Posted on 18th March 2019
The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed some drawings have been added to our web shop…
You may also know that those drawings are by my hand. We are after all, a farrier & artist team. If you didn’t know please do grab a cuppa, read on and find out why they have arrived!
As a horse mad, but ponyless child, a devoured every bit of horseyness I could. If you were a pony mad child you’ll know! My bedroom was plastered in posters from Pony magazine, I read every pony book I could get my hands on, and my favourites were and still are, the Jinny & Shantih series by the wonderful Patricia Leitch.
Like Jinny in the stories, I drew and painted horses. All sorts of horses. Natives ponies, their eyes barely visible beneath thick thatches of mane and forelock. Finer arab types, snorting nostrils and wide eyes. Galloping. Jumping. Rearing. Grazing. You name it, I drew it.
And I remember thinking very clearly then. This is what I want my life to be. I want to draw, write, live, breathe horses…
I did study Fine Art at A level and completed a HND in Equine Studies. Then worked a number of jobs, with painting time being snatched at, as and when it was necessary. The early desire to live and breathe horses seemed a distant and no longer achievable dream in the world of ‘adulting’.
Fast forward a few years and, almost by accident myself and my other half fell into creating Horseshoe Hearts. Over this last year HH has taken up most of my time! Making, photographing, packaging, social media and customer service. That, alongside being mum to children, horses, dogs and cats! My art, which was mostly commission work, has become even more side-lined!
To be honest I felt too that a lot of commission work had me feeling a little stale. I feel a bit guilty to admit it! It was a pleasure seeing and hearing about all the animals that were commissioned and an absolute privilege to draw and paint them. But, it didn’t leave a lot of room for artistic expression.
One day, on combing through a charity bookstore (I actually have a mad love for vintage poetry books!) I found many copies of some old pony books, some of which were duplicates of vintage books I already had but.. I found it very hard to walk away from them. So I bought them all and contributed towards a good cause, It can’t be bad! I took them home and decided to experiment. The pages I released carefully from their bindings, and much more loosely and carelessly, I drew scenes of my childhood mind.
I loved the essence of them. There wasn’t room for the great detail I’d try to include in previous commission works, but nevertheless a feeling of nostalgia was there in the eyes looking back at me. Something from long ago. They have since been a secret love of mine. A curious thing of using old quote books too, is that while I pick the pages randomly there does seem to be a correlation between the words on the page and the subject that is drawn on them. Serendipity.
As we find our feet with Horseshoe Hearts we decided tentatively that my art, my passion for horses and our glorious British Countryside and the dreams of my childhood, may nestle in alongside the forging of horseshoes. The common ideal of upcycling and something old into something new rings true with them both. Upon taking some images of the two together we feel they seem not to mind sharing space with each other.
As my Art tutor used to say, “Go for the journey, not the destination.” From time to time it may be that some more of my artistic journey may sometimes find it’s way onto the path of Horseshoe Hearts.
You can browse through my artwork here, I’d love to know what you think. I am more than happy to answer any questions you may have about them.
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