horseshoes

I've begun working on my horseshoe series. I've taken old horseshoes and primed and stretched canvas in them, creating little vignettes. I still haven't quite figured out how I'm going to hang them or set them up on a table, but that will fall into place eventually.

I'm drawing on my style of primal cave-art horses, and adding the personalities and colors of the horses at the barn. Some of them have the goddess figure riding them, other's don't. I found most of the shoes at this barn, either inside the barn itself hanging on the wall braces, or out in the pasture where some horse lost a shoe long ago. They are all rusty and aged, and each one tells a story- the shape of a particular foot (no two feet are the same exact shape on a horse, which is why a farrier needs to shape each shoe to fit the hoof). The wear patterns are indicitive of the horse's way of moving or lameness. Some shoes were pulled or thrown before much wear set in, others are almost worn through at the toes. Each shoe wears slightly differently on each foot. The front and back feet are shaped quite a bit differently, as well. The front feet tend to be rounder, and the hinds narrower and oblong. The shades or rust or metal and the shape of the shoe is speaking to me as I work on each one, hinting at what colors I should use, and what sort of figure I should paint.