Maxixe de Barrios - a bit about the breed & the name!

Hi sales information is online now here; http://www.artbymorgen.com/maxixe.htm

Max's gallery is here http://www.artbymorgen.com/galleries/maxixe/index.html.

& Now I'm excited to finally share more information about his inspirations and namesake!

First, the breed...
So some leads on learning more about the Criollo (aka Crioullo). As South America’s stock horse, these guys are of obvious Spanish decent.  http://www.justacriollo.com/pages_en/Criollocaracteristiques_en.htm   I was inspired to do this sculpture after coming across a good # at my first horse event here in North Carolina (here is a photo I shared earlier of one horse there https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEdYdrOXvSBE0lWwxPRo59txEoajYp4Rzi2vt3Nmc0C8ihdy3rMEWXe7ySrAEf_vVSNydfGklP5HXy8WaCVTJCv7UHX1e6RYw6RZXljJgd3tCRwdnIf0mHzkjIpS9DQpJ8ufnDEtvFvkw/s1600/criollo_bensonmuledays.jpg ) .  Where I was born/raised (CT) horses are predominately bay/brown & grey, appaloosa or pinto is a notable exception.  For instance I distinctly remember when I first saw a blue roan or a buckskin!   So of course I’m just charmed by what a wonderful variety of colors I stumbled into with these guys!  And for even more, please check out Martina  Vannelli’s flickr albums!!

That last cream (champagne?) fellow shows how they seem to like to leave ear hair there to protect from those flies even though many are quite meticulously groomed.

The build of these guys to me is this epitome of the notion of a “foot in every corner” stock horse look – crossed with the gorgeous Spanish body type (*check out this guy -> "Guapo" indeed eh! https://picasaweb.google.com/tiagodpoa/CrioulosABCCCVIII#5088448429188613538 )   There are many names for the breed in the various South American countries.  There are various ways they do the hair, more often now you’re seeing the completely roached forelocks too – but I opted for the more traditional look they often seem to be halter shown in; roached mane, hair at the wither & long forelock, banged tail.  I recently saw someone describe Andalusian’s as “hair growing machines” and these guys definitely have that going on for them as well!  Most I’ve found have exceptionally lush wavy tails.

This handsome Criollo shows that robust build and also, you can see they are very small! (Under 14.2hh very often I guess).  Used with permission of “LA PRESTANCIA - CABALLOS CRIOLLOS - TANDIL – ARGENTINA” (Facebook page; https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001062555671 )

Another album you REALLY might enjoy for both it’s historical value and all the variety of builds and colors these horses come in;
https://picasaweb.google.com/tiagodpoa
 

https://picasaweb.google.com/tiagodpoa/CrioulosABCCCVIII


https://picasaweb.google.com/tiagodpoa/CrioulosArgentinos


Next….the name...
My choice of this (crazy hard to pronounce!) :)  name is based on the so so typical Spanish breed movement.  I wanted an M name that related to the musical beat aspect of their gait.  They always seem to me as if they’re hearing their own internal rhythm!

Maxixe is a Brazilian tango – the name actually stems from the African influence which is why it’s a very unusual (hard to pronounce!) word.  Portuguese translators indicate it’s almost pronounced to rhyme with hasheesh.   However if you listen to the man at the beginning of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msVY6ysbyWk  performance you’ll hear him say “maxixe” and it’s as if he puts an extra “sheesh” in there. ... as in "mah-she-sheesh"… SHEESH huh? Lol! Sorry to pick another tough name gang!

To harken back to the fashion in which most Spanish horses seem to be named I created a rather arbitrary sounding bloodline by the “de Barrios”.  In part because of all the little maxixe pieces I found on youtube they lacked the right tempo except for a few, I especially like this one as the bongo (bongos right??) really tap out that beat you tend to associate with hoof beats! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lyLaASIjsU&feature=related    Some versions of Agustin Barrios Mangore’s maxixe are often played slower… but I give you these two to hear it as I do – with more staccato!

So there you have it!  Max represents a little folksy working & proudly parading stock horse from a country with rich traditions and beautiful and exceptionally athletic horses! (What a mouthful).

