I love to garden! Besides being great exercise, it’s so satisfying to be outdoors with growing things and when it’s plants one has started from seeds even more so. Anyone with a bit of yard or an apartment balcony can garden. We’re very fortunate in having an acre which is about a mile inland from the ocean in northern California. The soil is very good. We’re in a sheltered location at the end of our street. I’m limited a little by our mild marine-influenced climate (USDA zone 9/Sunset zone 15/17), so plants that need hot weather or seriously cold winters are off the menu, but otherwise if one can find a microclimate here or there, there’s almost no limit.
I got some seeds started a few weeks ago and and plants in the ground are starting to flower, so I thought I’d share what’s happening this morning.
So last year we were finally able to have a potting shed built for me after years of making do under a tarp on the north side of the house. I based my idea on the roofline of a barn in the neighborhood and our contractor sketched it out on a scrap of paper. We marked out the length and width, decided on a smoke-tinted polycarb for the roof and greenhouse end. Then he built this fabulous structure which is anything but a “shed”, so I dubbed it the “potting palace”From left to right: hollyhocks, sunflowers, wallflowers plus a couple of fuschias and a six pack of shallots from the local nursery. I’ve had the PVC pipe rack for many, many years, which we made from one I saw in a gardening magazineMore hollyhocks and wallflowers, plus a collection of pulmonarias (lungwart) I bought from Joy Creek Nursery for the shade border I have planned for that north side where my potting stuff used to beI have a regular common lilac also, but this one, called ‘Sensation’ with its picotee edges, is one of my garden favoritesI planted one cowslip plant close to ten years ago and it has self-seeded. I always take as a great compliment when a plant that can be challenging to grow from seed is happy with the spot I picked for it and increases on its ownPoached egg plant, a California native, but these are volunteers from seed I scattered years ago. We first saw it in a garden in England, covered with bees, and were really excited to find that we could easily get the seeds for it over hereSometimes plants pick their own “associations'”, as the expression goes. In this case, it’s fleabane and sweet alyssum with a patch of lady’s mantle on the right. All are volunteersSometimes I think wallflowers should be the national flower of England. Even the tiniest patch in front of an attached house seems to always have a wallflower or two. There are only two colors one ever seems to see in US nurseries, a mauve and a gold, but they actually occur in an absolute riot of colors. I’ve bought seeds in England on past trips there and started them here. Some germinated after ten years. In this photo at the top is a ‘Crown Princesse Margarete’ rose from David Austin. Under and next to it are two wallflowers. The single red-orange flower is a volunteer heliathemum (sun rose). At the bottom is a dicksia, which gets flower stalks with small orange flowers. It is armed and dangerous so plant with cautionAt the top is a rhododenron that has just finished blooming. In front are two more wallflowers. I like that the new leaves on the rhodie pick up the warm tones of the flowers around it, one of those happy accidents one loves havingThis delicately-colored wallflower self-seeded itself among what will be some fire red Crocosmia ‘Lucifier”\’. We’ll have to see how that works outAnd I love, love, old roses. No hybrid teas allowed. This is Rosa chinensis ‘mutabilis’ so named because the flowers change color as the bloom and ageThey’re really just getting started now, with one bloom on some plants. This is the first one on my ‘Charles Rennie Mackintosh’ David Austin roseI also use containers. These are on the patio. I had to resort to them have lilies after the gophers got all the ones that were in the ground. I threw some forget-me-not seeds into some and they are coming back every year, increasing enough that I can transplant them into other pots. On the right is a mint that I’ve forgotten the name ofAnd, finally, we like to grow food too. The vegetable garden is ready to be cleared of winter weeds and planted in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime I got a baby greens salad mix going in a steel tub on the patio. It sits on a small wood platform with casters. The tub is right outside the kitchen/dining area French doors for easy picking.
I’ll post again next month when things really get going. Happy gardening!
