Artist Lesley Bruce horse art greetings cards + prints, judetoo

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What I have done - or should I say - What, Have I done? ... eeek!!

THINGS, apart from being thrown out of Lowes Cassino Monti Carlo for doing Cartwheels -- in a posh dress (don't ask).
nothing is in chronological order ---- geez! that doesn't matter
the quality of the photos matter, apologies, I don't have many and some of them aren't so good

My Best Friend
Jude the Dog

Once upon a time I kept the horses Jonas and Carminway in a field on my milk round route.,br. One time needing to do some fencing unloaded a ruck of stout posts at a convenient place near the houses, but then had to carry them some way across the field.

I set to hammering them in one at a time. When I wanted another post Jude would go and get it for me, carefully rurning them lenghtwise to slot through the narrow gap. the posts where eight foot long and heavy.

There was a row of faces at the windows of the houses. They couldn't believe their eyes. Wonderful Jude.

When I started doing the drawings she just drew her self in, so Jude's there too.

Jude Too was born

MUM 1919

If you have horses you will have a sense of humour, goes with the territory.

During this time “Jude Too” was born, I started drawing the mad horsy sights and happenings...... Why JudeToo? .....because Jude my lovely dog who alas, is now passed to spirit... but she keeps in touch.

commission Emma Dutton

Bella .. commission for Lesley Hay

WELL

WELL, WELL!
Yes it is me, what do you expect after all that mucking out.... can have some R and R can't I.

Home Page

IT ALL BEGAN
in North Wales.
Came out of the womb saying

“where’s the horse ? “ No Horse.....Parents hairdressers... It was just after the war when chickens were in everyone’s backyard so I put a chicken in a pram and made do... She was a Rhode Island Red.... very hansom.... A fond friend.
There were Barbara and Shirley my elder sisters and Beryl our wonderful Mum. Father was absent. I never knew him but he left behind a book “Figure and Animal drawing” and his drawing board, pretty good substitutes.

1963
Just about passed A level art at Colwyn Bay Grammer school - got an E, the next one was F for fail.
BUT
My Art teacher Mr. Martin the best ever - he asked the class to draw a man kicking a ball. We all did
Then, with a few strokes of chalk on the blackboard he showed us how to make it look as if the man was REALLY kicking the ball, with all his might..

I was stunned and it is because of Mr. Martin I can make my pictures live.
He taught me another thing too, he said whenever you draw action make sure they look as if they are going to land without falling over.
Genius, thank you Mr. Martin.

when I left that school all the teachers wanted my rough books, and all that time they'd laid into me for doodling horses in instead of whatever rubbish they wanted .... I gave them to them.

THERE WERE 2 YEARS pre diploma course at Wrexham Art College (in those days it was a department of the Technical College next to the football ground)., ... they wanted me to do abstracts and all the stuff... UGH! On a brighter sidethere are around 109 pubs in that town.

It was the sixties, everyone mad on abstracts and there’s me drawing horses.... Never did get in tune with exploring the hidden depths of the kitchen sink. Just wasn't a --"modern" artist.

Guess what? I didn't get as place in to continue with the diploma, left to work with horses.

Own Yard for nine years, starting, schooling, and teaching horses and people.
this is when Jude Too was born in 1993 - cor doesn't time fly.

BOOKS illustrated - A Horse Training One for Elwyn Hartly Edwards - and a Mythology one "Tales from Wales" by Harrie Webb.

and for myself Mythological Drawings, paintings and screen-prints.

EXHIBITIONS
Wales. Ireland. London. (cant remember the dam dates it was ages ago)

BRONZE SCULPTURES

sold in France, Switzerland, Chili, Saudi Arabia and USA.

me in Panama

1975 Artist with Sid Wignals Panama Expedition in search for Sir Frances Drakes coffin in Porto Bella. ( do remember this date, supose it was quite major, haven't seen Sid for years, wonder if he is still around.). that's were I met Nick, he was there with his Remote Control submersable, he built it to go look see what lurked treasure wise at the bottom of the river Thames.

Trail leader for Butlins

Horse and carriage (herse) driver Llandudno Prom.

