Sophy Brown | Colorado
Up until the year 2001 my work was entirely abstract, with an interest in root rectangles, color progressions and repetition as a form of change. There was a period of time where I funded the making of these by painting for the theatre, painting trompe l’oeil, mural commissions, and working on horse farms.
My paintings have been populated with horses since 2002, when I was commissioned to paint a mural with 15 life size horses and riders. The studio was swiftly full of drawings and studies for this and my work took a completely new direction, bringing together two passions of mine. At the time I had an ex-racehorse that was hardwired to run and was prone to anxiety and agitation. Stressed, he’d sweat, his muscles would bunch and tremble, head high, eyes wide and every fiber of him would be ready to move. I’d feel a tight and complicated knot of empathy. I recognized his inner state and knew it in my bones in a fundamental way. Like looking in a mirror.
Watching horses, their responses to each other, their people, and their environment, I see all emotional life there. They are instinctive, physical, and show without filter their inner state, something that in people is often hidden and complicated. Standing securely in their place in nature, they speak to us on a visceral level reminding us of our own animal skin. Living in the heart of the American West where the horse is connected firmly in a practical past and lives large in contemporary culture, I find a deep pool of resources and inspiration.
Over the past 25 years my work has been represented in galleries in Colorado, Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
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