Today's Wild Hare... :)

I got a wild hare to put in some wilder hair! :D Just to the forelock. Just because I really should be doing anything but fiddling around over there (including taking the time to take the dogs to the park instead of a run around inside the garage - for both of our health). Ah well though, sometimes you just gotta take a few minutes to do something when the mood strikes ya! :)

Here I've only really added a tiny tad onto both sides of his forelock giving it taper & fringe. But I think it really helps from various angles a lot more. Especially to complete the "flare" feeling of his swishing tail - these are reminiscent to me of a flamenca dancer's dress motion... constantly whirling and so very full and heavy looking yet somehow light all the same!

Enough waxing philosophical... I have to hit the showers now. Got pretty grimy today (not doing this 20min add on)..

Btw, in case it's not really clear -> this is just the base & I'll be blending/grooving it one these tendrils firm up. Sunday! :D

What a different feel it has to me than this view I took yesterday..

Watching paint dry...

No no, not quite that bad. In fact it's probably for the best that I'm giving it days to dry here before putting in veins/details. Saturday I'll be at the races (vending in my tent again)... events where I tote everything out always seem to me like "oh I don't have much to do for that" .. and then I really do. I'm always packing my stuff at midnight or later the night before ANY kind of show. When will I learn??!

Sooooo seriously though, I'd LIKE to believe now that I'm all prepared here. That I've gotten my booth stuff ready to go & tomorrow will be a simple matter of packing my stuff into the vehicle for an early Saturday send off? That said, I doubt it. Tomorrow I'll be scrambling around with some big project I remembered.

Picture of my wares out at an Open House at Artist Gallery in downtown Southern Pines last week - so they're all ready to go already for this upcoming weekend for the Saturday races at the Carolina Horse Park in Raeford! :)

My fiance is really doing the major stuff - he is making mini jump standards for hanging those paintings on. Here they are at an open house in the "Artist Gallery" open house last week. It truly messes with me, this name... every year (except this year probably) in the summer I've participated in something called "Artist's Gallery" at the Holiday Inn (now Clarion) in Lexington - a ball room of artists hosted by Breyer during their Breyerfest event. This year I hope to be doing a booth around the arena... so those jump standards will be helpful then somehow too! :) (You know I just want them SO BADLY to play with the dogs with, right? I've wanted mini jump standards since I was like .. 5... I've even had real jump standards but I don't care -> the mini ones are the cutest thing since .... cute things.. I dunno! They ROCK!). :)

Go me with the artsy shot here... :-P I'm really just being silly but it was fun to try!

Pictures are so heavy so I'm hoping the mini jump standards can take it!

He's also slapped together some lovely pedestals for me and I was just out sanding & painting them. While doing so I realized/remembered that the pictures I've been taking here (for another purpose/submission actually), were done with the wrong camera settings for my set up. So DOH... & Thus, here's a slightly better lit photo of my dude that's not all grainy! :D

Max and pals have a play date

Someone asked me (in a nudge nudge sort of way!), if I’d posted any pictures from any other angles than that the left side.. doh! So here’s some other angles in size comparisons... (Max is still not ready for his glamor shot close ups)..

& I’ll be quick in my babbling because this is a visual anyhow. I’ve already promised to provide “real” measurements on Max (congrats to Heather for getting it again!) for those who make tiny tack… but I’m getting lots of questions on relative scale and I though it would be fun to show some group shots with some of my newest members. I also am (yes of course) doing a self-check on any possible more last minute revisions… you may or may not be able to tell I removed some hoof from the last time (daintier still yes! He’s got the machismo to carry it off imo!). ;)

Max is 1:9 scale – on the slightly small side. He’s 11 inches long, 7 inches high at the crest of his neck (probably would be 8 to eartips if he wasn’t looking down, getting all haughty!) ;) … true to form as a Criollo stallion they come in surprisingly small packages for all their “big” looking selves!


Max and Johann – Johann, 2010, is robust & hardy lil (small traditional) 1:9 scale / 8.5” tall all around riding and driving horse of early American design.

Again from a different angle – I think here you really can see that Max is a taller at the wither, despite his “height” measurement being smaller.


