Belyanochka

“Belyanochka” is a portrait of a white horse head-on. The head takes almost the whole upright, the mane falls over one eye, and the ground is black with silver flashes.

The canvas is 150 × 70 cm, two centimetres thick, gloss, many layers, mixed media.

I painted the muzzle softly, almost photographically, and blew the ground apart into texture. That brings the horse forward, and from a distance it looks as if she stepped out of the dark a minute ago.

I built the white coat in layers, from grey up to pure white lead along the ridge of the nose. The eye is dark and wet. It looks straight at you.

The gloss runs over the ground, so in the evening highlights appear around the head while the head itself stays matte.

The format is narrow and tall, easy to hang on a pier of wall, by a dining table, in a hallway, on a staircase.

A horse in the house answers something in almost everybody. This is one of those works people stop at knowing nothing about it in advance.