Horses from the Tjanting

I am including some examples of some of the horses I have generated using the tjanting technique. The differences between the gray stallion and others. The Stallion was created using more painting effects rather than the narrow focused flow of wax from the tjanting tool which make the wonderful streaming manes on some of my other horse batik.

The real life picture is of two mares, Kelly and Maya, from days long gone bye.

Horses Flow From the Tjanting (batik)

The horse is my very favorite subject and I find a comfortable relationship with the tjanting tool ( the brass or copper bowl that holds wax and allows an artist to make lines of wax). This is used to creat my horses with flowing and flying manes. The horse and fast flowing wax combine to show a graceful, sensuous, soothing and capricious quality. No other artistic medium has given me the ability to capture these same flowing and magical qualities.

The horse has been a noble servant to the human race, a symbol of speed, strength and grace.For me the horse shows the way to also show dynamic tension and the striving that we all encounter in our lives.

Early Morning in July

It has been a long time since the mountains could be seen in the morning and today is no exception. The trend lately has been hot and very humid and a heavy mist has settled into the fields, forests and valleys.The distant farms are not visible at all.The morning air is sweet and warm, with everything covered with rain drops from last night. The early sun feels good and although quite warm, the air has a clearer and dryer feeling to it. The sounds of birds and insects fill the air with a pleasant all encompassing sound.

I feel not only grateful to be able to see, but also grateful to be surrounded by such beauty as is in my back yard and all about me in Washington County, New York.

The sun catches the rising mists with sunny highlights streaming through the tree branches. A drop of dew in the morning clover is caught by the sun and turns into a prism, then to amber, red, and green. The cornfield is cast with a flood of hazy morning sun. The stalks have tassels on top highlighted gold, and the young corncobs have tender young silk loaded with dew. In the distance the farms are revealed, but no mountains yet.

Near the house the coneflowers look brilliant, accented by their irridescent centers. The large old trumpet vine is in full bloom making hummingbirds and bees very happy. I find myself flooded with ideas and images for my batik work. I'm glad for the inspiration, but can not hope to achieve such beauty as is found in nature.

Pasture Bouquet and Herd Greeters

An ideal clover patch for the cows to produce lots of high energy milk. It has a beauty all of its own before the teeth and hooves make their trek through the field.

The herd greets the camera as they graze the new strip along the ever moving fenceline of the Alice clover field.

Here are the photos of our herd from years past that show the actual reality of how the cows cast themselves across the fields while they are grazing.

They start at the back of the barnyard on the hillside and then make the trek out to the field over their stream crossing. But the payoff if the ability to graze the lush, tender clovers and grasses to produce the golden milk.

Cast Off to the Fields

They eagerly pass through an alley after milking and bypass several closed gates. As they reach the pasture of the day and step through the gate, the line of cows or sheep spreads out happily in all directions. The pasture has been growing for three weeks since it was last grazed and is full of fresh tender grasses, clovers, vetch and trefoil about six inches high. The pasture calls the hungry herd and in the warmth of summer they are cast off to the fields, away from the barns, out into the fresh sweet air to eat and relax in the fields. The cooler evening air is also a pleasure to all and the sky is accented by high fluffy clouds in the setting sun.

The pasture contains the freshest and healthiest of nutrients and typically the milk turns golden after eating this freshest of feeds.

I am struck by the pattern the sheep or cows make as they spread out in the field. This is one of my favorite sights and I am pondering some batik that will be inspired by this theme to add to my collection of farmscapes.

Cow and Calf below Trees

Here is the batik I mentioned before in the blog post.