Gentle Giants

This masterful Australian includes working horses in many of his paintings. Here he describes his own definitive approach to one of his favourite subjects.

- John Cornwell

My works start long before lifting a brush. To gain familiarity with my subjects, I have visited many properties in different parts of the country. I have attended shows and events. I have sketched and taken many photographs. To study the action and feel of horses I have ridden hundreds of miles – trail riding, mustering and droving with sheep and cattle.

In my studio I have about 30,000 slides and countless photographs, together with a library full of books (collected on my travels) on art and horse anatomy. I also have reference books on the various breeds of horses as well as farm machinery, horse-drawn vehicles and harness. I have collected harness, saddlery and vehicles over the years and this has proved to be a hobby of great value. I get a caning if I get anything wrong, as many owners of my pictures have worked with horses themselves.

When painting horses, the work you can do ‘on the spot’ is very limited. Plein air painting is fine for landscapes – but for action (although you can do a bit from observation and memory) photographs are very valuable. You can’t expect to do good representational work without good reference: The better the reference, the better the work will be. To add vitality to a picture, I often exaggerate movement.

STEP ONE