Cirque de Cheval

Wonder · Memory · Movement · Grace

An Equestrian Fine Art Collection in Progress

Some art collections arrive fully formed. Others reveal themselves slowly, like a memory you didn’t realize you were holding until something brings it back to life.

Cirque de Cheval began that way — not as a single image, but as a feeling.

This equestrian fine art collection is rooted in nostalgia. In the kind of childlike wonder that lingers long after childhood itself has passed. The magic of carousel horses turning endlessly beneath painted lights. The thrill of choosing a piece of bubble gum at the grocery checkout — candy-colored, fleeting, and somehow unforgettable. Cirque de Cheval is currently unfolding piece by piece in the studio, guided by intuition, memory, and material exploration.

An Equestrian Art Collection Rooted in Memory

At its heart, Cirque de Cheval is about remembering — not things as they were, but as they live on.

Carousel horses I once rode with my grandmother come to life and canter away, freed from their poles and painted lights. Candy-colored hues recall the small thrills of bubble gum wrapped in promise. Gold leaf glimmers like caramel, flaxen manes, and dust suspended in the glow of an evening ride.

These memories aren’t recreated literally. They are translated — softened, layered, and allowed to evolve into something timeless.

Materials That Hold Meaning

Onto each wooden panel and canvas, I build luminous grounds using rich oil pigments in candy-inspired tones — blush pinks, lilacs, bright blues, and sun-warmed neutrals — colors pulled directly from memory. Some are playful. Others are restrained. Together, they create a visual language that feels both whimsical and considered.

Throughout the collection, 23k gold leaf appears in delicate, intentional parts of the compositions. It catches the light the way memories do — unexpectedly, briefly, and beautifully. The surfaces are tactile and layered, meant to be experienced slowly, revealing depth over time.

These materials ground the work in fine art tradition while leaving room for whimsy and play.

Carousel Horses Come to Life

The horses in Cirque de Cheval are painted loosely and impressionistically, alive with motion. Their forms are not rigid or static; they toss their heads, shift their weight, breathe.

Flowers and feathers replace traditional manes — celebratory, expressive, and untamed. These adornments are not costume, but symbol: freedom, joy, and self-expression. Carousel horses imagined not as objects, but as living beings who have stepped off the wheel and into their own agency.

Behind them, stenciled stripes echo the architecture of vintage circus tents — a nod to spectacle, performance, and the romance of the traveling show.

Between Maximalism and Restraint

Visually, Cirque de Cheval moves between two worlds.

At times the compositions lean into maximalism: layered patterns, ornament, shimmer. At others, they quiet themselves completely — distilled down to a single color field, a single gesture, a single memory held still.

This contrast mirrors memory itself: sometimes vivid and overflowing, sometimes quiet and singular.

Inspired by Human–Animal Partnership

This collection is also inspired by the deep relationships between people and animals — partnerships built on trust, intuition, and shared movement.

Vintage photographs have long inspired me: women riding bareback, diving into pools below. Feathered ponies galloping in formation while a barefoot performer balances across their backs. Jeweled horses resting beside their riders, living not as performers alone, but as companions.

These images speak to devotion, courage, and grace — to what is possible when animals and humans move together.

A Collection in Progress

Cirque de Cheval is still unfolding in the studio, guided by curiosity and care. Allowing this collection to develop slowly has been an intentional choice — one that honors the depth of its inspiration and the craftsmanship behind each piece.

This body of work lives in that space between reality and imagination. Between childhood and adulthood. Between structure and freedom.

It is romantic. It is playful. It is at times edited and at others indulgent. Above all, it is an invitation — to remember, to wonder, and to believe, even briefly, that anything is possible.