Oil on Canvas
16x20
My next door neighbor, Roz Daly, is an avid outdoorsman and often participates in fox hunts on horseback with his horse Rooster. My kids have grown up with Rooster's trailer often in the backyard on the weekends with the animal peeking through the trailer windows or tied to a tree being brushed by Roz as he recites Uncle Remus to the gazing kids that have gathered around. One Saturday morning, Roz was getting ready to leave for a hunt and walked out of his house in full traditional fox hunt get up - redcoat, top hat, black boots and all looking just like the old raccoon on the cover of the J J Cale album, Naturally. My kids came running in the house screaming, "Daddy! Daddy, Look! Mr. Roz is going to be in the circus!" After catching their breath, they slowly made it back outside not really knowing how to really handle their neighbor dressed so strangely. Mr. Roz laughed and assured them that he wasn't going to get in a ring with tigers but that he and Rooster were going to try and find Bro' Fox. Everything was okay then.
I've often enjoyed looking at art with fox hunters clad in red riding horseback behind their hounds, but never really considered painting any myself until recently when my good buddy Stuart Mercer and his business partner opened up a gentleman's clothing store in Lexington, Ky, named Crittendon Upstairs ( http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Crittenden-Upstairs/276594885694318?sk=info). As he was telling me that he had bought some old paintings with fox hunt scenes for the store, he jokingly stated that he didn't see any painted by me during his shopping trip or he would have bought one to hang in the store.
I really had no direction earlier this week as to what to paint, so this phone conversation inspired me to give an "equine'esque" painting a go. Other than my painting " Out to Pasture", I haven't tried any horsey art, so a fox hunt scene with a dude dressed like Mr. Roz it had to be. Though no match for only the few equestrian painters that I know or their work, I really enjoyed putting this one down with all the fall colors, the horsemen and the hounds on the hunt.
I really had no direction earlier this week as to what to paint, so this phone conversation inspired me to give an "equine'esque" painting a go. Other than my painting " Out to Pasture", I haven't tried any horsey art, so a fox hunt scene with a dude dressed like Mr. Roz it had to be. Though no match for only the few equestrian painters that I know or their work, I really enjoyed putting this one down with all the fall colors, the horsemen and the hounds on the hunt.
