Watercolor Painting
I fell into doing watercolor painting in college. I had a special affinity with my watercolor professor who allowed me to explore my love of horses and representational art. I learned to work quickly, concentrating on value changes and the transparency of the paint. I had become interested in equine art and Western art because my brother-in- law was a successful cowboy artist. While living in Florida, I enjoyed painting the local scenes of show horses, polo, and horse racing. I began to gravitate toward painting horses that were free and wild, with a Southwestern or Western art flair to my work. These watercolors seemed to have a more universal appeal to them. Since watercolor painting lends itself to high contrast and is often about “saving the whites,” white horses became a favorite subject of mine. White reflects light and color, and so the horses’ coats could reflect the color of their surroundings or have lovely deep, transparent color in the dark values and shadows. White horses also represent virtue, spiritual truth and courage to me so it seemed fitting that I would call my studio “White Horse Arts”. Since moving to the Midwest, I continue to gravitate toward the Western art and Southwestern art themes I so romanticized in my youth.