Yvonne Kitchen – Smitten with the Big Boys - Spring 2008 Issue of Horses in Art Magazine

Yvonne Kitchen – Smitten with the Big Boys

Mademoiselle Noir – Bronze with black patina by Yvonne Kitchen.
The sculpture of Yvonne Kitchen reflects her great affection for one of her favorite subjects, draft horses, often fondly referred to as the big boys. Kitchen was mentored into the world of draft horses by someone who had a long and rich history with the huge breeds. She learned to hold the reins of a draft team under the guidance of Jack Thornagle, who at the age of eighteen was a teamster during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Thornagle taught her to drive a team of retired Coast Guard Belgians which were being used for hayrides and parades at the barn where they both worked.

Thornagle particularly ingrained in Kitchen a love of the Percheron draft horse. He drove Percherons exclusively during his many years as a reinsman. Kitchen remarks, “I have a special place in my heart for this breed stemming from the beauty they add to their strength.”

The Percheron breed originated in La Perche, France, and Kitchen could not resist using the French language for titles. “Monsieur Percheron Gris embraces my memories of the stallion belonging to friends of Jack Thornagle, and I created him to be in pasture condition, no braids and no shoes. Mademoiselle Noir on the other hand is a portrait of then three-year-old Nakita, the lead mare in a team of six black Percherons.”

Hey Mom! – Bronze with gray patina by Yvonne Kitchen, depicting a Percheron mare and foal.

Kitchen’s first expression of her admiration for the Percheron breed was a sculpture titled, Hey, Mom!, “Interestingly she started out to be an Arabian mare, lying down, and she turned herself into Mom in one night. I couldn’t believe how quickly she came to life, and then Mom’s Boy did the same thing. When I tried to decide how to place him in relation to her, it dawned on me both were standing square and could stand alone. Thus was born my Equine Madonna’s, each a mare and foal who could be placed in any relationship to each other to change the entire feeling of the piece.” Yvonne Kitchen was recently accepted as an Associate Member of the Society of Animal Artists in New York. She is also an Associate Member of the American Academy of Equine Art and the Women Artists of the West.

View Yvonne’s work at www.yvonnekitchen.com.

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