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Monday, October 26 2015 / Published in Weekly Feature

Yvonne Todd — Animal Portraits, Naturally

American Pharoah, 14” x 11”, Scratchboard, New Editions Gallery

American Pharoah, 14” x 11”, Scratchboard, New Editions Gallery

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 the sheets with her drawings. She devoured horse books, savoring everything illustrated by Paul Brown. When her family lived in northern New Jersey, Yvonne’s 8th grade art teacher organized little field trips to museums in New York.

“Loretta Pierson took three or four of us into the city on her own time,” said Yvonne. “We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where I saw Rosa Bonheur’s ‘The Horse Fair’ for the first time — I sat on the floor and didn’t move for an hour. I’m still fascinated by that painting. I’ve drawn pieces of it, but never tried to do the whole painting. It’s overwhelming. It’s huge and so complicated. I’ll never forget that I made the decision to be an artist while sitting on the floor looking at ‘The Horse Fair.’ That painting changed the whole trajectory of my life.”

Escaping the Heat, 16” x 20”, Oil on board, Private Collection

Escaping the Heat, 16” x 20”, Oil on board, Private Collection

Bluegrass Education
During her New Jersey years, Yvonne spent time at Seaton Hackney Farm that produced seven world champion hackney ponies. “Bert Beck ran a riding stable there with 28 school horses,” Yvonne said. “He made me even more horse-crazy, giving me extra attention during lessons and when I helped around the barn. He was a wonderful teacher, an old-fashioned horseman, and the horse always came first.

“In 1965, I went down to Kentucky to go to Transylvania in Lexington, but I wasn’t really happy about it until I drove into town and saw horse farm after horse farm,” she continued. “That’s when I got back all my youthful exuberance. The entire area was my idea of horse heaven on earth.”

Yvonne earned her bachelor’s degree in fine arts, but realized from the start that she didn’t fit into Transylvania’s art program. “I was more interested in painting realistically and everyone else was into modern and throwing paint onto the canvas,” she recalled. “I got As in my courses, but I was on my own, especially when I refused to stop painting horses.”

Wise Dan, 11’ x 14’, Oil on Canvas

Wise Dan, 11’ x 14’, Oil on Canvas

About 10 years after graduating and settling in the Lexington area, Yvonne ran into her teacher/faculty advisor. “I told him I’m married, I have a couple kids, and I’m still painting horses,” she said. “I’ll never forget what he said to me: ‘Of all the students I had at Transylvania, you were the only one who knew exactly where they wanted to go and I was too stupid to know it.’ He was a wonderful guy. He did incredible welded sculptures. After that, he called me several times to tell me about an art show he thought would suit my work.”

Yvonne continued, “He always told me, ‘Even though you’re painting realistically, don’t just rely on photos. You have to paint from the heart and put some emotion into it.’ He passed away a while back, but painting with emotion is something I continually think about in terms of my art.”

Mousing Fox, 6’ x 8”, Oil on board, Private Collection

Mousing Fox, 6’ x 8”, Oil on board, Private Collection

Golden Age of Art
Yvonne lives with her tolerant husband, Donald Todd, a cat, two dogs and eight horses on their farm in Lexington. They have two sons and a daughter, and four grandchildren. Yvonne started riding when she was 10 and, although she hasn’t ridden in about a year, has never fallen out of love with horses. She still has that connection with equines and it shows in her work.

“I paint primarily in oils and the largest canvas I’ve ever done is 30 by 40 inches. More recently, I did a 30 by 24 inch painting of Triple Crown champion American Pharoah,” said Yvonne. “Each year, I do the Kentucky Derby winner for a corporation in downtown Lexington and we’re negotiating about doing the Triple Crown winner in color. Every year, I go to the Blessing of the Hounds at Iroquois Hunt and Woodford Hounds. I’m surrounded by inspiration, and the Kentucky Horse Park is a regular destination for me every couple of weeks.”

