Horses in Art Magazine - Art for the Horse Lover

Michelle Grant: A Keen Vision

by Sarah Crampton

Shower Stall – Oil by Michelle Grant is our Summer cover image.
Canadian artist Michelle Grant created the oil painting Shower Stall after visiting a harness racetrack with a friend who is a trainer. The scene unfolded on an incredibly cold morning. There were harness horses out training, others returning from their workouts sweaty and steaming. The space, the light and the ambiance were a bit dreamlike. Michelle didn’t feel she was ready to try and paint such a scene, capturing the texture of the cold, wet concrete floor with the metal grate, and steam billowing off the horses. The resulting painting was awarded a first place in the Horses In Art cover contest and graces this summer issue’s cover. Shower Stall delivers the vision of the morning’s atmosphere and the varied textures with a heightened perception; the story is all there.

Michelle works in watercolor, acrylic, mostly oil, and graphite. She is interested in painting all subjects and has plans to start painting the landscape she experiences while out riding her horse. The views are exquisite with rolling hay fields in a meadow at the base of the Rocky Mountains – a perfect scene for a plein-aire painting.

Michelle comments, “The creative process in general is very satisfying, especially when it’s going well. Every painting has to tell a story, and then I get up the nerve to start, decide what palette to use, and finally, decide when the painting is done.”

The painting Stampede is a large 20 x 40 oil on canvas. This painting tells of a five-day trip pushing 250 head of rough-stock horses across open country. Michelle remembers some of the horses traveled down a long alley-wide section, where they were hot and crazy, crossed a gravel road and decided they didn’t want to go with the others. The wranglers flew down the gravel road, peeling after them over the prairie of fescue and natural grassland. The herd stampeding back was a sight.

Michelle Grant will be exhibiting at the annual July Calgary Stampede. She painted Chuck Wagon that was licensed for the Stampede promotional materials. She will also be exhibiting at the Spruce Meadows event where she took a reference photo for the oil painting, On the Diagonal. This horse was in the warm-up ring, intent on his job, his veins visible. The ears and neck of the horse are painted so they wrap around the sides of the canvas.

Michelle Grant is a full member of the American Academy of Equine Art and the Canadian based Equine Art Guild. At the moment she has no gallery representation, she can’t paint fast enough. Visit her web site at www.michellegrant.ca.

Stampede – Oil, 24 x 40, by Michelle Grant.

~ Back ~