Linda Volrath from White Post, Virginjia, with one of her oils, a handsomely mounted huntsman, Jordan Hicks, and his Piedmont foxhounds / Middleburg Photo
The American Academy of Equine Art, after an absence of thirty years, has returned to its original home, Middleburg, Virginia, with a delightful exhibit of equine art. The works chosen for the AAEA 39th Annual Open Juried Exhibition will be available for viewing until October 26, 2019 from 10:00 am to 4:30 pm, Monday through Saturday, at the newly occupied headquarters of the Masters of Foxhounds Association, 301 East Washington Street (U.S. Route 50), Middleburg, Virginia 20117.
The MFHA headquarters is “a beautiful facility inside and out, fully restored and expanded,” writes AAEA President Booth Malone. “The Academy plans to give them a show they can be proud of.”
The competition was open to all artists eighteen years of age or older, representing all equine disciplines. All works are for sale.
Local Virginia artists Linda Volrath and Anita Baarns each had multiple works chosen for the exhibition. Volrath won the Jean Bowman Award–For excellence in classical equine art painting/drawing. In total, twelve awards were presented.
Sideways, oil painting by Linda Volrath
Volrath exhibited a lovely portrait of a handsomely mounted huntsman, Jordan Hicks, and his Piedmont foxhounds. Another of Volrath’s paintings, Sideways, was less conventional. While watching the sidesaddle class at this year’s Upperville Colt and Horse Show, Volrath’s attention was drawn to Julie Anne Bigham from Ashton, Maryland competing on her horse, Sophie.
“I wanted to focus in on the simple strong shapes of the horse and skirt moving in harmony through the light. The deep shadow shapes offered good structure for their form, and I used paint edge variety to express the motion,” said Volrath.
The painting shows the luscious folds of Bigham’s skirt draped upon the shoulder and side of a fully collected handsome bay in motion. The rider’s head is out of the painting entirely. Daring, yes, but it demanded to be noticed!
I’m So Pretty and I Know It, oil painting by Anita Baarns
Anita Baarns painting, I’m So Pretty and I Know It, caught my eye for the sheer nose-in-the-air pretension of the subject, Nova, a young Trakehner filly foaled last year. Owned by a relative of Baarns in Holland, Nova is out of a European champion mare. Her bold confidence is beguiling and alive with personality. And I love her hairy chin.
“She thinks she’s so pretty,” Baarns said with a smile, “but she’s not really as pretty as she thinks!”
This year’s foal out of the same mare won the mare and foal grand championship in Holland, went to Germany, and won the Family Class. Nova apparently heard the news and believes she’s royalty now.
Anita Baarns from Upperville, Virginia, with her selections / Middleburg Photo
I was pleased to see works by Will Ersland in the AAEA Show. Ersland was featured in Foxhunting Life in 2015 and won the AAEA Sporting Art Award–Depicting horse in sport at this exhibition.
For those planning to visit this or any art exhibition, the AEAA has some tips. First, don’t go with a large group. Go alone or with a like-minded friend who will not rush you through the show. Second, if the show has a decent catalog, buy two copies. Use one as a workbook into which you can write comments and make notes with arrows pointing to parts of the paintings as you go through the exhibit. If you buy only one catalog, you won’t dare to write in it, and many of your observations will be lost and forgotten with time.
The AAEA was founded in 1980 at the suggestion of the late Masters Alexander Mackay-Smith and Dr. Joseph Rogers. The idea was to assemble the finest equine artists in the country to exhibit together, share creative ideas, and, eventually establish a teaching organization modeled after the Royal Academy in England.
The late world-renowned equine artists Jean Bowman and Else Tuckerman were consulted, and they suggested a core group of ten distinguished painters and sculptors who formed the American Academy of Equine Art, Inc., initially based in Middleburg, Virginia. The AAEA’s home is now in the Kentucky Horse Park.
Posted October 11, 2019