Together Alone
Finished another piece, this time for myself (yep!)
An entry for the next EAG online show. It was a trip down memory lane.
Thank you for this show. Thank you for making me go down this lane. It was the closure I needed..
Together Alone is the latest portrait of my greatest muse: Rembrandt Borbet.
Together Alone is the latest portrait of my greatest muse: Rembrandt Borbet.
Remmi and I became friends back in 1993 when I went to work for top German dressage rider Nicole Uphoff.
The choice of a muse for this show was hard. When one spends a lifetime with horses they all become very special. However, there seemed to be no doubt that Remmi would be the star once again. He was the muse for my first commission as well as the start of my career. I have drawn no other horse as often and with as much feeling as I have drawn Rembrandt.
Now for a little background info: who was Rembrandt Borbet?
To cut a long story short, he was one of the most successful dressage horses of all time. Under the saddle of his owner/rider Nicole Uphoff , their performances were legendary: winning everything they could at least twice over (Olympics, World Championships and European Championships).
Where do I fit in? Well I went over to Germany in the summer of 1993 to work for Nicole and became very close to Remmi. Due to a bad injury he sustained during a prize giving,(he had a fracture) he needed to be nursed back to health. 6 months of hand-walking a very exuberant horse is a challenge in its self…only Remmi was a show off and loved to strut his stuff when he felt he had an audience. This was very often the case: bus loads of people would come to see him and admire him and boy did he revel in it! We struck an agreement … no silliness unless absolutely necessary (gunshot, bomb, screams..) and it worked: the pin stayed in place and he came back into work. (He was so fit that he was at the 1996 Olympics…!)
During the time I worked there, I came to love this horses so much I still miss him to this day. During the four years we spent together it was clear to me that the versatility of this professional dressage horse should be somehow illustrate for all to see.
I have drawn his movements: his extended trot, his extend canter and his piaff that made him part of what he was. I have also illustrated the gateway to his soul (his eye) and now with “Together Alone” I feel I have finally captured his “off -duty” side, his bond with the equine world, his arrogance.
He’s dead now….
This last piece of him is my "thank-you" for what he gave me, my tribute to his memory and a facet of my love for him.
He was a star, my star and nothing can replace the moments when we were together alone…
The choice of a muse for this show was hard. When one spends a lifetime with horses they all become very special. However, there seemed to be no doubt that Remmi would be the star once again. He was the muse for my first commission as well as the start of my career. I have drawn no other horse as often and with as much feeling as I have drawn Rembrandt.
Now for a little background info: who was Rembrandt Borbet?
To cut a long story short, he was one of the most successful dressage horses of all time. Under the saddle of his owner/rider Nicole Uphoff , their performances were legendary: winning everything they could at least twice over (Olympics, World Championships and European Championships).
Where do I fit in? Well I went over to Germany in the summer of 1993 to work for Nicole and became very close to Remmi. Due to a bad injury he sustained during a prize giving,(he had a fracture) he needed to be nursed back to health. 6 months of hand-walking a very exuberant horse is a challenge in its self…only Remmi was a show off and loved to strut his stuff when he felt he had an audience. This was very often the case: bus loads of people would come to see him and admire him and boy did he revel in it! We struck an agreement … no silliness unless absolutely necessary (gunshot, bomb, screams..) and it worked: the pin stayed in place and he came back into work. (He was so fit that he was at the 1996 Olympics…!)
During the time I worked there, I came to love this horses so much I still miss him to this day. During the four years we spent together it was clear to me that the versatility of this professional dressage horse should be somehow illustrate for all to see.
I have drawn his movements: his extended trot, his extend canter and his piaff that made him part of what he was. I have also illustrated the gateway to his soul (his eye) and now with “Together Alone” I feel I have finally captured his “off -duty” side, his bond with the equine world, his arrogance.
He’s dead now….
This last piece of him is my "thank-you" for what he gave me, my tribute to his memory and a facet of my love for him.
He was a star, my star and nothing can replace the moments when we were together alone…
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