In the begining

You will have seen that the bulk of my pictures are comical,
I didn’t start with a burning urge to make funny pictures
life just said laugh or else …

Eeek! … What else ? … best laugh methinks.

Being born horse mad the first imperative
was mastery to perfection the drawing of horses,
so then, why at the
age of 8 was I surrounded by hundreds
nay thousands of artistic attempts at Budgerigars.

It’s obvious,

I couldn’t have a horse but could have

Bimbo

my delightful feathered friend was a perfect model
he was always in front of my eyes,
attacking my scribbling pencil.

Not one of those Bimbo pictures exist
now, killed by the perfection gene
which afflicts all artists, it drove
me to destroy them all

..... this is crap .....
and this is crap .…
and this is crap .... such waste,

for goodness sakes Lesley don’t just destroy
them put them to some good use
.... Ooooooo ....... there’s a fire … it’s a bit chilly
that’ll do …
not a one escaped.

The cartoon thing had lurked forever

Here’s one dug up from the long distant past,
crikey can’t date this one …
is it one of mine? .. well yes ..
done some weird stuff …
hall I publish it ? what do you think?

And here’s another oldie …

my friend Siobaughn Davenport
said the funniest things,
she, returning from a dressage lesson,
had us in stitches after

“ I said use your Back not Your Rack ” …
was her musing on miss heard words.

No, it’s not in the range
always felt a tad uncomfortable that
it might give some deluded nitwit the idea …
racks a bit hard to come by nowadays so
I suppose it’s pretty safe.
you can have a look at it here for now.
Shall we have a competition on
Guess who the trainer is ?. he! he!.

The Mystic part of me

is always yearning to surface, smothered
at art school in the sixties, a horrible era
for one such as me … all that

“ Modern Art “ stuff … Bah !

The Seventies discovered Celtic Mythology
had a good old enjoy.
The Spiritua l thing is special, always
had a connection there ..

watch this space ....
there is lots about to come out.

smell that turpentine … loveeely ...

And here’s another oldie …

BACK to TOP

WE MOVED TO FRANCE
with 4 horses a dog and a cat.

In the UK, home for us humans, dog and cat
was an unsatisfactory caravan in an unusual place.
Home for the Horses was a very nice adjacent
barn with their own rooms but miserly turnout.

There was me, Nick my man, horses
Luther, Patina, Finn and Tucker,
dog Katie and Jasmin the cat,
it was actually Jasmin's home
she, part of the landlords household,
however her cat logic impelled her to move in with us.

We had moved 4 times in 4 years and needed to find
a home of our own, we looked to Brittany France.
I'll tell you about how we found our place there later.

After waiting months for Parkers
the horse transporters to give a date of travel
we had expected ample notice,
however it came sudden,
they would arrive for departure in 2days
......... “PANICED”, .......“COPED” …
the day flashed upon us, we were ready to go,
horses ready to load.

Maggi, a gorgeous raven haired beauty who painted
Romany Bow toppedWagons with mystical scrolls
and alluring animals
sat whimsical by the door of her Gypsy wagon
watching.

"That's one on." she said.

"That's two on." she smiled.

"That's three on." she grinned.

"That's four on." she smirked.

Her Gypsy Man, had been cheerfully anticipating

"a bit of fun"

expecting merry entertained by enjoying the
ineptitude of a gorger
(gorger = me and any other non Roma )
he was sure my horses would refuse to load.

As always they were perfect............I felt smug......

Then anxiously watched my precious horses leave
on their 2 day journey via Calais, the short sea crossing.

It was all systems go for Katie, Jasmin and me to catch
the overnight ferry via Portsmouth St.Malo , we must
arrive first..

Nick who was still loading the little old lorry with all our
worldly goods would follow next day. - Phew!!!

Arrived France and frantic all would not be ready
for my darling beasts, raced madly putting beds down,
finding water, mains electricity and phone
- all done -

Phew! now they can come -

...........they didn’t.............

seconds agonized by,

waiting, solitary, in the little 12' caravan I realized
every useful item was in the lorry.

What had I put in the car?

HORSE FOOD OF COURSE.

Had scrap of English change no phone numbers
no bank details - in a foreign land.-
neither Nick or I had a working mobile

.....OOOOO .. err!!! .......

the day wore long ...... night loomed ......

no horses. ..... Oooooo Dear !!!

The dark, dead black of night found me in somber
thought .........

Then Parkers rang.

A “French fishermen blockade! “
had delayed the ferry,
they had not crossed till evening,
had stabled the horses, would come next day.

I found out later to keep prices down they
never book their crossings just wait in line for a place,
why didn’t they tell me??????

Phew! .. Horses were safe across the water

- sigh! --

But was Nick ok ??
the lorry was old had been standing for a very long
time - mind, it had just been plated and the
"experts" said the tyres were fine. - .

Didn’t sleep much that night.

more to come.

It was in a little cottage just like the ones
kiddies draw, but without the roses
or the imagined comfort inside
that Judetoo pictures were born.

Never did do any repairs to the cottage,
having our priorities right and
building stables and an "Arena”.
like proper horse folk.

Bah! who needs people comforts.

Here, in my mid life worked bloody hard
looking back can’t believe just how much I did

Was knackered, but people and horses are

so .. funny,

sometimes I would hide in a stable gigling,
it was inevitable, now here’s a good idea ....

Let’s start publishing greetings cards,
that would be good,

I’ve plenty of spare time haven’t I. ....
And so it was in 1993 we published
the first 8 judetoo pictures LB01 to LB08

Thought you might like to see some of
the early stuff

This is the very first LB01cica 1977

this is my friend Siobaughn again

And another

AVery Early One

www.judetoo.com

(lesley bruce) la Clairaie, 22600,
La Motte, France, Europe ....

00 33 (0296 25 42 82

copyright Lesley bruce -
all rights reserved