I contributed to an Altai argali capture project in Bayan-Olgii Aimag, western Mongolia in the summer of 2015 by acting as the “officlal” photographer. It was one part of my 4th WildArt Mongolia Expedition during which, as a Fellow of the Explorers Club I had the honor of carrying Flag 179. Here I am with Dr. Sukh Amgalanbaatar and Dr. Barry Rosenbaum, both wildlife biologists, flanked by our excellent drivers and assistants. One does not have be a scientist to contribute to science.
An artist marching for “Science”? Why would do I that? Well, I’m as dependent on science as almost everyone else on the planet. None of us can live what we would call a civilized life without it. For me as an artist, chemistry created the paints, mediums and solvents I use. A researcher invented the glue that holds my canvas-covered hardboard painting panels together. A number of different sciences create the materials and technology for the cameras I use when gathering my reference images. I store my 149,000 images on a hard drive connected to my iMac, neither of which would exist without research and development done by scientists and engineers.
To put it in simple terms “science” is how we humans discover verifiable facts. It has nothing to do with opinions, feelings or politics. or how one would like things to be. As Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson says, “”The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.” The fact that science, i,e. knowledge, is under attack these days is appalling, particularly when the people doing so benefit from it every day.
Two Mongolian scientists entering and checking GPS data for botany transects in which every species is identified and location recorded. Then the biomass of the entire transect is calculated. Done over time it creates a picture of the ebb and flow of the plants and their ecosystem, which helps the local herder community make grazing and land use decistions. Photo taken at the Ikh Denver Zoo research camp, Ikh Nartiin Chuluu Nature Reserve, Dornogobi Aimag, Mongolia, April 2005 during my participation in an Earthwatch project there. This work is a good example of where “facts” come from.
So I will be marching tomorrow here in Humboldt County, California, where the organizers have planned a whole day of events, starting with a science expo, activities for kids, then a rally which will be followed by the march. It being Humboldt County, home to Humboldt State University in Arcata, I expect it to be quite a show of enthusiasm and creativity. http://www.madriverunion.com/april-22-is-march-for-science-day-in-arcata/
With fellow artist and Explorers Club member Alan Campbell at the Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge visitor’s center. After the field work is done, results analysed and made available through scientific publications, what is learned can be interpreted for the public through displays like this one. Years of research went into the content of that one board.
Study from Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel figure of the prophet Isaiah
And the answer is: I’ve started a new painting which is part of a new direction I’m experimenting with, which is all I’ll say for now. One of them involves using a khadag, the traditional Mongolian offering scarf, as a design element. I haven’t done drapery since art school. I set up a khadag that I brought back and did some drawings from it, but could tell that I really didn’t understand what I was looking at or how to get where I wanted to go. Drapery has a structure and pattern and I just wasn’t seeing it with any confidence. Time to get out the art books and do some copywork from the masters. Who better to learn from? And I’ll do as many as it takes to get it. I was also able to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art last month when I was in New York for the Explorers Club Annual Dinner. I focused on getting photos (with my iPhone 5S) of drapery details and I’ll be drawing from those next. But today I want to share what I was able to do working an “old-fashioned” way…from books.
Besides my immediate goal of learning to draw drapery again myself it was fascinating, through the copywork, to see how these artists solved the problems, some very naturalistically and some by simplifying with more stylistic handling.
The Michaelangelo copy above was the last one I did and took the better part of a day. It’s about 8×10″. I was working on technique along with creating the actual drawing.
All are done with Cretacolor Monolith pencils on either Canson drawing paper or Strathmore 400 with added help from a kneaded eraser that definitely got a work out.
Fresco painting detail by Michaelangelo, Sistine Chapel
Below is the first one I tried. Notice that there are basically three values and some color temperature shifts. Get those relationships correct and you have…satin!
Sleeve detail by Jacques-Louis David
I wanted to start with a simple shape that had well-defined folds. And I was very curious to see a little of how David saw, given his great academic training and skill. I have some good details from one of his paintings at the Met that I’m looking forward to drawing.