Yvonne was commissioned by the Alltech FEI 2010 World Equestrian Games to do pen-and-ink drawings of the three-day cross-country fences and the marathon obstacles for combined driving. For 38 years, she has provided sketches of the cross-country fences for the official program of the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event. Yvonne’s work currently hangs in Damselfly Gallery in Midway. In September and October, she participated in the Breeders’ Cup exhibition with six scratchboards at New Editions Gallery in Lexington.

Check, 16” x 20”, Oil on board

Check, 16” x 20”, Oil on board

One thing Yvonne noticed is that people tend to have room for smaller paintings rather than bigger canvases. “I’ve been doing smaller pieces because they sell,” she said. “You can rearrange things on your walls more easily for a piece that’s 8 by 10 or 11 by 14. I also paint 6 by 8s and put them on little easels. I’ve sold a lot of foxes in that format. I’ve been working with a new medium, scratchboards, used in the late 1800s for medical illustrations, because you can get very detailed with them. I’ve been experimenting with colored inks, which maintain their true values, on my scratchboards of horses, foxes, squirrels, wolves, backstretch racing scenes, etc. Scratchboards are very different from working in oil and graphite. It’s been a bit of an adventure.”

California Chrome, 14” x 11”, Graphite, Private Collection

California Chrome, 14” x 11”, Graphite, Private Collection

Yvonne has established herself as a sensitive painter of animals. Her work reflects 19th century “animalier” artists who specialized in realistic portrayals of animals. However, Yvonne, like Rosa Bonheur, goes farther, injecting her paintings with artistic legerdemain and magic, allowing a glimpse into the creature’s very nature and essence. Sometimes, the focal point is the eyes, but more often an attitude — joie de vivre, wisdom, humor, scolding — expressed in the physical corporeality of horse, dog, fox or bird. Her landscapes, even those seemingly devoid of animals, invite exploration.

“I’d like my art to help people embrace the magic and beauty of the world around them,” said Yvonne, “be it an incredible tree, the curve of a horse’s back, or the spectacle of horses standing in the field, flicking their tails, communing with each other and nature. I feel very lucky to be able to get up every morning and go into my studio and do what I love, creating images that reflect what I love best about the world.”

For more information visit, www.yvonnetodd.com.

Artist Yvonne Todd enjoys a moment with some hounds.

Artist Yvonne Todd enjoys a moment with some hounds.

Photos courtesy of Yvonne Todd

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Tagged under: equestrian art, equestrian-artist, horse-art, yvonne todd

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Hot horseman takeover day 6️⃣!!! 🔥Jorge Va Hot horseman takeover day 6️⃣!!!

🔥Jorge Vasquez🔥
Between his polo career—from groom to coach—and a love of travel, Jorge Vasquez has been to 60 countries, all seven continents, all 50 states and seen all seven wonders of the world—some of them twice. “I’ve been to China, Egypt, India, Dominican Republic, Argentina, a lot of places to play polo,” Jorge said. “I wish travel was my full-time job!”
Jorge is originally from Santiago, Chile, where his dad was a racehorse trainer and his uncle played polo. “I was too cool for school,” Jorge joked, “So I ended up having to do polo.” But Jorge isn’t complaining. There are “a million things” he loves about polo. “Obviously the 
adrenaline, and then the horses—the horses are very special,” he said. “They’re very well trained, and there’s something really special about a polo pony that can read your body and take you wherever you want to go—most of the time without asking any questions!”
Now living in Lexington, Kentucky, Jorge coaches the University of Kentucky polo team, is the U.S. Polo Association midstates circuit governor and is the polo manager at Gainesway Farm, 
where he also recently became the official tour guide. “I stay busy when I’m at home—that’s why I travel!” Jorge laughed, a common occurrence with his easygoing personality. “I like to think I’ve lived a pretty good life, and I get rejuvenated by teaching the game and teaching 
young horses how to play polo. That’s my favorite thing about the sport—teaching horses to play.”

