I have enjoyed painting horses this summer at the neighboring ranch.
This is a 9” x 12” oil painting on panel of a beautiful mare named Dawn. Dawn was rescued from a kill pen and lives at Jackson Hole Horse Rescue, which is next door to us, until she is adopted. It’s painted from a combination of sketches and photos.
I love being out among the horses to sketch them. The horses are in a large pasture with the Tetons as the backdrop. Coyotes, foxes, hawks and owls also inhabit the pasture and during the summer 200 cattle graze here.
Fall is here, the aspens and cottonwoods are starting to turn golden yellow and there are snowcaps on the mountains now. The cattle went to their winter pasture three weeks ago. There is nothing like watching a cattle drive to remind myself I’m in Wyoming. And the beautiful horses will go to their winter pasture in a few weeks. They go to a lower elevation where they don’t have to endure three feet of snow on the ground, sub zero temperatures and howling winds.
Come May the snow will melt, the pasture will turn green again, and the horses and cattle will return. Until then I’ll have to paint these beautiful horses from my sketches and photos and fondly remember my afternoons painting horses out in the sun.
“Dawn” is available. Contact me.