Horses in Art - An Equine Vision Magazine

Yvonne Kitchen: Expressing Life through Sculpture

by Bob Faulkner and Sarah Crampton

Art, in one form or another, has been a driving force in Yvonne Kitchen's life since early childhood. Yvonne's father was a wonderful pencil, pen & ink artist who did highly detailed drawings. He told her, "If you want to draw horses you have to really look at how the legs go."

Developing powers of observation very early in life helped to evolve her sculpture to include the details. Her knowledge of anatomy, learned by grooming and especially body clipping horses of all sizes and shapes, fostered thinking and feeling through her hands three dimensionally.

Kitchen does believe that being able to draw has been a real asset in her sculpting, and she continues to sketch horses or parts of horses any time she has the opportunity. As much as Yvonne loves working in pencil and pastel, her real passion was instilled back in a high school ceramics class sculpture.

Friesian Spectacular
Bronze by Yvonne Kitchen
portraying trainer Clay Maier.
As she has grown as a sculptor, she has attempted more technically-challenging projects such as Friesian Spectacular portraying trainer Clay Maier riding and driving two horses simultaneously over a jump, or balancing Elegance on one leg. The goal is always to convey the grace and beauty of the horse.

Elegance was inspired while Yvonne Kitchen was observing trainer Clay Maier ride Aaron, a Friesian, at the canter while warming up to prepare for taking a jump. It was inspired by the moment during the last stride of canter, before the take off of a jump, when the horse gathers and collects himself - the moment the leading leg is in contact with the ground. Elegance won a $500 Industry Award in Sculptural Pursuits 2nd Annual Competition and made a dramatic cover for this Summer issue.

Yvonne's work is equally divided between commissions and work she creates out of love or admiration for a particular horse. In either case she works with a specific animal and its story in mind, which led to her naming her studio Bronze Portraits from Nature.

Elegance
Bronze by Yvonne Kitchen
cover art for this issue
"I think we all express our life experiences and personality through our art," states Yvonne Kitchen. "In my case I feel that all the years of preferring to groom horses rather than show them reveals my tactile nature and desire to present the animal at its best. My bronzes are molded as much by feel as by sight."

Yvonne has just completed several trophy commissions, busts of a mule, draft horse, and donkey, for the Winnemucca Mule Races and Show in Nevada. She is currently working on several miniatures as well as beginning a Gypsy Vanner and a Friesian mare with foal.

In August Kitchen will exhibit at the Sculpture Invitational in Loveland, Colorado, and in September at the Draft Horse Classic in Grass Valley, California. She is represented by Art du Jour Gallery in Medford, Oregon, and Valley Bronze of Oregon, a gallery in Joseph, Oregon.

Bob Faulkner, public relations officer for the Art du Jour Gallery in Medford, who contributed to this article with his insightful comments, is also a two-dimensional-producing artist working in pastel and acrylic.

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