Q: What do you get when you add together an elephant, a horse, a load of glue, 8 months of my life, and some plastic bags?
A:You get this:
This Blog is the story of this artwork ( above) from scrappy sketch to completed collage, taking in all the wrong turns and hesitations.
A HORSE WITH NO NAME is based on the song of the same name and is now finished, but let me take you back to January 2019...
It is so much easier for me to draw something, rather than faffing around with printing inks, etching plates, egg boxes or whatever. But at the beginning of this year I kept returning to the illustrations from the Lindesfarne gospels, in my Celtic prayer book, and listening to a particular song...and an idea began to take shape...and it wasn't just a drawing or painting.
It was an idea that was going to involve a heck of a lot of glue!
I discovered baking parchment was quite a pleasing texture to sketch on, and it was lucky that I had a whole roll to make mistakes on!
Horses turned out to be REALLY hard to draw. I had to do dozens and dozens before they didn't resemble something out of Jurassic Park...and don't get me started on the jockeys..!The sky was a mess, the horses were rubbish, I was in the throws of the Gluten Challenge, and it seemed as if things would never come together...
A:You get this:
This Blog is the story of this artwork ( above) from scrappy sketch to completed collage, taking in all the wrong turns and hesitations.
A HORSE WITH NO NAME is based on the song of the same name and is now finished, but let me take you back to January 2019...
It is so much easier for me to draw something, rather than faffing around with printing inks, etching plates, egg boxes or whatever. But at the beginning of this year I kept returning to the illustrations from the Lindesfarne gospels, in my Celtic prayer book, and listening to a particular song...and an idea began to take shape...and it wasn't just a drawing or painting.
It was an idea that was going to involve a heck of a lot of glue!
I love both the words and the music in ' A Horse With No Name.' Listen and/or read the lyrics, and you'll see what I mean- it has a really hypnotic power. Is it a kind of poem about journeying through life? Or an exploration of man's relationship with Nature? Or a horse who didn't have a name? Or were the guys in the band making up nonsense after having too much weed ?( It was 1971 after all).
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This is the song:
And check out the Lyrics:
***A Horse with No Name By America
On the first part of the journey
I was looking at all the life
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
There was sand and hills and rings
The first thing I met was a fly with a buzz
And the sky with no clouds
The heat was hot and the ground was dry
But the air was full of sound
I was looking at all the life
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
There was sand and hills and rings
The first thing I met was a fly with a buzz
And the sky with no clouds
The heat was hot and the ground was dry
But the air was full of sound
I've been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain
La, la, la, la, la
La, la, la.
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain
La, la, la, la, la
La, la, la.
After two days in the desert sun
My skin began to turn red
After three days in the desert fun
I was looking at a river bed
And the story it told of a river that flowed
Made me sad to think it was dead
My skin began to turn red
After three days in the desert fun
I was looking at a river bed
And the story it told of a river that flowed
Made me sad to think it was dead
You see I've been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain
La, la...
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain
La, la...
Like a lot of the good things in life, this project began with drawing- idly exploring with a pen/pencil in hand...
As the composition began to take shape, I found myself wanting to try something new. The gift of a mini- origami kit from a friend, was the next clue, and I began to play around with the Japanese papers, with the looping patterns of Celtic manuscripts in mind...
The design I came up with was quite complicated and seemed too intricate for me to attempt on a small scale..(.and aside from other obstacles, some of my medication can result in shaking hands)...so size in this case, did matter.
As you probably know my 'art studio' is essentially my bed, with me lying down in it. Think Frida Kahlo, but more grumpy, and without make-up or interesting clothes.
Anyhow, unless I grew arms like Mr Tickle ( so I could reach around the board ) AND got a shedload of energy from somewhere, the only way to nail this, was to work on it in sections, then stick the whole thing together at the end.
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I discovered baking parchment was quite a pleasing texture to sketch on, and it was lucky that I had a whole roll to make mistakes on!
Horses turned out to be REALLY hard to draw. I had to do dozens and dozens before they didn't resemble something out of Jurassic Park...and don't get me started on the jockeys..!The sky was a mess, the horses were rubbish, I was in the throws of the Gluten Challenge, and it seemed as if things would never come together...
I began drawing horses from the Edward Muybridge photos ( see the black and white photo series above).
Then, salvation came in the ( unlikely) form of some Ebay plastic bags (!) and I was transported back to making stop-frame animation, and drawing on accetate in black, which I then laid over a background....SORTED!
The old saying is:
Q: How do you eat an elephant?
A: With a knife and fork.
Unbelievably the idea that I first sketched in January is now finished, and no one is more surprised than me.Tiny amounts of energy are all I have, and that never feels enough to me: I always feel dwarfed by the things I can't achieve. This project has showed me that tiny efforts over a long period of time, can amount to something I can feel good about.
It has been an adventure working with unfamiliar materials on a larger scale, but now I've finished and now I am casting about for new ideas to work on...watch this space!
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The painting is just amazing. Such a creativity. I love it.
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Thank you! 😊
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