Odalisque in Hay Twine Culottes

14" x 17", soft pastel, February 2016
From a Matisse work (details below; photo thanks to Henri Matisse: A Retrospective , John Elderfield, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1992) & a photo by James Woodcock in Jennifer Groneberg's article "Modern Day Tales From a Big Sky Ranch Wife" in the May/June/July 2015 issue of "Magic City Magazine".  Thanks to the Groneberg family for inspiration + horse image :)

Some folks (who've seen my work from years ago) wonder why I'm not posting artwork on here.  Keep yer chaps on & hold yer horses, cowpokes!  I might post those at some point.  But now is now (can't argue with that).

This piece will be shown at the Montana Agri-Trade Exposition at Metrapark this weekend, in Audubon's Baling Twine booth.  Since ranchers are already a resourceful bunch, this piece is to 1) educate the non-ranching public about uses for repurposed hay twine, 2) give ranchers a laugh, & 3) raise money for our local Audubon.  They're seeking a barn to store up to 40,000 lbs of used hay twine so it can be collected for recycling.  Anybody know anybody with an empty barn?

The title, "Odalisque With Hay Twine Culottes", is an obvious parody of Henri Matisse's "Odalisque With Red Culottes".  My challenges were showing a "credible" horse-woman physique and making fringe (on the browband & noseband, to keep out flies) out of actual, used hay twine, each fiber of which wants to twist & to stick to other fibers.  The wallpaper design is both a nod to Matisse's painting & a combo of common ranch brand symbols.  This gal's beauty tools (hoof pick & sweat scraper) are hanging on the wall with actual hay twine.  There's no curry comb b/c it would've made the background too busy.