Channel your inner Munnings

Tackling the anatomy of a horse with a pen or paintbrush is a great leveller, but an admiration of the equine form is the only prerequisite for taking the plunge on a drawing course, finds Madeleine Silver

- Madeleine Silver

IN the grounds of Sir Alfred Munnings’ buttercup-yellow former home, Castle House in Essex, you might spot a perfectly staged World War I tableau, with immaculately behaved cavalry horses standing patiently with soldiers on board.

On another day it could be Gus, with his Romany caravan and fire burning. Or perhaps a hunter from yesteryear being ridden side-saddle, the habit hanging with the same serene elegance as Munnings’ 1930s snapshot of his wife Violet outside his home. But each time, the artists – beadily looking on, brush or pencil in hand – have the same fiendishly difficult task: capturing the horse in question.

Munnings made the feat look easy, each twitching muzzle or rippling hindquarter captured to perfection. And now there are courses dotted across the country and throughout the year dedicated to teaching hopefuls how to paint and draw horses.

“We really just want to encourage people to come and have a go at whatever level,” says Jenny Hand, director at the Munnings Art Museum, which runs its annual “Paint Up” workshops with the staged tableaux for three consecutive days.

“We used to do it where we’d have days for the more professional painters and days for beginners, but now we mix everybody up and there’s such a great atmosphere of infused concentration.”

Alongside the big tableau are demos by the more proficient painters, who might do something on how to construct a horse or how to paint a portrait, with people dropping in for as much or as little as they like. Oil is encouraged as the medium, as “it’s most suitable for painting plein-air”, says Jenny, and at the end of each day, studies can be hung in the marquee on the lawn to be discussed.

“There’s something about painting from life, outside, that inspires people. I think the physicality of having the horse in the open air gives all of our artists a better understanding of the pictures they’re seeing when they come into the museum.