Maggie Stiefvater makes her mark

"The Understanding"
Available as 24 x 30" original on canvas (see below) or 11 x 14" print
Copyright 2006 Maggie Stiefvater.

Calling all fans of equine art and all would-be equine artists - a couple of pieces of information which you may well find of great interest.

Sporting art featuring horses tends to fall into two major categories - the race track and the hunt (horses and foxhounds). In relation to the latter, the Masters of Foxhounds Association of America is linking with the Cross Gate Gallery, a premier sporting art gallery based in Kentucky which specialises in equine sporting art, to produce a prestigious travelling exhibition of about 200 paintings on a hunting theme to commemorate its centennial in 2007.

Maggie Stiefvater, friend and fellow member of Fine Line Artists, has begun to make her mark in the equine art world. Her painting "The Understanding" (see top) has just been selected for the show.

"I was asked to create and submit a piece after my work was seen at the American Academy of Equine Art's Fall Exhibition, and so "The Understanding" will be travelling all over the country in 2007. Very exciting!"

This is the current schedule of where the exhibition will be travelling to in 2007 - the 20 or so venues will be updated as more venues are added. I'm sure it will be of great interest to both people who like equine art and all those artists seeking to develop their artistic skills in portraits of horses or hounds.

Artists should also note that, as the exhibition will be travelling around the USA for the next year, Greg Ladd of the Cross Gate Gallery has indicated that artists should continue to paint - presumably to replace art sold as the exhibition travels around. Contact the gallery for further details.



You can find more of Maggie's portraits in the equestrian portrait gallery on her website Portraits with Character. I asked her whether there were other opportunities to see her equine art in person.

I'll be at many of the major horse shows in Virginia in 2007 and I'm really starting to eye the big shows in Kentucky and Pennsylvania as well. I should be updating the workshop and show dates calendar on my site by the end of this month.

Maggie has always been very generous about sharing her approach to producing her art and during 2006 she's started to teach others on a more formal basis. She now includes workshops on coloured pencil (details on the calendar).

You can also check out a very detailed work in progress/tutorial concerning an equine portrait (count the stages!) that she has started on her blog - Greywaren Art. Maggie has told me that she's very happy to answer any questions about the tutorial or her work generally on her blog or in comments section of this post.

(Note: All images in this post copyright Maggie Stiefvater)

Links:

• 2007 Masters of Foxhounds Association of America Travelling Art Exhibition
• Cross Gates Gallery
• Maggie Stiefvater - website
• Maggie Stiefvater - blog

Technorati tags: art, equine art, making a mark, painting