ICON HORSES

Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches, 1988

(Private collection, Orlando, Florida)

As the title of this painting implies, it was inspired by images of horses on Russian icons.  Particularly fascinating are the iconic graceful forms of the animals and their colors, ranging from expected white, black, or brown to the extraordinary--yellow, red, and orange.  In this painting the artist even showed one of the horses in magenta.  In addition to including a simple scene with Cossacks and horses, enriched by fanciful trees, plants and flowers, this painting is distinguished by the gold background and the black sky.  The sky was a deliberate stylistic borrowing from Russian lacquer boxes and the gold background from icon painting. The artist's signature is located on the boat, as in several other paintings.

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