If horses are your passion, then you’ll definitely like these next three paintings by today’s featured artist, Sharon Crute.
I’ll admit that I don’t know much about horses, and less about horse racing, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying her paintings just as much as any racing fan.
In fact, I couldn’t help but be pulled into each scene—almost every one was a dust-flying, blood-pumping, hoof-pounding race to the finish.
Sharon’s colors are amazingly bold and crisp, and, as seen in the painting to the left, Change Leads; she’s also not afraid to paint “outside the lines,” so to speak.
Those extra strokes of color flying out from the racehorse’s sides and the jockey’s back are what give her paintings their immediacy and vitality—it’s like the ground is shaking so hard that your eyes can’t focus.
In Harrowing, the painting below, Sharon’s created a mass of horseflesh barreling toward the viewer surrounded by a wall of dust.
It’s a mesmerizing piece, with so much detail that I’d love to see it closer. And not only are the riders’ colors distinct, but so are the horses—I can’t help but notice that each horse is next to others of different shades, making it easy to pick out every line of every muscle.
Deliberate? Probably. My hunch is that Sharon plans out each and every detail of these paintings before setting brush to canvas.
Beyond horse racing, Sharon also has created several hunting and horse jumping scenes. The painting below is entitled Cubbing.
To see all of Sharon Crute’s horse-inspired works of art (which I’d highly recommend) please visit her website at SharonCrute.com.
You can also read more about her life, artwork, and even some of the business aspects of being a painter at her blog, Art of Horse Racing.