A Mustang Artist Named ~ Cholla

Many people make money with the talent of their horses, some on the race track, others in the show arena, or the jumping fields, even the rodeo grounds, but this horse is different.

This horse is an artist.

Cholla, is a gorgeous copper colored Buckskin, Mustang/Quarter Horse with black mane and tail, standing 15.2 hands and weighing in at 1300 lbs. He has a dorsal stripe down his back complete with zebra like markings on his legs.

Named after the infamous cactus, Cholla, he was born in Nevada in 1985 from a Mustang Stallion and a Quarter Horse Mare. His owner, Renee, got him just before his fifth birthday, the first and only horse she had ever owned.

The early years of Cholla’s life were rough.  He was broke the old fashioned way, with ropes and force.  It didn’t work for Cholla. It taught him not to trust man. It has taken years for Renee to fully gain his trust, and he is still quite the wild thing with a mind of his own.

It was certain that with Cholla’s intelligence, no one was going to manipulate his mind. He had a bigger future than rope training ahead of him. He was an artist in waiting.

It all began when Renee was painting the fences. She had a very observant horse looking over her shoulder. Knowing that Cholla loved to hold things in his mouth, Renee tacked a piece of water color paper to the fence and showed him one uneducated stroke.

Cholla took the brush in his teeth, stroked the paper. He got both the concept and a carrot right away.

With a big sturdy easel and non toxic water colors, Cholla’s artistic career was off to a galloping start.

Cholla applies the paints to his art and no one moves the easel, or rotates the paper.  He does get help with dipping the brush into the watercolors as he tends to knock things over, but he is the creator of his own masterpieces.

Cholla creates his art standing at his easel while holding a true artist’ brush with his teeth.   He mindfully directs his brush with fine and deliberate strokes creating the artistic essence that only a horse named Cholla can reveal.

Cholla’s art speaks for itself and his style is present in each piece that he brings into existence. His natural expression and intelligence come through in his creations and his Mustang wildness can be seen emerging from each canvas.

Cholla’s art has been exhibited in galleries around the country, including Art At Large in New York City.

Even with all this fame, Cholla is still a horse that hangs out in the deep grass of the pasture content to munch the day away.

But the minute Cholla sees the easel he comes trotting and Cholla is again a happy and dedicated … artist.

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Link:  Cholla’s Website

Link:   Video of Cholla at work

Thanks to the artist, Cholla, and his owner, Renee,  for permission to post these works of art.

All artwork holds a copyright.

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March Update
Cholla will have 5 framed originals showing at
The Grand National Art Show & Sale in
San Francisco at the Cow Palace.
This is an invitational show only in April 2008.

Power Of Draft Horses Captured By Artist, Adeline Halvorson

 Adeline Halvorson knew at an early age that she wanted to be an artist. In her rural upbringing, animals, especially horses, played a very important role. Her entire working life has been dedicated to her career through experimentation, endless reading and hours of practice. She has developed techniques entirely her own, first in pastel, then in acrylic.

She spends most of her time researching and creating the paintings she markets to a growing group of collectors. She enjoys the variety of diverse subjects – floral, still life, dogs, or a childhood scene, and most often, her favorite equine subject matter.

Years of riding and grooming horses has given Halvorson a knowledge of anatomy and muscle movement that her painting skills bring to life on the canvas. The shapes and movement of muscle, variety and texture of harness and trappings, as well as the horse and its interaction with its human counterparts provide endless artistic inspiration for one who grew up with a love for one of the world’s most beautiful animals.

“My growth as an artist is of prime importance to me. I am continually researching new and better ways to approach my painting, all the while keeping in mind that “brush mileage” is my greatest teacher. I paint the subjects that are true to my heart, and definitely believe the words of Sir Winston Churchill:  “There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man”.

Among Halvorson’s many Showings, Publications and Awards was her selection to design and paint the Official Canadian Olympic Equestrian Poster for Los Angeles ’84. She also designed the 1998 Silver Dollar for the Royal Canadian Mint, commemorating the 125th anniversary of the founding of the North West Mounted Police.

View the Adeline Halvorson website to see additional stunning works by this artist and to read about her current showings and achievements.

