I was excited to learn about an equine themed mural mosaic that was looking for the input of equine artists. When I looked further into the details, I was even more pleased to learn that this is a western Canadian project, based in the neighbouring province of Alberta, right next door to Saskatchewan where I live. Even better, the unveiling would be at Spruce Meadows where I have shown my work for many years and for which I feel a close kinship.
We were encouraged to indicate what types of panels we would like to work on, and I chose a plain (no distinctive shapes or features) one in dark colours, since I have an affinity for night and dramatic imagery. At the time I selected my panel, I didn’t have a game plan for what I would do, but I soon realized it would be perfect for the first of a series of “Gothic Imagery” works I was planning.
Choosing the elements I wanted to use wasn’t hard. My own “dark horse” Alpac is the featured equine in this work, and my obsession for collecting crow and raven shots came in handy for the corvids. Add in an interesting old derelict church, the winter version of the trees at the stable, and a few related elements, and “Dark Angels” came into being. Really, it wasn’t quite as simple as that to put together, as these photomontages are sometimes worked on a pixel by pixel basis, but I am well pleased with the end result and know I will be in good company with the other mural artists when our efforts finally come together to create the “big picture”.