Neckline fold detail from “The Oath of the Horatii” by Jacques-Louis David
I specifically wanted to draw that neckline fold and the overlapping folds coming over the shoulder because they relate to the design I have for the khadag.
Garment details by Jacques-Louis David (left) and Dean Cornwell (right and middle)Sash detail by Dean Cornwell
My study is above right. I wanted to understand how the sash drapped around the form.
Sleeve detail by Dean Cornwell
My study is lower left above. I wanted to get that feeling of the thickness of the fabric coming over the arm.
Coat detail by Dean Cornwell
Small drawing in the middle of the page above.
Cornwell had an interesting way of simplifying drapery and it’s a characteristic of his style. I remember one of my drawing teachers in art school doing a slide show of master drawings. When she got to the Cornwell, she matter-of-factly told us that if we could do a drawing like that we would get an “A”. We just kind of looked at each and thought “Yeah, well, in our dreams”. Ultimately, I realized that his approach, at least at this point, wasn’t going to be useful to me for what I want to do.
Gown and sleeve detailsGown detail by J.C. LeyendeckerSleeve detail by J. C. Leyendecker
J.C. Leyendecker was another master stylist, instantly recognizable. Notice that I’m showing the work of two illustrators, along with traditional fine artists. That’s because the great illustrators were simply great artists and their drafting and design skills were impeccable. Plus, that’s my background since my formal art training was in illustration so I “speak” that language.
Through copying some of his work I hoped to understand better how to simplify and understand what I had to have to say “fold” and leave out everything else. Artists like Michaelangelo, David and, as you’ll see, Velasquez had a more naturalistic approach, but still edited and made choices, each in his own way. And the sum total of those choices is one of the ways a viewer can tell one artist from another.
The gown detail was challenging because every shape and its relationship to the other shapes had to be just right in order to read as drapery. By the time I decided to tackle the sleeve I felt that I was starting to get the hang of things and also to gain a little insight into his thinking through the choices he made in a way that would not be possible by just looking at the art.
Head drape detailHead drape by Velasquez
If one wants to learn from the best then you have to take on Velasquez, one of the best ever, a painter’s painter. And that ended up being a bit of a problem. When I looked through my book of the artist’s work I didn’t really find a lot in terms of drapery that would help me with what I was trying to do. I found his shapes, when looked at individually, to be idiosycratic in a way made them very abstract. It’s a very different way of seeing than I do. But what a great thing to learn. I am in awe of him as are so many others. I plan to start doing some human subjects and when it comes to heads and hands I will be returning to him for both drawing and painting study.
So that’s what I was up to last week. This week I’m back at the easel doing some repaints on small works, both to get my groove back and to build up stock for North Coast Open Studios, which I will be doing the first two weeks in June. More on that to come!
Not all good tales come from exotic locales. You don’t have to have a passport to get to somewhere worthwhile. And good adventures don’t all have to be exciting, much less life-threatening. Just getting out into nature wherever you live or travel to can yield fun, amusing and interesting stories. I’m known for my adventures in Mongolia, but I love to get out in nature and animal watch wherever I am. For instance, last March I spent over a week exploring southern Georgia and also some of the northern Florida barrier islands like Amelia Island and the town of Fernandina Beach, Florida, which turns out to have a wonderful and clearly much-loved community amenity, Egan’s Creek Greenway, a park braided with trails that run right through the town. Kudos to the townspeople who had the will and vision to set aside this natural area. You can read more about my March 2016 trip here and here.
We live in a rural coastal county in northern California, where the biggest reptile one is likely to encounter are large but harmless gopher snakes or a watch-your-fingers-cause-they-bite Pacific giant salamander. So it was a bit of stopper to see this sign upon entering what is essentially a town park…
I walked most of the way to the northern end and back.
It was late afternoon and the light was getting better minute by minute.
The trail split. I followed the one to the left, saving the one along the stream for the way back.
It was March but a few wildflowers were already blooming.
I really liked the three different textures of the grass, water plant, and trees.