Link:   Adeline Halvorson Website

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All Halvorson artwork is displayed with the permission of the artist and each holds a copywrite.

Barbaro, Secretariat Art to Support Laminitis Research

A new set of prints and a poster featuring Triple Crown winner Secretariat and 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro will benefit the fight against laminitis, the painful hoof disease that ended both their lives.

The works, entitled “Memories of Greatness, were created by equine artist Jaime Corum. They were unveiled the weekend of Aug. 4 and 5 at Saratoga Race Course.

Proceeds will benefit the Laminitis Fund at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine’s NewBoltonCenter.

The poster shows Secretariat and Barbaro together in one 16- by-20-inch piece, with their names and stables noted.

The print set features the horses separately, along with the artistic marks representing the colors of the silks they carried.

Both the poster and the print sets are available through Secretariat.com.

 

Butterfield Horse Sculptures On Display

The Nevada Museum of Art will be presenting Deborah Butterfield’s “Horses”, on view through September 23, 2007.

“Horses” offers a rare opportunity to view 14 of this internationally acclaimed artist’s graceful works in a single exhibition.  

 

Butterfield’s sculpture epitomizes her enduring commitment to exploring the poetic relationship between humans and the natural world.

Horses have been a life-long fascination for artist Deborah Butterfield. Born in 1949 in San Diego, California, and educated at the University of California at Davis, Butterfield has pursued the equine form as the subject of her art since the early 1970s.

Her large-scale sculptures of standing and reclining horses embody the affection, respect and instinctive appreciation for an animal she feels represents strength, beauty and spirituality.

 

For over 20 years, Montana sculptor Deborah Butterfield has transformed scrap metal, discarded wood, and bronze into larger-than-life sculptures of the horse that are breathtakingly beautiful and captivating to encounter.

Her works of equine art are found in galleries around the world.

Her remarkably prolonged and disciplined focus on the horse—a significant motif in Western art and culture—has sustained her throughout her artistic career.

 

Since 1979 she has taught sculpture at MontanaStateUniversity, Bozeman, where she also raises and trains horses. She is actively involved in dressage. 

Deborah Butterfield

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Story re-written from news sources

About Deborah Butterfield

 Update:
Butterfield horse sculpture donated to Figge Art Museum

A Different Trail For Painted Colts

It may be an unusual sight for Terre Haute, Indiana … people walking around downtown wearing summer clothes, snapping pictures and leading young children by the hands, looking — in short — like tourists.

But that’s what has been going on since the SheldonSwopeArt Museum’s “Horsing Around in Terre Haute” fund-raiser hit the sidewalks of the city and other parts of town. 

Several local businesses and organizations have sponsored fiberglass colts that have been decorated by WabashValley artists.

The 4 1/2-foot-tall colts are visible all around town and attracting admiring attention. “I don’t think I’ve seen so much activity downtown,” said Mary Ann Michna, curator of the SwopeArt Museum. “It’s bringing people to the city,” she said.

There are 30 fiberglass colts in total. The bulk of them are downtown, but many are outside the city.

“It’s fun. It’s different,” said Steve Hardin, a reference/instruction librarian for IndianaStateUniversity. Hardin was out taking photos of downtown colts during his lunch hour Friday afternoon and had seen about 12 so far, he said.

The fiberglass colts are the centerpiece of a fund-raiser for the SwopeArt Museum.

The image of a colt was selected because Terre Haute is home to the Indianapolis Colts training camp, Swope officials have said.

“It’s a natural attraction” to the colts, Michna said. People are making time to come to Terre Haute to see the different colts — in many cases seeing as many as they can in a single day.

“It’s getting people out and around the city,” Michna said. “It’s almost like an Easter egg hunt.”

Story Link:

 

Pigasso: Little Oinks Make Big Splash In Art World

Piggy Painters: Van Snout and his pal Bottabelli

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With modern art fetching such astronomical prices these days, you can’t blame a guy for trying to cash in.Staff at Pennywell Farm in Buckfastleigh, Devon, England have taken a novel approach to fundraising as they turn their pigs into painters.

Their miniature pigs have been creating works of modern art which sell for up to £16 each and have so far raised more than £150 for the Farm Crisis Network charity.  