Kipling and Max – who spent a good deal of side-by-side time on their poles when being created. Kipling, 2011, is a 1:9 scale miniature horse/petting zoo pony who's super inquisitive nose is just a hair over 5 inches tall.




Max, Kipling and (hoohaa GIRLpower!) Hazel! Hazel is a 1:9 draft cross mare, standing 10 inches tall on her base & stretching out 14.5 inches long.

And just because it’s supremely entertaining to me (Max standing around regarding EVERYthing…)… here we have Max looking on while little 1:24 scale Flitwick leaps over his rock wall. Flitwick, 2006 stands a shade under 4 inches tall at the top of his tail.

And there you have it. I’m taking a break while his latest coat of primer dries & figured now would be a good time to address that before I go & mar the finish up. I’m thinking that next week I’ll hopefully be ready to go with him.

Good grief, are we there yet???!

Ok, $20 off of their order of him to the first person who has already figured out his nickname & posts a comment of it..

I’m SO BORED with the divot/pin hole part… lol! This is my own dern :D fault (I'm well aware) for not being a better caster yet. My waste mold resin prototype here has had lots of pin holes.. so as I wittled down those legs it got brutal.... hole after hole..

I love his dainty legs though..! To me they just go “stompity stomp stompitty stomp (all petite but the better for him to move his little feetsies around very quickly – it’s a Latin American thing yanno.. he’s got a beat goin on all the time.. clippity clippity, pause, voila!!)..

Here’s a photo of the Criollo who inspired me to sculpt this guy. I have better ones of his body but he was also fighting his man there to get a move on so there’s lots of holding back pictures. There were thousands of horses at this event so he really stood out to me amidst all the pandemonium. I talked to his rider very briefly but he truly did have his hands full.

With that.. off to see if things are dry here yet. ;) Yesterday I had to drive around the countryside to Drs (last year's surgery holding up well, which is good because I've seen more Drs since we moved here than I have in literally the 2 decades before. I like good news thank you muchly!). AND tomorrow I head off in the afternoon for to stand guard in "Artist's Gallery" for an open house event. So I have to be presentable and human and all that. It's probably a good thing. Given my way with a horse like this I'd disappear and not step out of the studio for 2 solid weeks and feel really odd and troll like when I did. I've had this happen with more than a few horses now soooooooo being forced to leave to walk the dogs daily in the park... and doctors and handing out wine??? It's all good for me.

Still... it's obviously getting harder and harder for me not to show off the flipping exciting nuances this fellow has. I just need to have him perfect before I do so. So just another glimpse from afar so far. I can already see MANY things I need to fix in just this little taste. Simple things now but still.. would be terrible to show up close. Ugh. :) Aaaaaaaaand this is where it really gets different from some styles of work I like to do where you don't have to obsess over every little divot. Still, I do loooooove to pour on the detail so yeah... I bring it on myself.

Drums fingers on desk. I guess now would be a good time to take the dogs ot the park today. It's cooler now. & Then maybe I can resume with him when I get back. Whooohoo! :D

___________PS!____________________
The comments are moderated in case folks figure out the nickname there. Just submit once & they'll be timestamped, don't worry. The spammers figures out how to include links in the most sneaky ways... "Great photo - what do you think of mine? [but the link goes off to some malicious spyware site]". So leave it to them to force me to add another layer of confusion to the matter. Anyhow - but don't fret about your answer going through, that's the bottom line. :)

More sketches

Quickly b/c I'm beat. After dinner I did this one tonight (we're calling this our "quality time" lately - couch wind down time... I tend to go back into the sculpting studio after he hits the sack & get a few more hours work.. I'm a night owl. Anyhow, so tonight I needed to do something & I have several frames I'd like to fill for coming events).

So tonight's folly was this;
"Steeplechaser Headstudy #1" (am I like the most pragmatic artist or what? -sighs-)
5 x 7 inches


I am really having fun enjoying the artistic mindset departure from "technical-measure-technical-detail-measure-detail-detail" pressure of finishing up a sculpture to these few hour breaks here & there where I tackle a 'less is more' or "suggestion" of shapes approach.