I saw a movement around twenty yards ahead. I had my long lens so was able to get some good photos of what I believe are marsh rabbits (Silvilagus palustris). I noticed that they stayed in the shade, which makes sense for a prey animal. They are similar in appearance and size to the brush rabbits we have here in Humboldt County.
Turtles! This was a big deal for me since I’d never seen any in the wild before other than sea turtles in Hawaii. They are yellow belly sliders (Trachemys scripta scripta).
These were to the right of the ones in the first photo, all catching some last rays before sundown.
I had learned about this trail while chatting with my Airbnb host and this was my only chance to check it out. I couldn’t have come at a better time since the light was great and there was almost no one else around.
I came upon a great egret in soft cool light.
It took off and I got a good shot of it in flight.
After that sign at the trailhead, this log stopped me for an instant.
I came to another open area adjacent to a deep water-filled depression where the trails went off in different directions, I was getting pretty close to being back to where I’d started. I happened to look down into the pond…
And what do you know? An alligator! At least six feet long, also catching the last of the day’s sun.
Can you spot the gator?
I walked on and a short time later came upon another grazing bunny who quickly hopped into the brush. I caught up to where I thought he’d gone and there he was, holding very still.
A few minutes later I spotted this male cardinal. We don’t have these where I live so I always get a kick out of seeing them even though I know they’re quite common.
A short distance more and I was out of the greenway into the open and here was a big pond with not only a great blue heron (we do have them here on the west coast, too), but more turtles!
As I photographed the heron and turtles, I spotted something in the sky. It was a red-tailed hawk circling around. I took a lot of photos and finally got a few of the bird as it turned and caught the light.
What a day. But there was one more treat in store.
As I walked back to the parking area I spotted a small bird hopping around in the chain link fence and managed to get this one photo. It’s a palm warbler, a new species for me.
The whole walk was at most three hours. I had nothing in mind, just to explore a new area and see what was there. What places are there where you live that you’ve never gotten around to exploring? We tend to take where we live for granted, but nature is ever-changing and no walk or hike will ever be exactly the same. If you’ve discovered a local gem where you live tell me about it in the comments!
“The Annuciation”, Hans Memling, 1465-75, oil on wood
I spent most of a day at the Met during my recent trip to New York for the Explorers Club 113th Annual Dinner (I’m a Fellow of the Club). I’m working on an idea for a painting that involves drapery folds, something I haven’t done much since art school. I realized that I had a golden opportunity to learn from the best by taking drapery detail shots that I can study and, if I want, do studies from. I also did a few sketches, but it was Saturday and I couldn’t stand too long in front of anything. It was really interesting to focus on one pictorial element and see how different artists of the past solved the problem. Here are some examples. I’ve identified the painting and the artist. You can see the entire work on the Met site. I’d also like to note that the Met recently digitized and made available for use without restriction images of over 400,000 works in their collections.
(Photos taken with a iPhone 5S, which did a pretty good job all in all)
“The Annunciation” by Hans Memling, 1465-75, oil on wood“Portrait of a Man” by Frans Hals, 1636-38, oil on canvas“The Supper at Emaus” by Velasquez, 1622-23, oil on canvas“The Supper at Emaus” by Velasquex, 1622-23, oil on canvas“The Fortune Teller” by Georges de La Tour, prob. 1630s, oil on canvas“Self-portrait with Two Pupils…” by Adelaide Labille Guiard, 1785, oil on canvas“The Death of Socrates” by Jacques Louis David, 1787, oil on canvas“Ada Rehan” by John singer Sargent, 1894-95, oil on canvasDetail- the dark areas are single strokes put over the lighter areas; just kill me now“Madame X” by John Singer Sargent, 1883-84, oil on canvas“Mrs. Hugh Hammersley” by John Singer Sargent, 1892, oil on canvas“The Wyndham Sisters…” by John Singer Sargent, 1899, oil on canvas“King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1” by Edwin Austin Abbey, 1898, oil on canvas“King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1” by Edwin Austin Abbey, 1898, oil on canvas
I flew into New York on Wednesday to attend the 113th Annual Explorers Club Annual Dinner (I’ve been a Fellow of the Club since 2014). Tonight is the opening reception at the Club headquarters. Tomorrow night will be the dinner, which will be held on Ellis Island. Noted polar explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes will be the keynote speaker. The Master of Ceremonies will be joined onstage for the opening of the event by legendary actor Robert de Niro. So it’s going to be quite an evening.
