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I spent a long time pondering the realism I’m trying to exhibit in my horse statue. Originally I intended to sculpt a harness and shafts for the cart it would be pulling. This was poached from a sculpture I did many years ago and it was thought it might work. I sculpted a small miniature clay sketch see if I could capture what is very difficult to show in a photo. And something I’ve wanted to do since I showed a horse at the Royal Winter Fair and experienced first had what it’s like to see a horse bound through the air in front of you.
An issue with the smaller version was the horse was moving forward but bowed up in his neck and bouncing along the ground but not the frame a horse in harness would be doing. So I thought the neck wouldn’t exactly work with a side check on the horse. After some more thought about the plausibility of a horse trotting at the stride he’s at in my design, the adornments on his neck, his docked tail and show shoes, he wouldn’t be carrying his neck like my statue exhibited without the side check keeping his neck artificially high.
So the problem could be solved by adhering to the reality of a horse in tack without a check and drawing himself up and moving forward in his stride without his head strapped in the air and no rider or driver in the design. I went on a Google search to find some information on the older type stallion harness, or stud tack which is a surcingle and bridle with side reins and used only on stallions.
I looked at some interesting illustrations of these harness pieces and found no side check. Excellent! This solved my problem. I can show the horse as it would be exhibited in a breed class showing a classic style hackney in stud tack. This also solved a very big issue with the detail in the tack and the risk of damage to the sculpture. So I can tack him up, and let him loose and I may even put a loose rein attached to the bit to show the horse has gotten lose from his handler. Something intimated in the illustration in the George Ford Morris painting.
FEBRUARY 2012
I heated the clay in a hot water bath until it’s soft so I can easily apply it to the foam manikin. I started with his head and worked back to his tail. It’s always tricky to work on a horse’s head first and give the animal it’s character or expression. So, I need to be careful not to get stuck on the head and will cover it with a cloth if it starts to control the direction I’m going with the clay application. His ears were facing forward but I decided to twist the off side ear back so I have to fix it’s base attachment. I’m still cutting into areas of the sculpture that need removed and then I put clay on the raw foam. Not too much, it doesn’t like to stick but it will in small areas. The first seals it and fills the pits and areas that were worrisome to smooth out. This goes quickly as all I need is a skim coat of clay to cover the foam.
JANUARY 26, 2012
Right now my foam horse sits quiet in the studio. A coat of glue sizing applied to the entire sculpture has dried and sealed the surface. This has allowed me to use a rasp on the surface to knock off the rough spots and carve into the detail areas with a very sharp knife without crumbing the foam material. I’ve put the weight into the front left leg foot by bending the pastern, shortening it and cutting the foam and re-gluing it in place. I’m resisting my desire to jump to the next part of the project before the detailing is finished. If I did the jumpy thing, I risk getting these two materials mixed together. I hate pushing some clay onto a piece and bits of foam come to the surface. This ruins the integrity of the surface I work so hard to achieve. And yes, I can heat up the clay until it’s liquid and strain out bits and pieces of foam or old molding material but this won’t fix the actual clay on the model after the fact.
I’ll be hauling a 55 gallon metal trash can full of brown wax based clay from the storage building to the studio in preparation for the next step. I’ll plop pieces of clay into a warm water bath. When the clay is warm and soft it will make it easier for me to push it onto the foam model. I have a definitive date that it needs to be finished and I’m on schedule. There will be two castings made in resin, one for a client and the other for exhibition purposes. The molds that are going to be made will be usable for casting waxes for bronze, the ultimate goal is an outdoor installation of the bronze Hackney sculpture.
When showing a Hackney Horse they’re required to be braided. The old timers told me they should wear the gold standard of twenty-one braids down their neck. They told me it’s to show the length of their neck and refinement of their appointments. I think there may be more to the number 21 but then again I’m just guessing. I’ll research this a bit and see if my curiosity gets satisfied. Meanwhile I’m going to start whistling now as I make snakes which will shortly turn into 21 braids.
