Grazing Horse

Driving to Macassar early one morning, I passed a horse grazing quietly in a field while the morning mist still hung low over the ground. Everything was still, and the horse seemed completely at peace. It was one of those moments that makes you want to slow down and just look.

I tried to paint the feeling of that morning rather than every detail. The mist is laid down in soft washes of white, cream and pale lilac, and the painting fades gently into the paper at the edges, the way a misty landscape seems to disappear around you. Behind the horse, a line of bushes catches the first light in touches of yellow and gold, and tufts of dry grass poke through the mist in the foreground. The horse itself is a simple dark shape, head down, completely absorbed in its grazing.

This was one of my less challenging paintings and only took me a few hours, but it remains one of the calmest pieces I have painted.