But whew.. long day. :) G'nite!

Ok ok ok....

The desire to play with wee tack makes me break all sorts of self imposed rules..

This, very intentionally, was taken from a bit of a funny (slightly higher) angle, sorry! It helps me to confirm that yes, there are still more leg/joint refinements I want to make.

Actually there is a method to my madness here. Waaaay back with a sculpture named “Flitwick” I learned a valuable lesson… in part due to my poor photography skills. I was set to release him and took all my sales photos and then really really didn't like what I saw. I literally had the box out for him to go to the casters and everything. I wound up saying "hold the phone" and went back and reworked him for 3-4more weeks until I had gotten the detail more precise and the proportions more to my liking. & The lesson being that if something looked wonky in my studio photos, it’s going to be seen by the eye to some degree or another.. -> don't just write it off as "bad photos". Because when working in scales, any minor oddity is magnified by the photo done right where the eye doesn't see the scale, just the flaws. In other words if I were sculpting a life sized cat I’d probably spot the weirdness just fine by eye. But beyond a certain scale photos are a very valuable tool. Used with care.

Photos also distort on their own as well. I’m NOT saying you should ever sculpt by photo. But I am saying that they do have some value as a diagnostic tool of sorts. Using photo editing programs to figure out what you want to change in real life before you get there.

Anyhow, I’ve taken a lot of photos of this guy lately to tweak the last things I want to.. before putting the veins down & primering. He’s in white resin & I’m using sticky/pasty “super white” Apoxie Sculpt to smooth over spots but I prefer the red (gooey/rubbery) Apoxie sculpt to get the final satin smooth spots. When I was a kid I watched my dad do this with bondo. Now we have something a great deal less stinky & toxic. Oh right, but my point here was that he looks a bit cottage cheesey in areas right now with his 2toned white coloration… so no, no more photos just yet.

But I could NOT resist playing with my tack.

He’s small on the 1:9 scale as a pony (14hh) sized horse. He barely fits into my tack for my sculpture Hazel but imagine how excited I was to see my new Aussie set by Jana Skybova fits nicely.. and that the hair of his forelock works for both the Criollo’s traditional Argentinian style bridles AND a normal browband. I don’t try to sculpt for tack but… well hey, with my tiny tack fetish how could I not have this in mind to some small degree? ;)

More very soon, I swear!

Oh ok... this is one of my quick photoshop trials versions of the changes I want to make still;

I don't do them pretty. I've been doing these since my half passing Duke sculpture and the practice, no matter how much feedback I get from folks, always seems to help me the best. (Outsider's input is invaluable too mind you - other human's critiques are invaluble as well - don't get me wrong!). Combined with photoshop, it's so much easier too to try a change out without messing up your work!

Ok, back to it now. ;)

PS - to be clear though, the tack is NOT a tool/test of any kind. :D That's just me indulging my inner child over here...! ;)

Head revisions and an old art class exercise

Quickly - the head revised. I took a pic today when photographing this morning's sketch. His nostrils & nasal bone end had really gotten smushed up & when I took those last photos the extent of it really was irritating the daylights out of me! Nares & nasal bone back in effect though (he's expirating). :)


The old art class exercise here is to use non-hatched lines to give shape. I failed miserably at it in college. In fact I stumbled across some old line drawings done where you couldn't identify the subject if you tried. Anyhow, but I really enjoyed that approach however in this context (musculature in tension).

Anyhow, so from one of my photos from last April, I did this this morning.

“Running Mates at Stoneybrook”
Pastel, pencil and charcoal on board 17 x 11 inches
2012

Detail from above - if you enlarge you can see what I mean about those random squiggly lines. I am SURE there' s a proper illustration term for the technique but it escapes me...!

Ok, back to work on the criollo now.. I had to let some fumes clear out today so I mucked about quite a bit here. ;)

I just have no self control…

I realized today that I never shared any photos of his off side… sooooo as I’m smoothing the last little tweaks here & there I’ll share 2 more work in progress photos of my criollo sculpture. Right side photos for once.