With over 30 years in the industry, Jorge’s biggest takeaway from horses is, “The nicer you 
ask, the easier you’ll get results.” With all his experience, Jorge hopes to pass on the gifts of patience and understanding to those within his sphere of influence. “And that if you pay it forward long enough,” he added, “it will eventually pay you back.”
📸Photo by Kacy Brown
Hot horseman takeover day 5️⃣!!! 🔥Jet Rusi Hot horseman takeover day 5️⃣!!!

🔥Jet Rusidovski🔥
It wasn’t horses that took Jet Rusidovski from his hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to where he lives now in Austin, Texas, in 2008. It was the weather. “I came down to visit family down here and it was negative 30 degrees in Wisconsin and it was 60 degrees here, and that was the end of it,” Jet said.

He grew up braving the cold on horseback in Wisconsin, riding and showing hunter-
jumpers from the time he was 4 all through his Junior career. “When adult life started, I had to juggle adult life and horses, and then it became my profession,” he said. Jet now works for Kelly Lorek at Southern Way Farm, training both horses and clients and traveling to shows all over the country. “Our program has been growing by leaps and bounds in the last year, and that says we’re doing something right!”

Jet hopes his experience as part of a successful program will help instill in others that everyone deserves a chance. “There were definitely times in my career I was not given a chance, and Kelly is the one who really gave me that chance,” Jet shared. “She didn’t judge me for mistakes I made in the past, she didn’t hold anything against me—she saw that I had the potential and she gave me the chance to actually show it. She gave the right coaching and the right guidance to get me where I am today, and I feel I’m in a really great place with unlimited opportunities at this point in my career.” When not traveling to shows, Jet travels to Wisconsin to visit family (weather permitting, of course) and would love to revisit childhood vacation spots in Greece and Europe, or check out the weather in Hawaii. He also prioritizes catching up with friends outside of the horse world. “If people see me around at a horse show, don’t be afraid to say hi!” he said. 
“Sometimes I’m so concentrated it looks like I want nothing to do with anyone; I’m actually just deep in thought or something. But I love to say hi to everybody.”
📸Photo by Kristie Scholten
Day 4️⃣ of our hot horseman takeover! 🔥Jo Day 4️⃣ of our hot horseman takeover! 
🔥Jonathan Cohen🔥
Most riders aren’t born into professional equestrian families; some lucky ones, like Jonathan Cohen, end up spending so much time at the barn they are practically adopted into them. 
Jonathan fell in love with horses at a friend’s birthday party while he was growing up in downtown Chicago, Illinois. At 16, he began riding with Alex Jayne—and now works for Alex’s Our Day Farm. “I’m sandwiched right between his three children in terms of age, so apart from missing their earliest years, we’ve basically grown up together,” Jonathan said. “I’m incredibly fortunate to work for a family that treats me like family.”
Jonathan’s title is barn manager. “But the job description is very loose—that’s what keeps it interesting,” he said. After he gets done riding in the morning, he starts on whatever needs to be done around the farm—which perfectly suits his love of “projects.” Outside of work and horses, Jonathan puts that passion for building into home renovation; when he’s completely renovated one home, he sells it and moves on to the next. “I love building stuff, especially when it’s something that meets a very specific need and can’t just be bought,” he said. “I’ll see things I can make better, I start working on the idea in my head, and more often than not I end up building it.”

Our Day Farm splits its time between Elgin, Illinois, and Wellington, Florida. When in Illinois, Jonathan spends much of his time building jumps. “I like to replicate some of the more interesting things we see over the course of the season, as well as anything our horses might need to practice,” he said. Clearly, Jonathan loves what he does. “I’m super lucky that when I wake up every day, I don’t have to go to work. I just go to the barn. It’s my job, and it’s definitely a lot of work most days, but really I’m just going to the barn like any other day.”
📸Photo by Melissa Fuller
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