June 8th update

Sarah emailed me two shots of the latest progress on El Bondo today and he appears to be coming along nicely. Note he now has a black main and tail.

El Bondo's artwork features scenes from Keeneland Race Track in Lexington. The track is only open in spring and fall, so one side of El Bondo is spring and one is fall. Clever girl, that sister of mine! Stay tuned for the next action-packed adventure...

Sarahorse Update June 2

Sarah's horse was 'out the gate' by the time the apprentice guild departed Lexington (well, Clintonville, actually) on June 2. Most of the designs, if not actually painted or drawn on 'El Bondo,' were at least taped to him so that she had an idea of the evental product.

You are probably wondering why he wears a 'halter' with the lead hanging down. It turned out to be a necessary 'heads-up' after we kept hurrying around from one side to the other and hitting our heads on his nose! Think red flag hanging off of pick-ups carrying oversized boards. Art can be hazardous to your health!

Bucky is the gentleman who plays "Post Call" before the horses go into the starting gate and the notes on El Bondo's tail actually are the notes for that famous herald trumpet call, only in the key of A! This was before Mike drew in the key signature. Ya just never know when someone might want to play a tune on a horse's tail.....maybe after a close basketball game at UK???

I love Sarah's rendition of a jockey weighing in and discovering he's 'off the scales.!' Note how he's tossed his saddle into the air in shock.

Sarah-Horse! The Concept

TO FOLLOW THIS BLOG FROM EARLIST TO LATEST ENTRIES, SCROLL DOWN AND WORK YOUR WAY BACK UP......


Deb's husband, Mike Gerace draws in the key signature for said Post Call....it truly does take a village....(well, to beat a deadline, anyway!) Without this 'cleaning crew' of relatives, this would be a Herculean task for the artist, who just needs to be focusing on the creative and artistic end of the project!

Ben Craft adds a touch of gilt to Deb Gerace's "Post Call" bugle notes....

Nephew Ben Craft joins the apprentices for a guild 'reality-check,' studying the scale of the designs and trying to paint them over a wavy tail, indented haunches, humped withers and curvy hocks and neck. It is a horse, after all, not a flat canvas....

Followed by "Sister Act," as Deb Gerace and Saretta Craft join the guild to help with the clean-up "scut-work", freeing up Sarah for the actual artwork in this time-crunch, as the horses arrived a month late, seriously impacting the deadline!

Kate, Sarah's daughter (and her first apprentice) arrives and is put to work erasing the pencil marks tracing the afore-mentioned designs after they become reality through the strokes of Sarah's talented brush....

The artist begins, using a wheelchair for mobility as the designs spread across the horse's body....

...are applied to the horse as guides....(note the large one-dimensional paper guides on the back walls).....

The hand-drawn 'vignettes,'.......

The view from outside of the garage-studio, working late into the evening....

Kevin Griffis, Sarah's son-in-law studies the plans....

My sister, Sarah, an artist and teacher, submitted her design for the Horse-Mania project promoting the Alltech World Equestrian Games in Lexington this fall and was accepted! After a month's delay, her horse arrived and now she is hard at work, along with 80 other local artists, putting their designs into painted reality on the curving and wavy contours of their life-sized fiber-glass horses.