In the meantime, yesterday I went to the Museum of Modern Art and walked around Central Park. It was pretty nippy, but sunny.
My main mission was to see the original of van Gogh’s “The Starry Night”, which has been one of my favorite works of art since I was a child. It’s smaller than I expected, but absolutely wonderful. I only had my iPhone with me but it did quite well.
Detail: “The Starry Night”
One of the major differences between seeing an original instead of a print is being able to see the dimensionality of the paint as the artist has applied it. You can see some of that in the detail photo above.
“One: Number 31” Jackson Pollock
Another favorite artist is Jackson Pollock. The museum had one of his large pieces on display, “One: Number 31″ and it also really must be seen in person to appreciate it, if only for the scale. It’s 8’10″x 17′ 5 5/8”. I was able to get pretty close to it, enough to see the layering, and how thin or thick the paint was. Interestingly, it appears that, at least in this one, he mostly followed a very traditional approach of working “lean to fat”….from thin to thick. To many people it just looks like a bunch of random drips so, really, what was the point? But the method is clear when you’re in front of the painting itself. He started with some kind of basic idea and color scheme and then built on it, but also let “happy accidents” occur that he could build on and add to. The result is a tremendous visual rhythm that works whether you’re looking at the whole thing or just a detail. It could be cut (perish the thought) into twelve pieces and every single one would stand alone as a work of art.
Detail- “One: Number 31” Jackson Pollock
I also liked this work by Franz Klein, probably because I did calligraphy with both pen and brush for many years.
“Painting Number 2” Franz Klein
And this one by Mark Rothko. Some of you who know my work might be wondering why I like and am posting abstract work, which is held in contempt by many representational artists. Maybe it’s because I was a graphic designer for many years, so I like and appreciate non-representational work that is pure design in which the subject is the paint on the surface, not a picture “of something”.
“No. 10” Mark Rothko
The usual comment is often along the lines of “What’s the big deal? I could do that.” Well, maybe you could, but you didn’t. Rothko did. There’s also a thread of envy and resentment among some artists because apparently “simple” paintings like this are assumed not to have taken long but have brought fame and fortune to the artist, which somehow doesn’t seem fair. Yet, one of the things I’ve learned over the years is that simpicity is what is hard, not detail. There’s nothing wrong with either, of course, if it’s what the artist needs to do to express their vision. That’s the most important thing.
And then there’s Monet. I’ve seen his water lily paintings in other museums, but this is by far the largest. My biggest painting to this point is 36×48″ and that was a fair amount of real estate to cover. These three panels together measure 6′ 6 3/4″ x 41′ 10 3/4″. Forty-one feet long….
“Water Lilies” Claude Monet
Here are a couple of detail photos:
And moving in a little closer:
Even closer and any sense of a subject would disappear into abstract brushwork. All good paintings have a solid abstract structure underneath to hold them together. The structure is the subject, along with paint color, texture and shape, in non-representational painting.
Abstract shapes and designs can be found in the real world if you learn how to look for them.
There’s still snow on the ground from last week’s storm. South end of Central Park
Vertical trees, sun and shadow on the snow. This could be turned into an interesting abstract design of shapes and colors.
After I left the museum I walked around Central Park a bit and then south towards Times Square. On the way to the park, I stopped in the middle of a crosswalk because I just had to get a shot of this reflection.
Times Square is just ahead. I’d kind of run out of gas at this point, so stopped here and got a pretty typical New York street scene, complete with taxi cabs, before I headed back to the hotel.
