Everything that exists is made of the same stuff as everything else that exists. Though there can be nothing truly new under the sun, Relationship continually creates the world anew, no two moments ever the same. Angels watch and wonder.
I could never say enough about the beauty of rural Ireland and the way animals inhabit and own the landscape. This painting was inspired by a pair of what looked like father and son Connemaras in a stone paddock beside a busy road overlooking the sea. Enrique’s noble mug seems to have influenced the face of the older horse.
Many of my paintings are inspired by my sweet and gorgeous Lusitano stallion “Enrique, “ emigrated from Portugal the US in August 2018. When he first arrived, he had so much to learn about his new home, including how to crop grass. He was so pleased with himself when he finally mastered the art of grazing, and his turnout became his personal garden.
The four horses that appeared in this painting are the members in our little barn family: two stallions ( one laid back, one bossy), my stolid gelding Fynn and the elegant Osamba. Can you guess which is which?
The beauty of the Irish countryside is as much felt in the soul as seen with the eyes. I reveled in the exquisite ordinariness of the animals inhabiting this ancient landscape, claiming it as home, not knowing or caring what came before or what will come next, simply being as they are under the ever-changing skies by the ever-changing sea.
As you can tell from this painting of a Bonairean mother and son, I love donkeys.
Donkeys are being slaughtered worldwide to satisfy the perverse Chinese appetite for ejao, a gelatinous substance rendered from donkey hides and used in traditional Chinese medicine. 100% of the sale price of this painting will go to support The Brooke, an organization committed to stopping the global slaughter and theft of donkeys, as well as the welfare of other working equines and the 600,000.000 people whose lives depend on them.
Chinese medicine practitioners, stop deluding yourselves that there is any justification whatsoever for this product, and admit that no healing comes from depraved indifference to suffering. Americans TCMP’s, you too! This abomination is for sale on Amazon.
Acrylic and Gouache
24” x 18”
$435
I do not plan my paintings in advance. I stand in front of the canvas, brush in hand with whatever color demands to come out of the tube and just put brush to canvas. When these six lovelies appeared, I asked my shaman artist friend Eva Goetz who they might be. She suggested angels.
If angels are embodiments of the great Love that we come from and to which we return, then our beloved animals just might be angels. Perhaps these are equine angels waiting for an assignment.
This canvas expresses my sense of the vulnerability of large equines. Though we experience them as strong and powerful, they loom over us more fragile in their way than we are. Maybe that’s why my muse decided that “Eighteen Hands” (my name for this horse) should have a Siamese cat for a guardian angel.
Little Miss Fancy is a very girly mini mare at our farm. This is my interpretation of how she imagines herself, complete with gold hooves and gold unicorn horn. Love that Fancy pony.
I love it when domestic horses exhibit the occasional OMG moment. It is a wild horse’s heritage to run away from danger, but for our pampered equines there is little opportunity to express that behavior. So, normally-docile horses “decide” to run sometimes, just because they can. Yeehah!
This image shows beautiful Osamba, my friend’s spirited Dutch Warmblood mare, in that moment when she has noticed something provocative but has not yet made up her mind to ignore it, investigate further or bolt just for the heck of it.
We are all features of Reality like waves are features of the sea. Unique and yet embedded. This painting explores the dissonance of our separateness and our oneness with the All
Acrylic and Gouache
24” x 18”
$400
When my Lusitano Enrique came to the United States, the halter on his head was the only thing that came with him from his home where he had lived his entire life. We weren’t allowed to bring even a handful of grain from Portugal. Nothing was familiar, not the air, not the language, not the bedding under his feet, not the water in his bucket, not the hay he was fed. Disoriented and bewildered, he was alone even surrounded by other horses. This painting shows the vividness of the life force that powered through confusion and fear until he was magnificent once again.
I started this painting during a dark time when I was living near Montpelier, Vermont. The serenity of the equine dreamer drifting over the landscape symbolized escape from my unhappy circumstances. Even though my surroundings were very beautiful, I did not belong there. The painting reassured me that all would come clear in due time.
My horse Fynn was born to a hormone production mare the year Premarin was publicly revealed to be harming the menopausal women it was supposed to benefit. Fynn’s survival is a statistical miracle; his dam and all his relatives went to slaughter. All I know about her is that she was a chestnut quarter horse, number 243. My only photo of her baby Fynn Includes a sliver of her shoulder and her muzzle, identical to his.
This painting is my tribute to Fynn’s mother., I hope that somehow she knows her son is safe with me.
According to Kabbalistic teachings, the Spherot which comprise the Tree of Life are the ten qualities of which manifest reality is made. Ths paintiing uses the colors assigned by the ancients to each Sphera, starting with the nearly translucent, dividing eft and right into black and white, then primary then secondary colors. Very different than my other work, but deeply satisfying.
Losing myself on the coral reefs surrounding the island of Bonaire is one of my greatest pleasures. Though I have a lot of knowledge about reef ecology, fish identification, behaviors etc, in this painting I abandoned accuracy, opting instead to express childish delight in the magic of the undersea world. I pray there is some of it left when my grandchildren are old enough to dive.
Acrylic
20” x 16”
$325
I am very lucky to train with dressage Olympic medallist Ali Brock. Plain-spoken, she has the heart of a poet and an unerring sense of how a dressage horse should carry itself in motion in order to become the most beautiful version of itself. This painting is a visual meditation on what Ali is trying to teach me.
Acrylic and Gouache
18” x 14”
$325
Perhaps a misnomer, as I don’t study Enrique’s beauty as much as I just drink it in. This painting captures his majesty, gentleness and humor. It’s a portrait of his heart more than his head.
Acrylic
18” x 14”
$325
Enrique again! The day I painted this Ricki began to understand he had a choice: become just another well-trained horse dutifully if begrudgingly doing his rider’s bidding or a beloved partner who enjoys delighting his rider with his power, talent and intelligence. If you think that’s baloney, come meet Rick.
I love to work with the relationship of movement and stillness. In this little painting the beautiful cremello Lusitano stallion is both dynamic and motionless.
I hate throwing away interesting objets. So I save them to make into something beautiful. Isn’t that what we all want to do with the flotsam and jetsam of our lives?
When I was forced to move injured Fynn prematurely, we found a safe haven at “Melvin’s Place” at the edge of the Everglades. Friend, guru, guardian angel and horseman extraordinaire, Melvin healed the wounded places in all three of us. Here Barroco shows his joy and enthusiasm while Fynn watches enviously from his stall. As for me, I just kept hearing “Here Comes the Sun!"
All my paintings are about relationship in some sense but in this painting relationship is front and center. This is a painting of a mare and a stallion, but which one is the protector and which is protected? Both are both, and the (human) couple that inspired and now own this painting exemplify being paired in this exquisite and magnificent way. Love you guys! (You know who you are).
