Annmarie Throckmorton, M.A.
- Sep 16, 2017

Painted horse jumps...

I especially like this image of a painted horse because of the memory of how I took its photograph. I was watching it move about a paddock at a stable near Grandview, Missouri. This horse was pretty calm, such a sweetheart, that I got into the paddock with it to take a better picture. But I got more than I bargained for because when I pressed the shutter button, the flash went off, and this horse wheeled around and up into the air faster than I could blink. I did not even see it go until it was airborne and the dust was swirling over me. I did not get hurt, but I did get out of the paddock right away! This was a very healthy, vigorous painted horse.

Below is my portrait of this painted horse. I created it with a combination of low and high technology: techniques ranging from moving my hand around the camera lens to shield or reflect light onto it, to painting pixel by pixel on the image in the computer. This painted horse art is as you would see it in life. The background is a clean, figurative environment to heighten the romance of this noble creature. There is a pattern of well-worked ground under the feet of this highly mobile horse. A stark white fence across the background suggests this painted horse is contained. It is still now, but it might move . . . and it did!