By Shya Beth
Jacqueline Mask’s equine art spans mediums and disciplines. While finding the balance between her satisfaction as an artist and her career expectations can sometimes be a battle, it’s one Jacqueline is grateful for. Starting with a morning coffee and painting in her home studio, particularly on those 100-degree Houston, Texas, days, she has the flexibility to focus on painting commission work for days at a time while working with her horses in the quieter, cooler, sunset-drenched evenings.
“I’d like to think my life here is akin to a great hunter round: bold but stylish, and harder than it looks,” Jacqueline said. “Staying consistent is a constant battle, as I love the work I make, but some days I really need to take a break from the easel. Having the discipline to come back after an appropriate amount of time and refocus on the work that needs to be done—and the work that needs to be left alone—can be challenging. It’s hard to look back on paintings I loved when I finished them and only see things I wish I could change or improve. I have to remind myself that I don’t have to be absolutely perfect, but I have to start. Just get paint on canvas. Maintaining a sense of humor about it all is important, too!”
Galloping Through Change
Jacqueline moved from her home state of Texas to Maryland to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2013. While she got the “horse bug” as a young girl, learning to ride English and Western before turning to three-day eventing, Jacqueline thought that school would be the end of her time in the saddle. But fate had other plans.
Jacqueline ended up meeting trustees of the school, David and JoAnn Hayden, who operated Dark Hollow Farms, one of the major stables in the Thoroughbred industry. Jacqueline worked there during the summers and on weekends—cleaning stalls, walking yearlings and managing racehorses on layups. After graduating in 2017 with a Bachelor of Fine Art in illustration and departmental honors, she stuck around in Maryland to work at Maryland Saddlery with Kerry Foster, Hope Birsh and Dark Hollow Farm.
In addition to her equestrian jobs, Jacqueline started working as a freelancer at the Smithsonian Institution’s Department of Birds as a scientific illustrator, collaborating with scientists and researchers to provide illustrations that supplement their respective research.
Between Jacqueline’s professional and personal life, 2017 was a year of change. “I really enjoyed living in Baltimore,” she said. “Maryland has an incredible horse community that I took full advantage of while I balanced work at the breeding farm, the store and the Smithsonian after graduating.
“In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey hit Houston. Like many, my family’s home on the west side flooded after so many days of rain. Not being able to help my father pile our family’s furniture on the driveway or help my mom lay all her books flat to dry after the water finally receded took a harder toll than I expected. And while I loved working with incredible researchers and studying amazing birds at the Smithsonian, my job was largely affected by the government shutdown of 2017.”
As a freelancer at the Smithsonian, Jacqueline was told she likely wouldn’t be able to find work for a while. “So I focused on my job at Maryland Saddlery and the farm—all while feeling a profound pull back to Texas,” she said. “After a few months I packed everything up and headed west.”
Going West, Going Home
When Jacqueline moved back to Houston, she started taking art classes at the Glassell School of Art Studio School and working at the prestigious Houston Polo Club, teaching people to ride. “I never ever thought I could do something like that,” she said. “That job took a meek and mild young woman and gave me confidence I never knew lived in me. I’ve worked with incredible women at different places, including Paige Luplow and Noel Foye at the Houston Polo Club, and at my current barn with Marie Morgan at Solstice Farms.”
Jacqueline had worked at the Houston Polo Club for four years and for fun, would do extremely occasional commissions when she had time. Then, after the COVID-19 pandemic, she transitioned from part-time to full-time artist. “My bosses were so supportive, and I’m so lucky to have had a long transition into my art career,” she said. “I believe my skills have improved at a glacial pace: seemingly slow until some great collapse of ice into the water. I didn’t realize how much just showing up and doing the work contributes to your skill and muscle memory until much later, and I would say the strong fear of failure has waned.”
Now, Jacqueline works in oils, graphite and watercolors, and was recently invited to join the American Academy of Equine Artists. She has a large portfolio of commissioned pieces, which she hopes will help her to get gallery representation soon. In the meantime, she’s working this year to make a gallery-ready collection within the equestrian, western or classic contemporary spheres, while also attending more horse shows with her 12-year-old Thoroughbred mare, Cattail Down, aka Tocalla.
Jacqueline’s journey may have been a bit circuitous, but it has her pointed in exactly the direction she wants to go. “Last year I flew back to Maryland to photograph new commissions, staying in the barn apartment at Dark Hollow—which is lined with their breeding trophies and has windows overlooking the pastures full of yearlings whose brothers and sisters I helped raise years earlier,” she said. “During one of the photo shoots for another client during that trip, I drank wine on the front porch of a 100-year-old farmhouse owned by a client commissioning me to paint their three pigs, who are absolutely adored. I watched the sun go down, and I couldn’t believe that this trip was so familiar to me but was also a completely new path I had to carve out—and one I am still carving.”
For more information, visit jacqmask.com or follow @Jacqmaskartist on Instagram
