Drawing inspiration from the horses that she raises and cares for every day, Western painter Laurie Kersey creates art that elevates the world of equine art.
Conveying a horse's mindset is the particular forte of Laurie Kersey's, whose impressionist equine paintings often juxtapose finessed portrayals of horses in the foreground with minimalist landscapes bordering on tonalism in the background. "For me, it's about the horse. Most of the time it's a horse in a suggestion of an environment," says Kersey. Her painterly horses are likely to be created with bigger brushes, each stroke intentionally thought out with the horse's musculature evident. "I do tend to be fairly concise and deliberate with my work, which unfortunately tends to be a little slow because I'm so careful with each stroke —"thinking about the size and gesture of each particular brushstroke."
Compadres, 2019, oil on linen, 24" x 24".
In the world of equine art, a Kersey painting can usually be recognized by the purposeful brushwork as well as the soft, muted colors. The content of her subject matter is another distinction: She generally paints horses in their quieter moments and is especially interested in the horses' interaction with each other. "The majority of my work is the way I see horses," she says. "All they want to do is to stand around quietly. That's what I feel from the horses — them just chilling."
"So that's what I paint." Warm, harmonious olive greens and golds tend to fill the backgrounds. "I live here on the California Central Coast, and in the winter and spring it's all quite green. In the summer it all turns gold. Those are our two looks: green and gold," says Kersey, who's based in Pebble Beach with her husband, artist Brian Blood, whom she met while attending his painting classes at San Francisco's Academy of Art University.
Contentment, 2021, oil on linen, 18" x 24".
Born in 1961, Kersey grew up in rural Ohio, where her dad trained and raced harness horses. Most of Kersey's own riding has been hunter-jumper; she usually has half-leased Thoroughbreds, Thoroughbred crosses, and warmbloods. She boards them at stables, where she has been known to muck, feed, and exercise horses for friends. "My process definitely involves work from life. I really think it's important to study your subject from life," she says. "I hang around at the barn sketching and painting. I see little moments and I snap photos." She manipulates the reference photos on her iPad, experimenting with compositions, backgrounds, and colors, mostly with the goal of eliminating distractions from the horses. Then she paints.
Tres Amigos, 2019, oil to linen, 24" x 30".
Whether a horse is saddled up English-style, Western-style, or unsaddled, it's all good in Kersey's estimation. A trip to a large Colorado ranch resulted in the emotional Tres Amigos, revealing the safety and companionship three horses there found in each other. "They really had some closeness. You would see them hanging out next to each other," she says. Two grays at the ranch banded together with a bay — all three horses with their ears pricked forward peering at something together — provided the concept for the cinematic Compadres. "I like the viewpoint where you're kind of behind the first horse looking in the same direction as they are. It feels kind of like a voyeur situation peeking in on their private conversation," Kersey says. Also inspired by her time at that ranch, The Crossing shows a cowgirl leading horses in from the range for a day's work. In the more classical Contentment, another gray horse relaxes head-to-tail with a bay. "I kind of saw it as a yin-yang," she says.
The Crossing, 2020, oil on panel, 14" x 11".
Local California rodeos inspire paintings like Red Shirt, in which an untied horse quietly stands behind-the-scenes as he's tacked up by a cowboy, and Breakaway, an action painting in which the horse's legs fade into dust.
Next up, Kersey is working on a series inspired by a trip to Nevada, where she photographed wild horses.
What does she love most about her equine subjects? "The smell! One of my favorite things is to bury my face in their neck. I love riding. I really loved jumping. It's the most fun thing on the planet. I love the inside of a horse. Their energy. Their personalities. And their character is kind of my favorite thing. I love their gentleness. And to go over to the barn and paint and sketch and pet and smooch and smell."
Laurie Kersey is represented in California by Rieser Fine Art in Carmel and K. Nathan Gallery in La Jolla; in New Mexico she is represented by Santa Fe Trails Fine Art in Santa Fe. Visit her online a Laurie Kersey Fine Art (lauriekersey.com).