And finally, how could I not like having this view from my window…
I’ve been down for two weeks with a really nasty chest cold. Finally over the symptoms, but still need to take it easy, which is why there was no Friday post. Much better today. Now we have a heck of a rain storm rolling into northern California, so working in the garden is out.Internet to the rescue!
Here’s some sites to check out if you’re sick or weather-bound:
Looking at art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has recently created what it calls Open Access, through which images of 375,000 (yes, that’s right) works in their collections are available for use without restriction. More information on that here.
Learning to draw: If you’re interested in drawing and want to learn the basics or pick up new skills, Pencil Kings may be what you’re looking for. They have pro instructors from a variety of backgrounds. Access to everything is $29.95/month or $299.95 a year. If you sign on and take any courses, please let me know what you think. Painting instruction is easy to find, drawing not so much.
Competitions, courses, community and more: The Artist’s Network site has plenty to poke around on. It’s run by the company that publishes The Artist’s Magazine, Watercolor Artist, Pastel Journal, Drawing Magazine, Acrylic Artist and also runs North Light Books. They’re also the home of the well-known art forum Wet Canvas.
Learning about art: Underpaintings is an online art magazine which publishes articles on contemporary and past artists, art materials and overviews of upcoming art auctions, which is my favorite feature since it’s a chance to see a wide range of work from working artists, some famous, some not so much, that is good but not museum or art book quality. One can take comfort in realizing that even the best didn’t hit a grand slam every time or even a triple, but mostly it’s a fun way to see a lot of art which has been gathered together for auction from private collections that would otherwise not be seen by the public. He includes illustration also, which, since my formal training is in illustration, is a bonus. There is free content but full access is worth the $24 a year. The “proprietor” Mathew Innis, is himself an accomplished artist.
Finally, there’s a ton of art groups to check out on Facebook, of course. I created one last week “The Art of Animal Fieldwork” which is for artists who draw and paint from live animals, surprisingly a quite specialized part of the animal art genre. There’s already been some extraordinary work posted by some of the over 50 members from the USA, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Greece, Israel, France, India and Denmark, including field studies done in Ladakh of a wild snow leopard.
Peregrin, our ten month old rough collie boy, demonstrates excellent RESTING technique
I’ve been down with a chest cold for a week, so no studio time. I’ve mostly rested, but when I’ve felt like it I’ve done a few things like clean out my inbox, catch up on some reading and, of course, dorked around on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Twitter has been great because reading in 144 character bites doesn’t require sustained focus and attention. I also poked around on Facebook, joined a bunch of art groups and last night, finally feeling halfway decent again, started one…The Art of Animal Fieldwork…an area of the animal art genre that no one is addressing effectively (there are a couple of groups that purport to be about fieldwork, but the Admins appear to be MIA and the group feeds are cluttered with a lot of bad studio art, personal promos, etc). You can check it out here. Nice to feel that I’ve managed to Do Something Useful, even in my reduced state.
Today is my weekly blog day and the theme is “In The Studio”, which I haven’t been since last Friday. So instead I’m going to give you a list of 10 ideas for things you can do when you’re sick if you don’t have a computer or tablet handy and 10 for if you do.
The most important thing, though is to REST. The better you take care of yourself the sooner you can get back to work. On to the lists:
IF YOU’RE HAVE A COMPUTER OR TABLET:
1. Research art galleries
2. Futz with a drawing or painting app
3. Clean out your email folders/mailboxes
4. Clean out and organize your folders
5. Visit art museum sites
6. Treat yourself to a new art-related book that’s downloadable for instant gratification
7. Check out art-related YouTube videos or movies
8. Find new artists to follow, groups to join on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.
9. Find new art blogs to follow
10. Start a collection of art quotes
IF YOU’RE NOT ON A COMPUTER OR TABLET:
