Brenda Wolf's Horse Campaign - Spring 2007 Issue of Horses in Art Magazine

Brenda Wolf's Horse Campaign

by Margaret Gray

Aurora — Pastel, 50 x 38, by Brenda Wolf
Brenda Wolf stands a proud 5-feet, 1-inch tall, and paints horses on cotton paper measuring 4-feet, 2-inches high. What makes this notable is the sight of 13 square feet of canvas filled with just a horse’s head. "I paint in such a large scale because I want to emphasize the personality in the animal," Wolf says. "So I focus on the head, expression, and eyes."

But to summarize Brenda Wolf’s art by saying that she likes to paint big horse heads would be missing the point – in a big way. The monumental size is simply a result of the intensity and urgency she feels to share her vision. The exceptional power of these paintings lies in the artist’s obsession with capturing what the horse represents to her.

While many artists draw inspiration from nature and the landscape around them, Wolf’s fascination is the emotional landscape within herself. To that end she has found expression through painting animals which each signify a particular aspect of her psyche. "Chariots of emotion" is how Wolf refers to her compelling series of animal portraits. "Each animal represents a completely different emotion to me," she explains. Grizzlies express her raging inner demons; polar bears are her unshakable resolve to seek peace and happiness; eagles, with their fierce integrity, represent empowerment.

Horses joined her menagerie as the expression of strength, power, and fearlessness. One day she found herself painting a magnificent chestnut battle horse. Viewing the completed face of Troy, as she titled this warrior, Wolf was amazed by the end product. "He changed something in me," she says, "and that has not left me. I feel more confident, bolder...stronger somehow...from painting horses. They give me such pride and confidence."

She cites the heroic nature of horses as the inspiration for this confidence. "The horse is showing me that now I can stand up for who I am and what I believe in." This deep sense of individualism is reflected in how Wolf imbues each of her horses with unique personality. She names them for the Greco-Roman gods, reflecting their awe-inspiring quality and transcendent nobility. Morpheus, Aphrodite, and a rugged Zeus who glances back with a piercing stare, as if to convey there is no hiding from these all-knowing creatures.

Apollo epitomizes Wolf’s archetypal depiction of the horse. In almost any setting, this work commands attention. The stark background gives the viewer no place else to look but at the head, which looms four feet tall. The face and neck musculature is crammed with enough power to convey the horse’s overall strength and athleticism. The pastel paint captures the velvet texture of the skin, the liquid orb of the eye, and the flowing strokes of the mane. Wolf emphasizes that which interests her – texture, mood, and composition – dispensing with all else, including anatomical realism.

Wolf admits to a lifelong affection for horses. She rode western as a child in upstate New York, and learned to ride English as an adult while living and working in the competitive environment of the New York art scene in Manhattan, where she enjoyed Central Park on hoof. Despite her roots on the East Coast, she felt the pull of the West, and after numerous trips and vacations spent in Big Sky country, she relocated to Montana in 1998.

Wolf likes to think of these equine paintings as her "Horse Campaign", a heartfelt mission to capture the allure of these majestic beasts. She does not foresee the campaign ending anytime soon. "They are a force I cannot keep away from," she says. For Brenda Wolf, horses are the embodiment of strength, grace, and nobility in one dynamic form. And every horse she paints represents a personal adventure. "Each time I begin a new horse painting, I feel as if I am unleashing the horse from the paper. Once the eye and muzzle are drawn, the horse takes breath. Then the horse and I are on for the ride of our lives!"

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