Two things last year sent me back to a childhood passion. I read Geraldine Brooks' 'Horse' novel, about the champion racehorse Lexington.  And I had a sunner September day on the cliffs above Rhosili Beach on the Gower Peninsular.  I went to see the sea.  What I hadn't anticipated was the herd of beautiful ponies.  I loved horses as a child, and often drew them, but have not done so for years.  I took a great many photos, staying at a respectful distance from any ponies clearly uncomfortable with humans, but getting closer to those who were untroubled.  

The result of these two triggers is a series of many pencil sketches and three oli paintings.  (The grey, above, the piepald and the chestnut below.)

I dedicate these to the memory of the newborn foal, startled by a selfish and unthinking tourist who startled it, and caused it to fall to its death, just two days after I took my photos.  (I was horrified to learn of this, a few days later, having seen that very foal being led into the gorse for protection. I had kept a long way away.) The foal appears in the background of my second painting.

Horse sketches from the Rhosili Bay visit