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| Destemido Striking Capaz Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve |
This article first appeared in my Ravenseyrie Studio & Art Gallery blog on 19January19.
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| Destemido - Fearless One Original Sumi-e by Lynne Gerard |
The majority of the painting and writing I do is influenced and inspired by elements I find very close to home. Living on the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve assures that a number of the works seen in the gallery are of noble equines.
As I work on building up the webpage for my Fine Art Greeting Cards, I have been taking photos and typing up descriptors of the many card designs I offer in my gallery. These cards come under different categories, for example, "Birthday", "New Baby", "Just Because", etc. and are each printed, assembled and hand detailed right here in my studio on the bay.
I also offer Christmas and Holiday Cards, but mostly these are in a different type of card style requiring less handwork and are grouped within the webpage I've titled, Fine Art Notecards.
I do however have two Holiday/Christmas cards that I have made that are of the same style as my Fine Art Greeting Cards (not yet listed on the webpage, but soon!) One of these holiday cards features a reproduction of an original sumi-e (ink painting) I did of one of our stallions who was born on the preserve.
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| Destemido |
The stallion's name is Destemido. Destemido means "fearless" in Portuguese and is an appropriate description for this one-eyed, undersized, scrapper of a guy.
Destemido lost his left eye in an injury sustained when he was a young foal. He has also lost part of his left lip during a fight with one of his siblings.
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| Destemido, the one-eyed wild Sorraia stallion |
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| How expressive, even without an eye! |
None of these issues seem to handicap Destemido and he carries on with all the verve and bravado one would expect from a wild stallion, perhaps with a dash more expressiveness than the other horses in an effort to make up for his smaller stature.
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| Destemido in the lead |
Whatever it is, Destemido is fun to photograph and paint and is actually quite soft and gentle around my husband and myself. We admire him, even if over the years he has caused quite a lot of mischief.
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A video I put on YouTube with Destemido showing off for his grandsire, Altamiro:
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| Destemido and Gosto black and white photo study |
To see the full line of Fine Art Greeting Cards I make that are for sale in the gallery, please click on their webpage at the top of this blog.
5 comments:
Hi, Lynne - so good to look in on you and your herd. It makes me feel good to see them. Don't know if you remember my blog about Chloe the Pony Who Wouldn't. Chloe passed away over new year's - a great age, and independent to the last. We still have the others and have added a donkey and a Paso. Somehow I haven't kept up my blog, tho perhaps I should start again. I saw on Ponies at Home that Maire's Ben had died in 2017. Do you have any news of Imke Spilker? (Now Nielson, I believe?) There's nothing recent on the Internet. I hope the polar vortex wasn't too hard on you guys. Thanks for keeping your blog going! I check in from time to time, even if I don't comment.
Hello June!
R.I.P. dear Chloe. (and Maire's boy, Ben) What fine teachings these equines gave us! I do, indeed, remember your blog. It's hard to keep one going and things in our lives shift and sometimes it just feels like all has been said and keeping quiet is a good phase to experience. You may start another blog one day, given the right inspiration and motivation. You shared many interesting insights in your Chloe the Pony who Wouldn't blog.
I have not any updated information on Imke Spilker and am hoping all is well in her world. She continues to leave a deep impression on mine.
The Polar Vortex has made this a very challenging winter. We continue to be up for that challenge, but are pretty spent come evening time!
It's good to know you check in from time to time, June, even though at this time in my life I don't have inclination to write research articles or journal stories of the marvellous Ravenseyrie equines. But I'm not ready to fully neglect the blog, so like a sometimes wilted plant, I pour on the water, enough to keep it alive.
Hi, Lynne, I really loved the video of the grandson's prancing. Also, just yesterday or so, I discovered your art website - years ago I looked and looked to try to find a place to purchase your work online but to no avail. Your art cards are really a treasure. I used to follow your Journal of Ravenseyrie blog with great verve but after becoming disheartened about the state of our country's wild horse herds, I had to back off and got busy for some time! Hope an early spring comes your way. I think my last visit to your blog was probably in the first few years following your trip to Portugal. Best Wishes and thanks for creating your art website!!! I am mixed up about what Google is doing but not sure it really matters. lol
Hello "Opinionated"-
I completely understand your becoming disheartened about the stat of wild horses in your country. So many meaningful enterprises and advancements in how we humans conduct ourselves on this planet seem to be undergoing a demoralizing slip backward to mindless boorishness. Even within the efforts to assure the continuance of types of ancestral equines, like the remnant examples of Sorraia/Iberian Tarpan have largely been bogged down by the inability of humans to come to a consensus regarding just what type of genetic repository they actually represent. The horses have not failed humans, but the majority of humans have failed to appreciate what a remarkable place in the ecosystem wild equines belong to. With so much gone wonky within human cultures, it shouldn't surprise me that the powers that be do not feel it is vitally important to stop interfering in manipulating the wilderness. I remain guardedly optimistic that rewilding initiatives in Europe will grow in such ways that wildlife manages itself and no longer needs support from humans and their fickle governments.
Thank you for sharing your impression of Altamiro's grandson, Destemido showing off his inspiring "Little Big Man" moves and for checking out the art website.
I'm am just getting the online presence for my art gallery configured. As I am working within a blog template (because that is all that I am familiar with and capable of doing without having to hire a website manager) the work will be available but sales conducted via email, rather than those nifty online shopping carts. Some day down the road, perhaps I will work up to a more "official" online shop presence. For now, I will have to clumsily figure my way through what google has to offer and its squirrely "reCaptcha feature.
I appreciate your comments! Have a sweet day!
Thanks for your note. Today I wrote a long rambling comment to one of your essays and changed my Photo to rose colored tree blooms. I thought it would change the photo across your blog (i.e. update the seagull pic to the new one) but I guess it didn't. Anyway....the mysteries of Blogger! Best Wishes.
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