Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Artists Paid To Paint Pet Horses

By Sophia Thompson


Doting owners always consider their horses first place, according to a lady artist from Walla Walla. The championship does not determine the value of their horses. One artist, from a ranch on Springdale Road, has developed a successful business model based on the rider steed relationship. Her experience includes painting horses on commission and serving as photographer for horse shows. Setting aside a famous actor's championship endurance mount, Shur Raff Zi, her primary clients are the common horse enthusiast.

This artist considers her work a blessing and a way to have fun. Even as a teen, her interest in horses was sparked. From age 11 on, she worked on sketching horses. Her shading abilities, honed from the start, give her pictures a certain depth. The canvas gives her a place to record the uniqueness of each horse.

The first step in painting a horse is photographing the subject. If she does sketch on site, its usually just to add marks or note colors. According to her, some horse owners can be very picky about the portrayal of their horses. These may be a particular angle or even a special mark or characteristic.

To some owners, each characteristic is to be cherished, from facial expressions and wrinkles to cowlicks. The more the canvas looks like the horse, the better. Her subjects have included all kinds of breeds in all kinds of events, including barrel racing and cutting.

Action shots can be even more tricky. There are certain angles of a cantering horse that make them look plain awkward. A horse on the move looks best under a telephoto lens. When she was active in the horse show field, she traveled to as many as 15 18 shows a year.

At the time, she did both photos and paintings of winning horses. The competitive advantage of serious horse show photographers is having dark rooms in their vans so they can offer instant picture development. She said she differs from them, because she likes to take her work to her dark room at home.

She does not stick to just horses and also does other family pets. To paint a good portrait, she needs to see the dog or cat or at least see a good picture.

The details of her mental images are sparse and inadequate for a painting.




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