Lauren Pitylak: Where Equine Photography and Fine Art Collide

By Shya Beth   Up-and-coming 22-year-old artist Lauren Pitylak has a multifaceted worldview—a view that she shares with her audience through multiple forms of artistic media. Whether she’s in her studio painting or stepping off a plane for a photo shoot, Lauren’s eye for detail and style makes her work stand out amongst the crowd.
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John Plishka: Rekindling His Artistic Fire

By Shya Beth  John Plishka has a love for animals and history that has led him on a path to becoming a small animal veterinarian as well as an artist, and he’s had several once-in-a-lifetime adventures along the way.  Always having an interest in both art and animals from a young age, John grew up
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Will Ersland: Brought Back to Horses by Art

By Shya Beth  Will Ersland’s philosophy is that to be a great equine artist, you should be a good rider and know horses inside and out. That definitely could be said for Will, who has been constantly learning all things equine for most of his life. From jumping and foxhunts to Western riding, driving, snowy
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Mindy Colton: Sculpting a Passion for Horses

By Shya Beth Surrounded by horses all her life, sculptor Mindy Colton has followed her passion that has led her to explore the depths of the equestrian world. From showing in various disciplines to creating one-of-a-kind sculptures, Mindy’s love of the horse and creativity has entranced horse lovers around the world. Now living in Orlando,
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Jennifer Mack’s Contemporary Fine Art

By Lauren R. Giannini Canadian artist Jennifer Mack isn’t like most horse painters. She perceives these magnificent creatures of energy and spirit as the epitome of freedom and always depicts them unbridled. Even on a 13-inch laptop, her horses, even the ones standing still, appear to explode off the screen in colors ranging from vivid
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Shya Beth — Artistic Wunderkind

By Lauren R. Giannini For Shya Beth, who turns 15 next May, life on the farm in Sussex County, New Jersey, is just about perfect. She has ducks, chickens, geese, alpacas, cats, one donkey, a pony and two horses. Best of all, Shya and her mother, Mary Beth, share their passion for art and horses.
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Yvonne Todd — Animal Portraits, Naturally

By Lauren R. Giannini As a child, Yvonne Todd loved gifts and her favorites provided the means to express her passion for art: a box of 64 crayons with built-in pencil sharpener from her mother and package of typing paper from her father. She found creative bliss among all the colors she used to fill
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Anita Baarns: Every Portrait Starts With the Eyes

By Lauren R. Giannini Anita Baarns started out, to use her words, “doing very abstract works” and was even granted a U.S. patent in 1992 for her process of creating artworks by an application of crayon and ink. Obviously, her muse had other plans. While earning her bachelor of arts in studio fine arts at
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Keller Jones — Passion for Painting and Portraits

By Taylor Renner As a young girl, Keller Jones was a typical barn rat. Copying drawings she found in equitation books growing up was the first sign that she possessed another passion besides horses: She had a passion — and gift — for art. Keller took her first painting class in the fifth grade and
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Julie Ferris — Life As An Equestrian Artist

By Jan Westmark Julie Ferris was one of those kids who drew horses all the time. All of her friends asked her to draw horses for them, and she did. In high school, however, her teachers told her she wasn’t allowed to paint any horses because it was too “kitschy” a subject. It’s hard to
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