"Who Brings the Sun" 30"x40" c.2007 m.easton

“Who Brings the Sun”

30”x40”

Acrylic on canvas, 1 1/2” deep stretcher

$900.00 plus shipping and handling

I live high above Estes Park, Co at an elevation of 9300'. Usually we are in the clouds and the storms up here, while down in the EP it is still a clear sunny day. One morning I woke to a sunny day, looking out the window I noticed at about 8000’ there was cloud cover. I felt like I was living amongst “islands in the clouds”! And that is what inspired this painting, “Who Brings The Sun”.

You will find horses in a lot of my paintings; I love their motion, their barely contained energy, neutral and violent at the same time.

I spent almost twenty years raising Welsh Cobs in northern Maine. There is something very defined about a Welsh Cob. If I was to “imagine” a horse into being it would probably look like a Welsh Cob, only bigger.

I wanted to convey two different things in this painting, intense motion, crashing, thundering through the painting. And the absolute calmness that came from that day in the clouds. Have you ever seen a sunset where the clouds become mountains, the colors so deep you could eat them? So deep they become the very calmness of your soul?

I also wanted that calmness portrayed in the front horse, the feeling of the sun, the universe deep within its eye.

This was an intentional painting right from the beginning. I was especially conscious of technique. I enjoy layering the canvas with gesso, giving the canvas a creamy thickness and intentional under painting of texture with the gesso. With the gesso I layered on outlines of the horses and splatters caused by their movement.

Then I did the background feeling into that day of “islands in the clouds”, purposefully creating an illusion of sun, mountains and clouds in the sunrise. Even after doing several sketches the horse changed position and color several times, with the exception of the yellow front horse. Many, many layers of paint went into the horses before I arrived at the texture and color you see here. Instead of manes I used splattered color to show the movement, the haste and energy of the blue, red and black horses.

I am drawn to many stories in this painting, the sun, the three background horses, their eyes, the front sun horse, the motion, the stillness.

If you are interested in purchasing this painting contact me.

“...the way the horses are arranged and moving is breathless.”

R.E., New Mexico

“...simple forms, there is a strength, a force that emanates from them.”

M.S., Argentina