Farm owner Chris Murray feels the work of their enthusiastic piglets’ snouts and trotters could stand alongside notable works of “messy” art such as that by world-renowned Jackson Pollock.

He said: “The pigs tended to go more for pointilism – they weren’t too keen on cubism. We think of them as our little Pigassos.” 

Trotters Independent Painters began their career by accident when the piglets broke loose at a craft fair at their home, and began investigating tins of non-toxic paint with their snouts and trotters.

 

Earlier Post ~ Other Artists: The Artistic Clydesdale:

World’s Largest Equestrian Bronze Statue Installed

 It’s big, it’s bronze, and it’s beautiful.

The Texas town of El Paso, a bustling city with a colorful history, is now home to the world’s largest equestrian  bronze figure.

  The massive statue, which stands nearly 12m tall, is made up of 400 pieces. It consumed nearly 10 tons of bronze and requires more than 4.5 tons of supporting steel.

The art work, called The Equestrian, portrays Mexican conquistador Don Juan de Onate riding a rearing Andalusian stallion.

It has been installed at El Paso‘s international airport.The sculpture is the work of artist John Houser.  Houser has been working on the project for nearly 10 years.

Houser traveled to Spain as part of the commission, to gather historical information that would help in creation of this magnificent work.

Straight From The Horse’s Mouth

 Wendy brushes up on her artwork.

Wendy is as promising a pupil as the students studying their Advanced Diploma of Horse Management at Glenormiston Agricultural College in Australia.

In a surprise classroom role reversal, horses have to demonstrate what they have learned.

They need to perform well if the students teaching them are to pass the horse behaviour component of their course.

Using food and praise as rewards, the equine management students are turning out horses with talents never before thought possible.

Wily Wendy, the Clydesdale,  knows color on canvas means a canister of oats. The nine-year-old sometimes even resorts to two brushes between the bit for her unique, two-stroke horsepower effect.

Student Emma Tyrie said horse painting hadn’t been tried before.

“In previous years, students have taught her to bow to an audience and pick up a purple hat and hand it to the owner,” Ms Tyrie said. “I thought painting might amuse both of us and certainly, she seems taken by brighter, bolder coloured paints.”

Glenormiston, a picturesque working property north of Terang, is Victoria’s South West TAFE.

About 60 horses — and other animals — help train students in various agricultural and farming fields.

Story Link:

Photo: David Caird

The Art of Designing Horses

Terri Garofalo  created “Snapshot” for this year’s “Horses, Saratoga Style” event in Saratoga Springs.

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 The Art of Designing Horses ~ Equine-Inspired Creations Line Streets of Saratoga Springs, New York

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Taking care of a horse requires money and time. Terri Garofalo of Poughquag knows a horse that doesn’t require feeding or grooming, yet maintains a beautiful coat and never complains. She created it.

“From the time I was a little kid, I gravitated towards horses,” said Garofalo, two-time artist for “Horses, Saratoga Style” in Saratoga Springs. “I have a natural communication with them.”

“Horses, Saratoga Style” began in 2002 with 24 fiberglass horses designed by local artists. The works were displayed along the streets of the resort city north of Albany.

Joel Reed, executive director of the Saratoga County Arts Council, said a project that created fiberglass horses was an “obvious choice” for Saratoga.

For one thing, the city boasts historic Saratoga Race Course, the oldest horse racing facility in the country. 

“Horse breeding and horse racing are a big part of the Hudson Valley,” Reed said. “We’ve been working on the horse display since August. We have 34 horses and 37 artists this year … each horse has a sponsor.

Garofalo was inspired by horses as far back as she can remember.

“It’s hard to say how I began to follow art,” she said. “I was able to draw well because I wanted to draw a horse picture well, which is ironic.

“She worked through the most challenging elements of the project to get a final product, aptly titled “Snapshot.”

Garofalo said her childhood contributed to her love for art and horses.

“I grew up on a farm until I was 7,” Garofalo said. “I understood cows and cats, but then I had to go to kindergarten and understand humans.

I’ve always been creative and made my own toys because if I wanted something different, I’d have to make it myself. Creativity for me extends into everything I do.”

Original Story: Poughkeepsie Journal.com

Photo: Robert W. Garofalo