The equine portrait artist Jocelyn Sandor Urban recently added this illustration to her collection of Christmas cards, inspired by the antique barn on our property. (Ample artistic liberty, but the structure is the same.) It’s a clipped-gable bank barn built in 1900. I love the way she’s embellished it and modified the landscape.
Best known for her extraordinary horse portraits, Urban has painted a few of our horses over the years, including our World Games Champion in reining, Gunners Special Nite, and Norman Dello Joio’s legendary show jumper Glasgow, who is retired at our farm.
Here’s Gunners Special Nite:
Photo by John Brasseaux
And Glasgow:
Urban has a wonderful ability to capture horses’ expressions. Her portraits, which she paints or draws by commission, are mostly in private collections. Check out her online gallery and her holiday cards with original artwork. She also has a sweet series of humorous cards for all occasions.
Here are a few others from her gallery:
“Jumpers” (graphite drawing)
“Weanlings” (conte crayon drawing)
Illustration from her Horse Portraits notecards
“In Disguise” (oil on canvas)
And here’s our barn she worked from to create her notecard illustration “Waiting For Santa”:
Grappa, age 30, is in the foreground!
“Waiting for Santa” holiday card
