The secret gallery’s blog

I agree with the artist Deborah Butterfield who makes large sculptures of horses out of pieces of scrap, when she described horse riding as a "kinetic language" and that we try to "communicate with another species". I have been fascinated by this kinetic language since I was eight years old when I began to learn about horse riding. I think my first lessons in art came from my horse riding instructor, Fergus O’Connor. Since then horses and the art of horse riding have been a huge inspiration to me. The feeling I try to (though don’t often!) achieve while on a horses is a dynamic, athletic movement that is so soft and balanced it almost like floating along in a dream! It is both effortless and precise at the same time. I think this could be applied to just about anything, but to me it is the same feeling I try to achieve while painting in many ways.