Sea Horses (oil on canvas 5 x 7 in.) SOLD!

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29 September finds us driving the winding, hilly Nova Scotia highway #215 east along the north coast as evening falls. Each tiny community has its own old white frame community hall and every road to the right winds up into forested hills. The trees are compact in shape, not fluffy and rangy as they are farther inland, and the crowns of big trees are smoothly rounded.

We drive slowly. I am looking for a high seaside view for today's painting. The crest of each hill shows us the gleaming sea beyond sloping fields of small farms.  Some hayfields all frosted with blueish asters and others uniform green.

Then I see them and we stop. Two stout, creamy-coloured horses, one following the other up to the barn from their seaside pasture. The leader has a black stripe up the centre of its stiff upright mane. Perhaps this is the Fjord Horse, an ancient breed from Norway.

Comments

  1. Kay L. DaviesOctober 1, 2010 at 4:59 PM

    I had never heard of the Fjord horse, so I looked them up, and the Canadian Fjord Horse Association's webpage features a photo of a horse just like this one, so I'm sure you're right. You are an amazing naturalist, Aleta, with your knowledge of plants and animals. I'm so glad I decided to follow your blog and I hope some day to be able to buy one of your paintings.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aleta KarstadOctober 1, 2010 at 5:29 PM

    Thank you for your enthusiastic encouragement, Kay! I didn't know about Fjord Horses either, until I googled them up today on a very slow wilderness internet connection in the process of writing the text for my post! Now I've changed my mind about which breed of horse I would like if I ever get a horse - used to be Arabian. Now it's Fjord - there's definitely a resonance with my nordic roots.

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