The rubber is here. The resin is here. The box materials are here. All systems a go. I am touching up last minute little things in clay. The next step is to build the box around him. Cast a prototype. Smooth that up and add the details like veins and whisker bumps. Make the mane and tail cast-smooth friendly (an ongoing learning process for me). And then I shall reveal his name and the meaning behind it. It’s a musical name. He has always been dancing to me, even though he is still for this split second. Mischievously proud of his quick little spunky self!

Anyhow, I know I’d said no more photos till I was done but I just couldn’t resist. I take them for critiquing purposes & I just HAD to… it’s so boring for me to talk about making a sculpture & not share something. ;) So this is his right side (and there is a pole still there that I’ve masked over somewhat).

Like my resolutions to exercise and eat better… I gotta allow myself a little fun & break my self imposed rules now & then! ;)

Warning! Weird workshop ideas in progress… !

In honor of these Breyerfest sculpting workshops now being available to sign up for (click here!)… I guess I’ll share this (cringe for the bad pun coming!!!) bare bones idea with you today (everyone groans). No but sincerely, I’m very excited to be able to teach a more advanced course this time, even if it’s daunting to try and squish a ton of info in within a 2hr format & some restrictions. There are always handouts at least too that people will have in the end if I can’t cover it all, but I am determined to do so!

Now of course people who know me know that I have a fear of public speaking – the thing I’ve discovered (aside from the fact that I’m in good company there, like Barbara Streisand even suffers this!), is that when you love what you do and are excited about the topic it’s not so bad. I don’t like to talk about myself (introducing ourselves to large groups is so common in everyday life), what I’m “thinking” about in doing art (I dread being put on the spot and coming up with intelligent sounding answers because honestly when I work the “thoughts” I have are not in word form so articulating them means trying to translate concepts without easy terms…)… but teaching, especially when you can draw or show in person is a lot of fun. I’m not the best by far but at least here I can overcome this phobia when I have an itinerary! :)

My fiance really digs the skull which cracks me up because it's all smooshy & wrong still.. but it is sorta fun for some reason too... couldn't put my finger on it though!

So blah blah anyhow… I share with you some test ideas I made yesterday while on the phone. I’m not ready to explain what I’m thinking BUT if I have leftovers from the class… maybe someday I’ll sell some. ;) (What a tease – eh!).

Please don’t pick these apart too hard. They were just to try out the ideas being discussed in that phone call. I did NOT measure or really even put all the bones/shapes in there right.. just was going by a cartoony drawing across the room & memory. Packed away somewhere I have the “visible horse” model & that thing ROCKS for bone shapes imo. Now for skeptics, ok ok, I haven’t measured the visible horse's proportions no (and no I don't think I probably ever will get around to that...), & I suppose if I had to guess it’s probably a bit short backed - for the truly picky. :) Still, it rocks for bone shapes imo!

When I get serious about this project I’ll probably want to pull that dude and ALL of my photo refs & illustration/plates out for doing this if I go ahead with it. So these will have to be redone properly BUT (yay!) they did prove to me that the notion of resin cast limbs isn’t too fragile and a wire does fit in there ok. & The skull’s normally hollow portions can sorta be winged & still be “skull like” enough I hope for what I want to do too. The bones (on the limb to each other or limb to head) are NOT in proportion either… again this was just fingers & fingernail playing while on the phone. Again so please don’t take it too seriously/literally just yet! :)

I’m happy I still remember something from college…(don’t we always feel this way? Ah HA! I get to use math finally in real life – lol!). I’m still paying for those courses to this day. In my bio major tract I took several years of anatomy which were also lab cour$es ;) each of which I’ve recently realized had sadly cost more than most of my (better/more reliable) cars I’ve owned still to this day! – ha! Clearly I’m bitter & rue the time I bought a car from a ‘reputable’ dealer.. ah but I digress). Anyhow, but I will have to be more serious about this for the sake of actually teaching anything.

Hope to see some of my bloggers there this summer! Please be sure to tell me your names too – it’s always fun to put faces to online names! And back to work here. I got a ton of mold making materials today & I have other things that I get to address now. Just taking a break during lunch here! :)