Wild Mane

When we moved into a new house, my son asked if I would paint something for his room. He was in the third grade then, and what he wanted was a horse. He is in high school now and has commissioned me again, this time for the New York City skyline. That one is still waiting its turn.

I loved making this one, because it took me back. In graduate school I lived near a riding club and a stable of racehorses, close enough that their snorting carried to me all day long, and I never tired of the sound. They were enormous and calm at once, all that power standing perfectly still. That stillness is what I was reaching for in the mane and the turn of the head.