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Biography of
a Horse Artist
How One
Artist Learned and What Influenced Her
Art
Karen Baker
Thumm's journey from horse crazy little girl to professional
equine artist.
I grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan right after World War II. It was a peaceful, prosperous time, and TV was the new entertainment medium. Neighborhoods were filled with children and many of them were horse-crazy little girls just like me. Never mind dolls; I played with my toy horses and ran around like a horse everywhere, much to my parents' embarrassment. Drawing horses was another way that I expressed that love.
At some point in my young life I began to save the best of my drawings and paintings from the thousands created over the years. Whatever the reason, those early drawings and the ones to follow, have served to chronicle my progress as an artist through the years.
My earliest preserved horse drawing was lovingly saved by my mother, who at the time, had no idea what it would portend. The red construction paper and the presence of the hearts would suggest that it was drawn around Valentine's Day of my fourth or fifth year. On the other hand, it could also indicate that I had already fallen in love with horses.
I was prolific in those early years, drawing on office scrap paper and all over my school papers. Most of my artwork was done freehand in pencil or pen, but colored pencils, Nupastels, colored ink and eventually my sister's handed-down oil paints were also tried. My very first oils, which I still have, were done on scrap paper, but I quickly switched to painting on discarded window shades, which back then were a canvas-like material.
SILVER COMICS
AND TV
My art education probably began with television. When we acquired a TV in 1952, I spent a lot of time watching westerns, studying the horses and drawing while I watched. Roy Rogers and The Lone Ranger were my favorites. Comic books were big back then, too, and cowboy horse stars Silver, Trigger, and Champion had their own, all of which I squandered my allowance to buy as often as possible.
Books also played an important part in my early artistic education, and Walter Foster's "How To Draw Horses" was my first in art instruction. Marguerite Henry's "Album of Horses", with wonderful paintings and drawings by Wesley Dennis, was another treasured possession. Probably through the Billy and Blaze books, I discovered C.W. Anderson and strived mightily to emulate his smooth "pencil" style.
C.W. Anderson, Wesley Dennis and Paul Brown became my idols. In junior high I discovered Will James whose action packed drawings filled his books. I copied and emulated these artists' works and planned to some day write and illustrate my own stories. In fact, I did write and illustrate several "books" in those preteen years.
HORSE
BONES
As I said, mostly I drew freehand. I drew horses from every angle and in countless poses and activities, honing my skills of observation and rendering. I practiced drawing various parts of the body from different angles and in different gaits. I studied the horse skeleton and would often draw the skeleton lightly first before drawing over it the horse "in the flesh".
Knowledge came from other sources, too. At some point I must have encountered Eadweard Muybridge's Animals in Motion book and copied the photos of the various stages of the gaits. These drawings are also in my collection, and I have since added this book to my library as a valuable reference. When I began riding lessons as a ten year old, which led to membership in a 4H riding group, I added to my knowledge of horses and tack and, of course, had the opportunity to observe horses first hand and up close.
This, then, was the foundation of my training as an equine artist. Sadly, after a bad riding accident at thirteen, the shattering of my self-esteem, and the sale of my first horse, artistic ambitions began to fade as junior high and then high school activities and interests took over. The record for this period shows that my subject matter branched out into other animals, drawings of family members and - Boys and Cars!!
It was the late 50's-early 60's, after all; the era of bobby socks, hot rods, 45 records and Rock and Roll. Cruising the drive-ins on Stadium Blvd. was our main preoccupation on a Saturday night; from the newly opened MacDonalds ("Over 1 Million Sold"!) to Everett's Drive-In to the A & W and back to MacDonalds. We lived "American Graffiti".
LACKING IN
TALENT?
Circumstances and what was going on in the Art World were strong influences on my artistic ambitions at this point. My school, University High, was attended by children of professors, auto executives and research scientists; a highly intelligent and creative bunch of kids, by and large. The son of the president of the university was in my class, as was a girl whose father soon became JFK's Secretary of Defense.
Although I could draw horses well at this stage, my talent at rendering other subjects wasn't at the same level. Our art teacher was an imposing, somewhat stern woman from whom I received little encouragement. Surrounded by so many "talented" students, I felt inadequate and didn't take but the required art classes.
Our school happened to be located next to the university's Architecture and Design Building, where my mother briefly worked. Periodically I strolled its halls, gazing at the student work displayed on the walls. Gazing back at me were unrecognizable, sometimes disturbing, figures and shapes. Their titles were puzzling and sometimes downright weird. This was the age of Abstract Expressionism, after all, where Form was irrelevant to the Expression of one's Feelings or Ideas. Realism was looked down upon as a lesser art form. To a young girl who just wanted to paint horses well, it was all Incomprehensible.
There was another factor which influenced me at this point. Somewhere along the way I had gotten the notion that you either had talent or you didn't and that was that. In the face of my peers and the contemporary art world, I felt I had very little talent, and so there was no point in pursuing art as a career. Consequently, for my college major, I turned to my third love; literature and writing. During four years at the University of Michigan, I did not take a single art course. I did, however, take a few creative writing classes, often managing to fit horses into my subject matter and sometimes illustrating pieces.
DR.
ZHIVAGO
The second biggest regret of my life is that, after horses, I abandoned my artistic ambitions during this time and didn't rekindle them until many years later. This came about gradually through a series of enlightenments. The first of these occurred shortly after college graduation while watching the movie, Dr. Zhivago. In one scene a refined woman is giving a piano lesson to a young girl. What prompted the lines I don't recall, but the woman tells the young girl, "It doesn't matter how much talent you have; what matters is how badly you want to succeed!" This statement hit like a bolt of lightning. Talent doesn't matter? I pondered its significance for years.
Shortly afterward, my husband died suddenly, and Life took a detour. Not until many years later, now remarried and living in northern Michigan, did a second significant event occur that changed my path again; I signed up for a summer drawing class at the local community college. We drew actual objects; even went on field trips to sketch barns and landscapes. I was hooked again and enrolled in Fall classes. There followed a series of discoveries, both inside and outside of class. I learned that the Great Masters themselves had used drawing aids such as the camera obscura and grid devices. I learned that using references: photos, props and the like; was absolutely essential for illustrators to get their images correct as was required by clients. It's okay to copy? Gone was another misconception.
THE BLACK
STALLION
Momentous Event Number Three was my discovery of a new magazine called Equine Images. Wow! A whole magazine devoted to horse art!! One of the early articles by Dr. Marilyn Todd-Daniels (Winter 1988) talked about The Black Stallion books and what they had meant to her and others of her generation. The article spoke to my heart, as I was part of that generation. As I read it, tears welled up from deep within. She spoke of long-buried, hidden desires and how they have a way of bursting to the surface of consciousness years later. Even as I reread this article today it touches the same chord, and I cry again.
More than anything else, this article triggered my desire to pursue the long-buried dream of becoming an equine artist. It wasn't long, either, before I pursued my other unfulfilled dream and started riding lessons. Six weeks later, I bought my second horse, Scotty and reentered the world of horses. Once again, horses and art became linked as essential elements of my life.
TALENT AND
DESIRE
PLEASE
RESPECT COPYRIGHTS
These
horse paintings have been registered with the
Copyright Office and may not be reproduced, copied,
displayed or otherwise appropriated without the
consent of the artist.