is the Natural History Museum of Paris and two important Parisian born Animaliers:

 Antoine-Louis Barye (1796 - 1875}, and Emmanuel Fremiet ( 1824 - 1910).  Historians regard the Romantic sculptor Barye, as having the premier position as the finest and most original in the field of animal bronzes and I'll return 

to his sculpture in upcoming posts.   Additional info can be obtained by going to Post #593, Dec. 21, 2014.  

Many books have been written about his work and much can be learned about him by going online.    

Below, are sculptures by Barye.

The Jardin des Plantes or great botanical gardens of Paris
was founded in 1626 and is located on the left bank in a
complex that includes the Natural History Museum of Paris,
the zoo or menagerie of wild animals,  the Museum of Comparative Anatomy, Museums of Evolution,
of Palenontology, of Entomology, Museum of Zoology,  

and other libraries, laboratories, exhibits, and lecture rooms.
The Jardin was high on our list of places to visit and we spent several days there.  Had we spent the entire three weeks,
we would have only seen a small part of it. 

More about the zoo in next Wednesday's post.

Both Barye and Fremiet were frequent visitors to the Jardin des Plantes and the Natural History Museum of Paris 

and spent many hours, studying and modeling their sculpture from zoo animals, skeletons, and taxidermy.   

During the last years of his life, Barye was professor of animal drawing at the Natural History Museum of Paris 

and was succeeded by Fremiet in 1892, several years after Barye's death.  

Fremiet's most famous sculpture is the gilded "Joan of Arc", erected in the Place des Pyramides in Paris. 

 My personal favorite is his sculpture of an elephant in front of the Musee d'Orsay. 

Below, are images.

   

As in previous posts about last month's trip to Paris,
I'm concluding the blog with a glimpse
of life in the elegant and inspiring city.

Travel in the winter and off-season definitely has advantages.
We took a boat ride on the Seine on a rainy day

 and were the only passengers on the boat . . .
just us and the bartender, captain, and mate! 

Below, are images taken from the railing.

Go to the BLOG INDEX on the right for more information. 

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish