pryor mountain stallion

WATERCOLOR, PEN & INK • 8x10" • FRAMED • $350

STATUS: AVAILABLE

My first trip to see the Pryor Mountain Mustangs in Montana on the Wyoming border was in 1999. As my guide drove to find the herds, I carried my sketchbook, and a couple of archival black ink pens. During the first several years of researching wild mustangs I sketched in the field and watercolored them at night time back home. Sketching moving horses plein air is a fresh way to get an impression on paper. This sketch is of a large, full-bodied stallion looking at me from above on a hillside. He knew I was hiding foolishly in the brush waiting for the rest of his herd to come up the field.  I thought they’d take the path directly in front of me.   Hiding in the brush only alerts wild mustangs that an enemy is there. Horses are fight or flight animals. They veered away and went up the hill to take an upper path higher up, and then joined their stallion. It may have been their lead mare, actually. They usually lead, with the stallion following up the rear.