Art and Horses

Okay, the Christmas cards are done and mailed, and the RISD Sale is behind me. This year's RISD Alumni Holiday sale was a success as usual. It's always a fun show to do. It's a comfortable, well-lit convention center hall, and the unloading and set-up is easy. This year, I had more display panels, so my booth is looking sharper than ever. I brought a new piece with me, an oil on gallery-wrap canvas, called "Nosy". If you know horses, you know how weanlings and yearlings are curious about everything. I was visiting the University of Connecticut's horse paddocks in the spring, and this guy came right over to the fence. I was shooting away with my camera, and he came too close to the fence for me to photograph him, but he stuck his nose out at me, and I loved the way the shadow of the fence fell over his face. So I got down on my knees and took a couple of shots of him like that. The in-your-face nose. When I got the photos back, I thought it would make a neat square painting, and then I discovered the 2 inch thick square gallery-wrap canvases. I had to do this piece on one of those, and I wanted it to be very bold and graphic, with the lines of the fence on the top and bottom. The piece is all about the shadows, and the eye is in shadow, but he's obviously looking at you. This painting seemed to really reach out to people. So many asked if I had a print of it, that I think I probably will create a print. And the original has already found a new home.
I can't wait to unveil the big bold one that is still on the easel now. Ever since I did a big black horse head called "Watchful Eye", my work is definitely going in a certain direction. I want horses that confront the viewer, look the viewer in the eye, draw the viewer into the horses' world. I want a non-horse person to get a sense of what a horse owner sees every day in her horse's eye.
And speaking of horses, I wish mine would tell me whether to blanket her or not. I know in my heart that she could probably be out there without a blanket most of the time. She has a run-in shed, and she's a tough, hardy Morgan. She gets a nice thick wooly coat that snow cannot penetrate. But it's cold out there. She might get a chill. And so the blanket goes on at night. At least I can sleep knowing she has this protection.