Age 14

By this time I had spent a lot of time with Arabs. I owned a wonderful half-Arab mare, Khameis, not dissimilar to this pictured mare. I spent an astronomical amount of time drawing at this age, since I was in public middle schools and bored to death all day long.

Age 15

I took a much more technical approach to drawing at this age. I was very involved in 4H, and was developing a precise and scientific knowledge of anatomy and conformation. This is an exercise I did a lot. Here I had drawn a foal (from a picture by Sam Savitt, my childhood hero) then traced my drawing (in pink) and the original picture (in black) side by side. I compared them and used arrows to show where my drawing differed.

Age 15

I include this picture for several reasons. First of all, it is the first finished drawing I did of my Thoroughbred Roar Like a Lion (Reno). Secondly, I find it humorous, because I had been drawing so many Arabs that he ended up with more a dished face and smaller muzzle than he had. Thirdly, this picture helps illustrate the major transition I went through, as an example of a fully shaded drawing done just prior to my class with Charles Brindley.

Age 16

This is the first drawing I did in my class with Charles Brindley at the Hendersonville Arts Council. Charles taught me to use more than one pencil, introduced me to bristol paper, showed me more accurate and smooth shading techniques, and much, much more.

Age 17

By the end of my course with Charles I was a completely transformed artist. I received a merit award at a student art show at my college for this drawing, which I am very proud to say now lives with my outstanding equine studies professor Chris Marks.

Age 18

Age 19

Here is another drawing of Reno. By this time Reno had had the unfortunate pasture incident that lost him his life. I drew this picture thinking about him looking away from me towards something that I couldn't see and didn't know.