Page 14 - June 2018 Speedhorse

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by Jennifer K. Hancock
SPEEDHORSE COVER ARTIST GINNY HARDING
As 2018 races past the mid-way point, Speedhorse honors the bottom side of the pedigree and salutes the dams behind our industry’s fastest horses. Before reaching this column, your eyes greeted the cover and one of the latest works by artist Ginny Harding.
While the ever-humble Harding refers to herself as an illustrator rather than an artist, there’s no debate on the talent that she possesses and the magic she cre- ates with her colored pencils drawing racing’s greatest athletes and others that
might not have captured a
Triple Crown but definitely
stole their owners’ hearts.
Harding’s love and appreciation of equine ath- letes flows from her heart through her pencils. She jokes that her pieces are created from left to right so she doesn’t smudge as she works, but in actuality, her work begins with the eye.
“Someone asked me if I
start out with dark or light,
and I said, ‘I start at the
left and work to the right,’”
Harding said with a laugh.
“I start on the left side
so I don’t get my hand in
what I had already done. I
couldn’t think how to put
it into words, since I do it so much, but I put the dark down first because, with colored pencil, the lighter the color, the waxier the pencil. You can’t put dark on top of the light.
“I actually start with the eye,” Harding continues. “If I mess up an eye, I have to start all over again. The eye of that particular horse – if the eye doesn’t look right, or if it isn’t set right, it doesn’t look like that horse. I start with the eye and then I work from left to right. The eye is the beginning of every picture.”
Harding has drawn horses all of her life and began by giving her creations as gifts. While she’s tried other mediums, she found her niche by creating a base with a graphite black and white drawing and then adding color with pencils.
“I wanted to do oil,” Harding said. “I had two small children at the time. It would take me such a long time to prepare to work and such a long time to clean up, I didn’t like it and I couldn’t get the detail. I thought, I wonder what I could do with colored pencils? I could just pick them up and draw when
I had time. So, they worked out really well for me
and I stuck with them because I love them. I can get the detail I want. I probably wouldn’t call myself
an artist, I’d call myself an illustrator. I labor over them – a labor of love – but I labor over them to get them to look exactly like the horse it’s supposed to be. That’s what I love. I tried loosening up my work, and I wasn’t happy with it. I always end up going back.
“As far as being able to sit down with brush strokes, I wouldn’t consider myself an artist,” Harding continued. “I illustrate that horse. That’s
my goal, to make it look like that horse. I start by laying out a graphite drawing. Color pencil is not forgiving, so once I start the color, I can’t paint over it or erase
it. It’s not as forgiving in that way. That’s why I put the image down first. Then, I can go from there.”
Harding credits Millie Vessels for being one of her first clients after Vessels commissioned Harding to draw the first 12 Champion of Champions winners for
a calendar. In 2006, Hard- ing received the American Quarter Horse Association’s Mildred Vessels Special Achievement Award, an honor made more special by
the reminder of her friend’s involvement in starting her professional art career.
“I love it,” Harding said. “I feel so blessed to be able to do something that I love. I know that’s a very special thing and not everybody gets to have a job that they absolutely love. I thank God every day for that.”
Harding’s studio is located at the foot of the Horse Heaven Hills in Kennewick, Washington, and is named Horse Heaven Gallery. She shares her vast archives and knowledge with her fans through her gallery’s Facebook page at facebook.com/horsehavengallery
Harding usually travels the country with camera in hand to capture her subjects.
“As soon as I see the pictures, my imagination runs away,” Harding said of the 2017 Speedhorse Co-Broodmares of the Year. “These mares are both great producers. I can’t even imagine what it must feel like to own a mare like that. Celebrating those great horses and giving mare recognition, I think it’s a wonderful thing. The first thing I look at when I look at a horse’s pedigree is what mare is the horse out of. That’s the first thing that I want to see.”
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SPEEDHORSE, June 2018
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