Foals first snuggle

Last year I saw a great photograph in the Pacific and Prairie Horse Journal equine photo contest of a young girls snuggling a foal. When I looked closer, I recognized the girl as one of my fellow BC Competitive Trail Riders' - Katie. The photo won first place in the competition, and rightly so, as it captured the moments we all want to keep in our memories forever.

The next time I saw Katie and her mom, I mentioned that someday I'd love to paint the picture -it would be a challenge, but I thought the inspiration from the photo would provide enough strength to do it. Luckily for me, Katie contacted me in the fall asking if I would paint it for them - and I happily agreed.

Once the rush of the holidays was over, I started on the painting and over the last two weeks it has come to a point where I feel it is time to go to its forever home. I was challenged to think of how I could get a brown hoodie, brown horse, light brown hair, and dirt forground to work with me and make the subject matter pop out. I used lots of transparent paints on it to provide depth and warmth - tones of reds, oranges and browns all to work off the color of the foals coat and Katies lovely hair. It is challenging getting a good photo of this one, but it looks great at night in a darkened room where the shading resembles a barnlight night. In terms of composition, I wanted to capture a circle with the eye traveling from the bottom left up to the foal, then over to Katies face - with the magic captured in the look between her and the foals face. I've become quite attached to it - and hope that this horse loving family will enjoy it for years to come on their walls. It brings back memories for me as a girl too with my new foals - and how I wish I had those moments captured.

So, off you go "foals first snuggle" to your new home. I enjoyed being a part of bringing little "All Fired Up" into the world.