Exmoor ponies inspire fine art
This week we met twenty three of Great Britain's top equestrian artists, when members of Society of Equestrian Artists visited Holtball Herd 11 and our Exmoor Pony Project to study good conformation and equine body language.
The artists are on Exmoor for their Porlock Residential Week at Porlock Vale House, painting under the guidance of expert tutors.
Braving the most awful windy and pelting wet weather, their afternoon with Exmoor ponies included a demonstration of good Exmoor pony conformation with multi-champion stallion Bear and his brood mares. I then called in the Holtball Herd 11 Exmoor ponies from the pasture and they responded with gusto, cantering into the covered area, which gave the artists the opportunity to observe the ponies in movement. They then studied the equine behaviour, expressions and body language of the herd, at close hand - photographing and sketching the ponies while we chatted about the interactions. The ponies were engaging and friendly and some firm friendships were made!
"It was a fascinating afternoon with a lovely group of people and an amazing level of talent and we hope that the information gleened will be reflected in more paintings of our endangered breed and iconic Exmoor ponies," said Dawn Westcott.
Organiser Jennifer Bell said, "“The Society of Equestrian Artists has been holding a residential Summer School at Porlock Vale for a few years now - a week of painting and studying horses with tutors Malcolm Coward and Colin Allbrook (this year’s was the biggest group so far with quite a few local artists coming to paint with us on day visits.) Artists of all standards are encouraged to come, but all share a common passion.
Exmoor is a fantastic place for equestrian artists to work - a sort of horse painter’s heaven - and local horse owners and Exmoor Pony specialists have been very, very welcoming. We hope to be back next year!”
This event forms part of the Moorland Exmoor Pony Breeders Group (MEPBG) and Exmoor Pony Project's Heritage Exmoor Pony Festival which this year runs from May to November. The calendar of events is evolving and can be found on the
www.mepbg.co.uk
website.
A few days before the visit, we had to make the heart-breaking decision to put to sleep our treasured foundation mare, Maisie. It was therefore extremely poignant when artist Rebecca de Mendonca presented us with her beautiful painting of Maisie with her last (2016) foal Holtball Kilimanjaro, which we will also treasure.
Pictured: Top picture - Dawn Westcott, artist Gillian Melville, Nick Westcott and artist Rebecca de Mendonca
Pictured: Artist Katie Scorgie with her new friend, Imperial Topaz, and a lovely sketch of Lady Stumpkin Pumpkin
Pictured: Below - the awesome painting of Maisie and Kilimanjaro by Rebecca de Mendonca
Pictured: Below - Article about the visit in the West Somerset Free Press (visit
www.wsfp.co.uk
for digital subscriptions)
