Snow Sketches and Sand Wash Basin HMA for the Mustang A Day Challenge

"Drifting"
Sienna Pencil on watercolor Paper
6" by 9"
by LindaLMartin

I just returned from an interesting, warm and somewhat normal Christmas visit to my family in the Mountains of Virginia. We started out the few days with vigor and anxiously watching the perilous 2 storms about to clash just to the east of us.  We wondered if we would find ourselves camped out together, speaking different languages, dealing with different challenges and hoping to survive a possible blizzard  while responsibilities for some of us waited at some distance.



"Flurries after the Storm"
Umber Pencil on Watercolor Paper
6" by 9"
by LindaLMartin



We were torn as to whether we wanted to be home with the family or back in our snug little beds. My biggest fear was that my pet sitter wouldn't be able to get to the cats for days if there was a large snow as some predicted. And if I did make it home would there be a way to get to the house via the snow covered driveway with a bad ankle.

 As Providence would have it, we got a slight dusting of snow, everyone was all tense for no good reason, including myself, and after 3 days of trying to figure out how to relax after a somewhat intense last month of the year.. it finally happened. I sat down in a chair in front of the Christmas Tree in mom's living room, shut out the world and began to sketch.



"Searching the Snow"
Umber Pencil on Watercolor Paper
6" by 9"
by LindaLMartin



There were visions of horses in my head. Visions of mustangs in Colorado and maybe even some remote places I didn't really know. And in my visions were mustangs dealing with the elements in winter. Snow, open places,  driving winds, ice, flurries. Each driven to survive by instinct yet driven more by wise old lead mares and band stallions. Band stallions who knew where the best grasses lay hidden under the snow, who knew how to paw down through the snow with bucket shaped hoofs and then stand so their legs caught the snow as it drifted against them providing a wind break.



"Sheltered"
Sienna Pencil on Watercolor Paper
6" by 9"
by LindaLMartin

The wind breaks were helped by grease wood and sage, And mares standing hunched, backs facing the wind protecting their young from harsh winds. Sometimes they would find a break from the wind  against rocks or low trees. Stallions would stand with their backs toward the wind and call, screaming into it to other stallions who might or might not answer. We have it easy and gripe and complain and they don't. They have it hard yet thrive on the adversity of it. They stay beautiful and become strong and thrive.  Well some do. Some are buried in the snow, others that one thinks are weak and might perish are encouraged  and pushed and comforted by their herd as long as there is a spark of a will to live they will work together with all their instinct, their will, their wisdom to allow for it.

In the spring it is as much a surprise, delight and relief to see who made it through the winter as it is to see what color combinations and markings each new foal will bring forth.



"Corona"
By Nancy Roberts
Photo used by Permission



I found out today that as I was sketching these, Nancy Roberts,  a wild horse watcher and Mustang enthusiast near Craig, Colorado, was out on the range after the snow and took the most amazingly beautiful photo that sums it all up. I cannot decide what impresses me most: the passion and dedication that Nancy has to these horses to travel off the beaten path in winter or the majestic beauty and romantic quality of  the Photograph its self. Corona in Winter is the theme. And truly Nancy has captured the handiwork of God through her own eyes of love in one simple photograph that no artist, myself included could ever begin to improve upon.

If you would like to see this beautiful photograph of Corona  and more of the Sand Wash Basin Mustangs please go to the Sand Wash Basin  Wild Horses page in facebook at this link:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Sand-Wash-Basin-Wild-Horses/101181969939406

The 4 studies in pastel may be purchased as a group for $125 plus S&H to benefit the Challenge project. This money will help buy supplies for the project and frame selected paintings to be included in the traveling exhibit later in the year.  If you are interested please email me at LLMartisticServices@yahoo.comLLMartisticServices@yahoo.com or contact me through Facebook.