How do equine artists go about producingcommissions?

McCullagh’s commission of Dr Geoffrey Guy’s daughter of Multiplex, Seebeedee

Debbie Burt chats with leading equine artist Michelle McCullagh about the centuries’ old tradition of producing equine commissions for owners and breeders, a process that was once, before the advent of the camera, the only method of capturing a lasting image of that special horse

IT IS A tradition that is still very much alive in the 21st century and, thanks to the camera, patrons seeking a bespoke equine artwork no longer have to provide board and lodging whilst the artist works from life with their valued bloodstock for weeks on end.

Strong life drawing skills are still the foundation of the craft, however. They are essential for note-taking regarding colours, to capture an animal’s character that cannot always be accurately captured on camera, and for the arrangement of the composition.

Fortunately, it is one equestrian activity that has not been curtailed by the current coronavirus crisis; many artists are reporting that they are busier than ever. Such is the case for Michelle McCullagh.

Since graduating with a BA in Fine Art from Falmouth University in 2008, exploring the movement of animals has always been the driving force behind McCullagh’s paintings and drawings. Originally based on the Dorset and Somerset borders in 2017 she moved with her husband, the Olympic gold medallist sport shooter Peter Wilson, to a small-holding in Wales, close to the Shropshire Hills.

McCullagh working at home in the studio

McCullagh’s ghosting technique was successfully used in her commission for the Guards Polo Club

McCullagh has set up her studio at home, which has allowed her to accommodate the arrival of two daughters, Robyn and Etta at a time when she has been at her busiest with commissions. She also reports that motherhood has been a completely renewing and invigorating experience, giving fresh impetus to her work.

She has also joined a new rural community based within an idyllic landscape of rolling hills and forests, much favoured by walkers and horse riders, and suitable for artists, too – the parish website boasts that the inhabitants have a “fairly wide tolerance for personal eccentricities!”.

McCullagh’s most recent commissions have mostly been large scale works in the “ghosting” style that has become her trademark, though they have been interspersed with more standard portraits along the way.

Of the origins of that ghost technique she says: “It all started when I was spending a lot of time in Newmarket, watching horses at exercise on the Heath, filling countless sketch books with line drawings”.

The constraints of quickly recording images at speed meant that it was the top line of the horse’s head, jockey and tail that were constant. Combine that with with the constraints as to where you can stand to view, often with the horses against the morning sun, or on Warren Hill where they gallop between rails obscuring the legs, a new perspective was born.

“Back in the studio I realised how much I loved the drawings that captured so much movement, without showing the legs,” she says. “I kept playing with the dark lines until I realised that actually it was better to use the sun, catching the light and the highlights.”

As she progressed more colour was introduced to her palette.

“Initially the backgrounds were dark and the paintings almost monochrome, however I soon abandoned that as I realised it gave me the opportunity to play with colour – mostly when you paint animals your palette is very brown!” she laughs, before adding: “I then worked up a number of boards with different colours in stripes, to see how I could best mix the background colours.

Successfully exhibiting her new, more brightly coloured pieces at the Animal Art Fair in Chelsea gave her the confidence to pursue this avenue.

“It felt it was really exciting to use my racing drawings as a reference in this way, though I have also applied the technique to the Royal procession at Ascot and to hounds in the hunting field.

“I loved the way I could control the sense of movement, putting more detail in or taking it out – I have found that if you put more detail in the painting seems more still, and becomes static.”

Seebeedee in progress, the horse being superimposed over the owner’s house

“I kept playing with the dark lines until I realised that actually it was better to use the sun, catching the light and the highlights

In earlier pieces she combined this the ghosting technique with standard portraits, a method that she says “is very difficult to get right, without a painting becoming too busy”.

Nonetheless, for a commission by Guards Polo Club to mark the organisation’s 60th Anniversary, she felt it worked beautifully. The picture required that she conveyed a sense of the club’s history, using old images of HRH Prince Philip and other club captains, as well as suitable colours to give the piece an “aged” feel.

She adds that she found the large commission quite technically challenging as it combined four players, linked in play, galloping across the centre of the piece, overlaid with a portrait of HRH Prince Philip’s favourite pony.

What made it even more difficult was that the reference images were intentionally all from different periods, using kit appropriate to each era.

Securing such work comes through many avenues, and word of mouth obviously plays a large part. When McCullagh provided illustrations for a book commemorating the first 150 years of Wincanton Racecourse, the author and fellow equine artist George Bingham lived nearby.

“George already had a few of my drawings, it was a fun project and lovely because at the time it was local,” explains McCullagh.

Another former near neighbour is racehorse owner and breeder Dr Geoffrey Guy. When she painted his winning filly Seebeedee, she visited the filly in training at Harry Dunlop’s first capturing her form in both pencil and on camera, however the eventual backdrop was to be Dr Guy’s house.

Back in the studio on the canvas the horse came first, and only when she was happy with the outline, filled in quickly with big brush strokes, did she tackle the background brickwork.

“I had also taken lots of photos of the house at the same time of day as when I had visited the filly, but it was still quite a challenge to combine them,” she remembers. “When it was finished we had an unveiling party and the filly came and walked up and down in the garden in front of the house, that was a fun experience!”

McCullagh has certainly gained a following, and a patient one at that.

“One client bought one of my very early drawings and later kept a catalogue from my 2015 show – he had loved one of the long racing paintings I had exhibited and last year commissioned one in a similar colour,” she smiles.

Through lockdown, she worked on another similar piece. When approaching this type of commission, she says: “It’s very different to visiting a horse and producing a straight portrait when the client often has a very fixed idea of what they want.

“I’ll do a set of loose compositional drawings, say with five horses, then six horses, perhaps one is out in front a bit more in one.

“I will send these to the client, along with examples of previous paintings showing different colour backgrounds. We take it from there.”

A finished picture

She has discovered that there is more to this style of commission than just making a piece of attractive artwork.

“I find with the ghosting paintings the client tends to have a good idea of the location in their house and where the finished piece will be – so colours often become quite crucial. Once composition and colour have been agreed I get going – I keep the client updated with photographs once the initial layout stages have passed and there’s a bit of a colour down.”

There is still scope for fine tuning once the painting has been started, she says: “With oils it’s easy to alter the colours if need be. It’s same if a horse or rider needs to be changed or emphasised in any way.”

Once the piece is finished, regardless of the painting style employed, McCullagh will always offer the client the original reference drawings as part of the process.

With clients spread across the country, moving location to some three hours from where she established her career has not affected business, though she admits some travel has been a bit more challenging.

The upsurge in commissions combined with the changing circumstances of her personal life has meant that it has been nearly five years since she had a solo show in London.

Plans are well underway to remedy this absence, and, Covid19 allowing, the intention is for a major exhibition in the West End leading up to Christmas 2021.