Horse Portrait Artist – Anne West, Equine Art

Archive for February, 2011

The reference for this painting was one of the runner-ups in my latest Facebook contest for best photo of ‘Horse and Rider’. I love the relationship between the rider and the horse here; so intimate, so natural, so much respect. I’m calling this one “After the Ride”.

When I was growing up in Santa Barbara, CA. my sister, Linda, and I used to surf near our house on the Mesa. I miss surfing and am working to get in good enough shape to get on my board again. I would like to do more surf art as it takes me to a nice place remembering what I was like to sit on the board for hours, staring out to sea, watching the play of the light over the ever-swelling ocean. Water is not blue — it is green, and purple, and orange, and peach, and sometimes even gold. It reflects everything around it, and sometimes colors show up and you have no idea how they got there. That is the miracle of the ocean to me. Let me know what you think about my surf art.

Fire in the Sky - acrylic on canvas by Anne West

Golden Evening at Hendry's Beach - acrylic on canvas by Anne West

I got my new website up and running. It is still a work in progress as websites often are. Before I started painting horses I was doing a lot of landscapes, but I really loved doing sunsets. Here are a couple examples of my work. ‘Fire in the Sky’ is quite large, I think it was 24″ x 36″. My dear friends, Tom and Marq in Santa Barbara, purchased this painting and it looks awesome in their house. I like to paint on deep gallery wrap canvas, which means that the canvas wraps around the side of the painting and that the sides are about 1 1/2″ deep, so I paint the sides of the canvas too. This makes a really nice, modern look and then you don’t need to frame the art.

‘Golden Evening at Hendry’s Beach’ is 18″ x 24″ (SOLD). Hendry’s Beach is one of the favorite ‘locals’ beaches in Santa Barbara. It is a great place to watch a sunset. The funny thing about Santa Barbara is that the coast runs east and west and NOT north and south like you would think on the west coast of California. So, as you can see, the sun is setting behind the point of land, which can get very confusing for visitors to Santa Barbara. This was the middle of the summer so the sun is setting in its fartherest north location. This evening was like a light show with an ever-changing sunset that gave me loads of great material to work with. If you ever get to visit Santa Barbara, be sure to plan a low tide walk on Hendry’s beach. You can walk for miles in either direction and there are some amazing tide pools at low tide all along that section of the coast.

If you would like a sunset painting, please contact me at anne at westhorseart dot com

Rose the Rottweiler

I worked on a little quick study of Rose, my friend Kellie’s, rottweiler. Trying to get loose and just use the brush strokes to create the image. It was fun. I am going to do something like this every day to force myself to focus on my art more.

Waitin on the Drive Georgie and Ches

In 2010 I held a contest on my facebook page for Best Horse and Rider photo submissions. The winner would receive a free portrait of their photo entry. I am please to introduce my painting of Lori Faith Merritt’s winning photograph of cowboy poet Georgie Sicking and her horse, Ches, titled ‘Waitin on the Drive – Georgie and Ches’.

To Purchase Prints or Original Art by Anne West – Click Here!