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Welcome to Painted Horse
Art
My name is Margaret
Stockdale and before you view my gallery
pages I hope you can take the time to
read the history about myself.
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History:
I was always drawing and
painting as a child. I won my first Art
Prize at 7 or 8 years of age. I was an
Advanced Art student throughout High
School.
In my early teens I
became totally obsessed with horses.
Soon after, I met my future husband at a
rodeo. After our marriage, we followed
the Professional Rodeo Circuit in
Australia for many years, my husband
being a Champion Bareback Rider. He is
featured in the Stockman’s Hall Of Fame,
Longreach. QLD. We spent a year in USA,
still involved with rodeo. During this
period, my art endeavours were minimal.
After retiring from the rodeo life, I
began to pursue my interest in art. I
entered my first major Art Show and took
out a top award. This provided the
encouragement I needed to keep going. I
began working with pastels and also
doing graphite drawings. My focus was
on portraiture. I received many
commissions for children and adult
portraits at this time.
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I pursued Tonal
Impressionism for some time, before
settling into Tonal Realism. I was now
focusing on painting Still Life, and
Plein Air Landscapes to hone my
technique. I completed a part time TAFE
course in painting and drawing in 1998.
I also taught art privately for some
time until my poor health made teaching
impossible. I still miss the
interaction with students.
I now use oils for
painting and graphite pencils for
drawing, as I feel I can achieve a
greater depth of sensitivity using these
media. I enjoy the expressive quality
of oil paint, and the tonal strength
that can be achieved by using graphite
pencils.
Subject Matter/Inspiration:
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I decided to
concentrate on my favourite
subject, horses. Equine
portraits are now the main
focus of my artworks, but I
also enjoy depicting
cattle. I love being around
the animals collecting
reference material to work
from, I would spend enormous
amounts of time with them if
I could. It is that
connection I feel with the
animals that I attempt to
infuse into my artworks of
them.
I paint what
I love, and I hope that
passion translates into the
portraits.
I am
passionate about all horses,
particularly their welfare
and am drawn to the methods
of the horse whisperers and
their philosophies. I hate
all forms of cruelty. I try
to promote gentleness and
kindness. I do love the
Western Breeds of horses,
especially the beautiful
American Paint Horse.
It can be a
real challenge to paint them
well, but worth the effort.
I have
serious health issues, this
limits my output, but my art
helps me to focus on
something positive and keeps
me motivated. I feel
blessed to have this gift
that can uplift others and
is of such enormous benefit
to my life as well. I am
most grateful.
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Awards:
I have won numerous
(between 40-50) art prizes and contests
over the time I’ve been producing
artworks, this despite limited showing
due to my ill health. I can’t recall
having entered an art show and not
taking home a prize. Two very memorable
wins were the Northern Daily Leader Art
Prize, a prestigious regional award, and
the Central Coast Health Award,
Gosford. NSW.
I’ve also won a number of
online art contests for painting and
photography. One of these was a juried
oil painting contest in New York.
I’ve held one solo Art
Exhibition at the Gloucester, NSW,
regional gallery in 2008, which was very
popular.
Resides:
I live with my husband
Kevin, and our whippet, Chloe on a farm
in the Krambach area, situated on the
Mid North Coast of NSW. A beautiful
area, I’m surrounded by cattle and
horses. Lots of inspiration.
Influences:
Having studied the work
of many and varied artists over the
years, including the old masters, the
impressionists, and the Meldrum school,
my present interest lies with American
Western Art. The horses, the cattle,
the Native American art, I guess I’m
just a western girl at heart. After
all, I married a cowboy didn’t I?
Aspirations:
My greatest desire
regarding my artwork is to be able to
reach my full potential despite my
physical limitations, to leave a lasting
impression on those who enjoy my work,
and to focus attention on the beauty and
majesty of Gods’ wonderful creations.
Copyright 2009-2013 ©Painted
Horse Art
All rights reserved.
No unauthorised use of photos, graphics or text from this web site
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