Year of the Water Horse

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Year of the Water Horse by Amy Crook

One of the design projects I do every year is the Starcycles Calendar, a dayplanner-style appointment book with an astrological bent by Georgia Stathis. For me, the covers are always my favorite part, and something I look forward to every year. 2002 was year of the Water Horse in Chinese astrology, and at the time Georgia had a guest writer who contributed an essay to the book. We were still doing them in print with these three-panel coves that wrapped around, and so when I found this giant 18″x36″ canvas, I just knew I had to use it for that project.

When we were discussing ideas for the cover, I kept thinking of the various stories and legends of horses or unicorns born out of the foam of the ocean, and being the good sport she is, Georgia let me run with it. I first painted the sunny beach in blues and sandy browns with its white, foam-capped surf coming in, and then added the mysterious watery horses with soft pastels on top of the canvas, once it was dry.

Year of the Water Horse, 18″x36″, oil and pastel on canvas.

Above is a study I did of just the horses, and below you can see a photo of the painting before I put the horses in.

Categories: Floating Gallery
Tags: beach, horse, nfs, oil painting, sold, starcycles