ENTER THE DRAGON
Celeste Huska shows off Cintaura at the Royal West international show jumping tournament at Stampede Park’s Agrium Centre on Friday. Artist Lucie Brouillard, who usually paints children’s faces, spent more than three hours transforming the horse into Drogon, from the popular Game of Thrones television series.
She’s transformed the faces of sweet little girls into fierce lions, made entire bodies into colourful kaleidoscopes.
More than two decades into her career as a face and body painter, though, one painting subject has eluded Lucie Brouillard. “I grew up around horses,” says the former farm girl from Quebec. “I love being around them, I love the smell of barns.”
On Friday, the 2010 body painting world champion is finally combining two of her greatest loves, as she spends hours painting Cintaura, a 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood.
When completed, Cintaura and her rider, Celeste Huska, will stride into the ring at the Stampede’s Agrium Centre, competing for both ribbons for jumping and bragging rights as the best costume at the Royal West international show jumping tournament (royalwest.org).
“We don’t know what the prize is,” says Huska, who’ll be dressed as Daenerys from the Game of Thrones TV series, atop the green horse doing her best as Drogon, one of the show’s starring dragons. “But we think we have a good chance at winning.”
The finale of the western Canadian tournament season, Royal West offers more than a halfmillion dollars in prize money. Since its inaugural event three years ago, it has also included a costume competition, because of its proximity on the calendar to Halloween.
For Cintaura’s owner, Cathy Pchajek, the theme is in keeping with her other love, the American fantasy drama that has captured the imagination of viewers around the world.
“We’re pretty big fans,” she says as she and husband Paul Westwood help Brouillard begin to cover the horse in a deep green, non-toxic paint that washes off easily. “Plus, it’s pretty fun to see your horse done up like a dragon.”
When Pchajek came up with the idea, she thought of doing it herself. Then, she discovered that one of the world’s best body painters just happened to live in the Calgary area when she came across Brouillard’s website, luciebrouillard.com.
“I saw what amazing work she did, so I called her up and told her what we wanted to do with Cintaura,” she says. “Lucie jumped at it, she was so excited.”
About the only kind of canvas that doesn’t interest her is that of the cotton or linen kind. “A body is so much more interesting,” says Brouillard, who studied art at college in Quebec, then stumbled into her vocation when a friend suggested she do some face painting at the Montreal Jazz Fest.
While the occupation may be novel to some, in her home province it was an already crowded field. “I came west to find my new territory,” she says. “I also love the open space here and the attitude that anything you want to do, you can do it.”
Her business is wide and varied, everything from face painting at children’s parties to corporate events and ad campaigns. “I love the variety,” says Brouillard, who also makes her own jewelry. “No two days are the same, no two canvases are alike.”
In the mid-2000s, Brouillard, a mom of two preteens, also began competing at the World Body Painting Festival, which takes place each summer in Austria. In 2010, she was crowned best in the world.
“I don’t go back now, because I got the first place I wanted,” she says. “I like to take on new challenges.”
Taking on her first horse subject, she says, fits right in with that philosophy. “I have always loved horses,” she says, noting she met Cintaura earlier in the week when she came to test out colour samples for just the right dragon tint. “She is a very nice horse.”
According to Pchajek, the horse is sharing in the enjoyment. “She is loving it,” she says of the horse she bought eight years ago. “You can tell she is loving the attention, getting the massages from us while Lucie is painting her.”
As for her artwork being a fleeting image, Brouillard doesn’t mind one bit. “It makes people happy,” she says of her living, breathing canvases. “It makes me happy.”