Nick and me at Marcel's 80th birthday 2008

Ellie

Finn

THINGS JUST EARNING A CRUST

Factory worker once, Llandudno Junction, machine shop making bit's for hotpoint washing machines, did twice the productivity got paid less than half the wages as the men.

ICE CREAM VAN VENDER
in Llandudno and round abouts, my van chimed "the waltz of the venietian woods" and had a column gear change that came loose in your hand, used to hold up the traffic, putting it back was a fiddle..

I didn't know it at the time but I was a bit of a dolly bird then. It was a while before I realised but two queques would form. There was the little kiddies eager for ice creams at the serving window, and bigger boys on the other side eager for a look up my mini skirt when I bent over to scoop.

MILK ROUND
early seventies
hummmm . that was an early start got some good stories for later. Never forgot how a lie down in the middle of a road could be so comfortable after a late night out.

BREAD ROUND
( before milk round.)
Van with that job had no proper brakes, came down Llanwryst road from the Welsh Mountain Zoo, a steep, very steep, road which hit the main A55 at it's MOST steepest - couldn't see a damed thing, high banks you see topped with trees. -- BRAKES FAILED. Well actually they failed half way down just by Oak Drive. Eeek!, that A55 lurked ahead.- What to do? Scrape it on the high banks of course, slow it down, as luck would have it, slotted into the traffic on the A55 a treat.
nobody noticed the scratches at the depot, i t was all part of the job.

That Ice cream vans brakes failed on me too, near Mochdre. same A55 but at least I could see what was coming that time.

WAITRESS
silver service waitress, what a hoot that was. Well, where I had to serve at the Holland Alms, Bryn y Maen. serving there was a very tight squeeze, a real stretch, and potatoes have a mind of their own you know, they must want to travel, see the world, they recklessly leap into some-ones pocket. And the Peas they are proper little devils.

The lucky recipient might have thought“Oooo! what’s this potato doing in my pocket?.. "Ooo look there a few peas too".

"Must have been a good night

various and assorted BARMAID jobs, compulsory for Artists.

Even had my own Cafe with Glunk once "SnackTari" in Conway, we had the source squirting incident there. and the council didn't like my olive green and orange paintwork theme amongst the black and white, they let me keep it though.

Niece Karen and Sister Shirley

Sister Babs when she was 60

Katie

Phoebe

.PaPatinaa

HORSES
There was Thomas’s Riding Stables
otherwise know as "HEAVEN"

Tomboy me and Sarge

with ponies Dolly, Sarge (my favorite), Squibs, Cloudy, Smoky and Spitfire, and there was Little Smokey (the very first horse I ever rode) he was sold to someone, and there was Pal, he got sick and devastatingly to all of us died. --THEN !!!!! --PAL dog food came out. -- John Read teased me and said it was him, ai believed him, I was only a child.
The Thomas's, they were great, let me camp under the apple trees in the school hols, idyllic days.They never got fed up with me and I never went home.

MUM

being left alone with three kids to bring she up had to work, so it was good that she always knew our whereabouts.....MIND !... she would come sometimes, insist, I went home, plonk me before the bathroom mirror and say kindly ..“look”... I was only a bit dirty but she thought I needed a scrub.

JONAS first show Llandudno

I was 2O before I got my very own horse, Jonas, who was with me for 29 years. He cost 29 guinnies that's £29 and 9 shillings in old money, from Wrexham Horse Sales. It was Decenber, he was only 6 months old.

(remember this is not cronological)
Wrexhm Horse Sales again to get a horse for my neglected boyfriend Glunk (who only went to the stables cos "there were lots of girls there"). It wasn't horse he wanted to ride, was a mad idea but it brought me
CARMINWAY

(sigh) I was blessed with another magic horse. Carminway Dam
of
LUTHER (Weatherbys name KLUTE)
1988 we broke the world speed record, he was timed at 45.91mph. (but actually ran 48mph.) The record is in the 1988 Guiness Book of Records. The racing world didn't like it and got it taken out, it is a long story that needs telling.

Steven Clark's BECKET(dressage),

Dr. ZIVAGO (Three day eventer)

Carminway with her foal KING IVOR (show jumper grade A)
Tucker

Jasmin

ENOUGH of THIS

hope you enjoyed having a peek at my life