60 SIDELINES OCTOBER 2011
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
Andrea Kent Paints
in the Style of …
(Fill in the Blank)
By Lauren R. Giannini
“My father put a paintbrush in my hand when I was two,”
recalls Andrea Kent. “He was a landscape and wildlife
painter, a classically trained European artist. He nurtured
me the way that European apprentices were treated and
taught me both European and American techniques in his
own studio. When I became a teenager, my father sent me
to art school in Chicago at the American Academy of Art and
the Art Institute.”
Andrea’s lifelong passion for horses began the same time
as her painting. She grew up in Lake Forest (IL) and rode
to hounds, mentored by Mill Creek Hunt’s Masters of Fox
Hounds, WilliamWood-Prince and Ginevra Hunter (the latter
now a member of Orange County Hounds, VA). She got her
frst horse when she was 12, but her parents didn’t just write
checks. They attached strings, which led to more lessons.
“My parents told me I had to help support my horse,” says
Andrea. “Selling pictures of horses was the only way I knew
how to earn money. It made me really focused. I would
sometimes go with my father to art shows when I was 12,
13, 14 and sell my own drawings and paintings of horses. I
satisfed my parents’ request even though I’m sure I didn’t
make anywhere near enough to handle all the bills – vet,
farrier, and board – that are part of having a horse.”
The Path Not Taken
Selling paintings helped to determine Andrea’s path after
high school. She realized that representational art, at that
time, wasn’t very popular in the USA and that collectors
were more inclined to invest in modern art. “I disappointed
my father by not going into a career as a commercial artist,”
says Andrea. “It was some years before I came back to art
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Andrea Kent and her rescued OTTB mare. “Any horse I school
gets a big dose of dressage, and River is a wonderfully talented
little jumper who had a stife injury. The vet said to get her
hindquarters into better condition to strengthen and stabilize the
joint. I’d be doing this anyway: dressage is good for foxhunters
and riders – it makes any horse balanced, supple, responsive,
calm and controllable. You don’t have to go around in endless
circles. You can do dressage in a feld and on a trail in the
woods. River will be able to hunt, probably later in the season.
We’ll start with some hilltopping and see how it goes.”
Photo by J. Resnick
The First Time
through a different route altogether.”
The late Paul Mellon provided the pivotal encouragement. In
late spring of 1985 the National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC)
held an exhibition of Stubbs in honor of Mr. Mellon, who had just
retired as the NGA’s chairman of the board and trustee. “I was
staggered by this exhibit, and I wrote a note to Mr. Mellon, never
really expecting to hear from him. I just wanted to express my
appreciation,” explains Andrea. “Being a person of exquisite
manners, he wrote back. I don’t think he remembered me as the
little girl cantering on her pony years before. We talked and he was
extremely encouraging. He thought it was unusual that a woman
as young as I was so interested in history and in preserving the
beautiful traditions of the past. He suggested that I go to the UK,
visit the galleries, study very carefully and do it myself – paint in
that early sporting art style. No one was painting in the style of
Stubbs and Marshall. I thought, maybe, since this style of art
appeals to foxhunters, maybe there was a market for it.” Andrea
specializes in paintings that emulate the style of the masters of the
18
th
and 19
th
centuries. She harvests inspiration from foxhunting,
classical equitation, and the early sporting artists. Her love of
history guides her brush strokes.
In the Style of Stubbs
“It gives me great joy and the greatest satisfaction,” admits
Andrea. “I do modern work, of course, and contemporary
portraits. I just love getting lost in the past in the golden age
of horsemanship. Everyone loves Munnings, but I can’t even
hope to begin to emulate him with his loose impressionist style.
I’m referring to artists who painted in earlier periods: Stubbs,
Velasquez, and Marshall did very beautiful horses.”