A Critique from Jo

March 22, 2017

After January, my mom didn’t visit the club very much, but Jo was always there to pick me up and take me to the club on weekends if my mom wasn’t going to go.  We spent most of the time hanging out in the indoor pool building because it was still to cold to be naked outside most weekends.  After I took the offer to illustrate the Silver Lake 2017 Year book, I was filling sketchbooks its drawings of Native American hunters and warriors.  One Sunday afternoon, as we were laying out next to the pool, Jo looked over at my sketchbook with a quizzical glance,  “Why are you drawing camels with all your warrior dudes?”

“Those are supposed to horses!”  I protested, flattening out the sketchbook to give a more accurate read of my drawing.

“Do you even know what a horse looks like?”  Jo laughed.  “Val, you can draw people like nobody else I know, but you really need to work on your horses.”

“Well, I‘ve found plenty of photos, but I have to admit, I guess I just don’t have the feel for horses.”

“My dad has a client who as a ranch near Kenwood!”  Jo beamed with excitement.  “I can take you there.  The weather is getting warmer and we can take a couple horses out on the trial and you can get a feel for them, sketch them, take pictures, whatever.  You will be a horse expert.”

I liked the idea a lot and Jo and I watched the weather forecast for a coming weekend that would warm up.