1. Read an art-related book that you haven’t gotten around to
2. Browse through some of your art books
3. Make a list of places you want to go (sky’s the limit; be crazy; Mars anyone?)
4. Plan out a painting in your head in as much detail as possible
5. Browse an art supply catalog and make a wish list; include one media you’ve never tried before
6. Get a pad of paper and pencils/pens and doodle painting ideas or draw a pet or whatever is in the room
7. Make a list of the artists you’ve heard of but don’t know anything about
8. Think about how to make your studio a better workplace
I sat in the car and took photos through the windshield
I was coming to the end of my first tent camping trip in Mongolia in July of 2010. We had traveled south to a remote Gobi lake, Orog Nuur…myself, my driver/guide and a cook… and back north into the Hangai Mountains to see a variety of sights, including two mineral spring resorts, a Buddhist retreat established by Zanabazar, Mongolia’s finest sculptor, popular Orkhon Falls and the much visited site of the imperial Mongol capital Harkhorin which is adjacent to the famous monastery, Erdene Zuu, partly constructed of stones from the ruined capital which was sacked my the Ming army after they ended the Yuan Dynasty of Khublai Khan and chased the Mongols back to their homeland.
Our route now took us north, down out of the Khangai Mountains, where, for the last night out, we were going to pitch our tents at Ongii Nuur, a lake known for its birds. It was a gloomy, cloudy day. As we were driving along, I noticed a large ger encampment down and off to the left. I almost said something to to my Mongol driver/guide Khatnaa, but let it go. Then he had to slow down because a bunch of men and boys on horses were crossing the road. I told him about the gers. He made a right turn and followed the horsemen up the slope. And at the top found ourselves in the midst of over a hundred Mongols, many dressed to kill in fancy brocade del, sashes and boots.
Last instructions, I assume, before the riders and horses go out to the starting p0int
Just about the only thing that I had hoped to encounter on the trip (my fifth to the Land of Blue Skies), but had not, was a local naadam, the festival that always has a variety of traditional competitions and activities, including the Three Manly Sports of horse racing, wrestling and archery (I had gotten to attend my first local naadam at Baga Gazriin Chuluu in 2009 and was instantly hooked). Now it appeared that we had finally stumbled onto one on the last afternoon of the last day of the trip.
We pulled up in an area on the hill where a lot of cars and trucks were parked. There were horses all over the place. Khatnaa got out, spoke with someone and came back with the news that the event was a family reunion. Stay or go? We’d inadvertently crashed a private party. I told Khatnaa that it was up to him to do what he thought best. He thought for a moment while I held my breath and then pulled into the middle of a long line of cars, where we tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. Over the next two to three hours I sat in the big silver Land Cruiser and took around five hundred photos of whatever crossed my field of vision. Our arrival had coincided with the run-up to the horse race and we had gotten there just in time to watch all the preparations for it.
I wasn’t sure what to watch for, but then saw the characteristic cloud of dust with a chase car in front and the riders and other cars behind
It seemed like over half the men and boys were on horseback, warming up the racehorses, chatting and just riding around the area the same way the rest of us would walk. The trainers stood out with their fancy del, sashes, hats and boots, along with their sweat scrapers tucked in to the back of their sashes. Older men sat on the ground exchanging snuff bottles in the traditional greeting. Kids were happily running and riding all over the place. Everyone was clearly having a great time, as was I getting to watch it all.
Our “cover” was blown when a young couple on a motorbike drove up and offered us fresh, hot khuushuur (fried mutton turnovers). No way we were going to pass on those. I stayed in the car until the first horses were approaching the finish line and then got out and joined the happy crowd.
I never found out for sure, but it looked like it was a tie for first place. What counts is to be in the first five to cross the finish line
Afterwards, shortly before we left, I was photographing a lovely black race horse who was being scraped down, as the sweat from the winning horses is thought to be very lucky and auspicious. A woman came up to me, took my arm, led me over to the horse and made a gesture for me to lay my palm on the sweat, which suddenly turned me from spectator to participant. It was a very kind and thoughtful thing for her to do since I was very obviously not a member of this very big family. I was never so glad that I knew how to say “thank you” in Mongolian.
The black horse. This was a race for two-year olds so the horses haven’t reached their full size yet.
Susan Fox, American Artist 