A Child’s Love For Animals: My Nostalgic Roots
An underpainting for a colour study for the painting “The First Ascendant”
From horse rides to spiritual paintings - tracing the golden thread of a lifelong bond with animals.
From the earliest days I can remember, animals have been the golden thread weaving peace, purpose, and presence into the fabric of my life. But it was the horse that first whispered to my soul.
I began horse riding at just four years old - small boots, unsteady hands, and a heart wide open to the sacred bond between human and animal. Sitting on the back of a pony, I felt free, and a total sense of belonging. It was less about control and more about communion. That early bond has remained one of the most defining threads in my life.
On my eighth birthday, my father gave me a gift that forever shaped the way I saw animals: the book Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. That book, still in my possession and weathered with love, was the first time I truly heard the voice of an animal - not just in story, but in spirit. Sewell’s words gave voice to what I had always sensed: that animals feel deeply, that they suffer quietly, and that their loyalty, sorrow, and spirit are divine in nature.
White Horses by Alfredo Palmero
By the age of ten, I was completely captivated. I had fallen in love with a painting called White Horses by Spanish artist Alfredo Palmero. It hung above my bed - a beacon of movement, mystery, and majesty. That painting has followed me ever since. No matter where I’ve lived, it has remained above my bed, like a spiritual guardian reminding me of who I am at my core.
It is no surprise then that my current colour study - an underpainting of a woman and a white horse standing amidst clouds and divine golden light - echoes this lifelong love. In this piece, the woman represents my soul, and the horse, my eternal companion. Golden threads swirl and weave through the sky, symbolising my sacred connection to animals and the divine path they lead me on. It’s a painting of reunion, of return - of where heaven meets earth.
This is more than art. It is memory, spirit, and calling.
It is the child within me painting the love that never left.
