The art of the royal horse
BETWEEN a trip to Muscat to see the Royal Cavalry of Oman and a late evening at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, equestrian artist Freddy Paske has barely had a moment to catch his breath. ‘It’s mad,’ he says, as he prepares to return to Windsor again. ‘But it’s fantastic to be able to capture these incredible equine institutions.’
Mr Paske is the Platinum Jubilee artist-in-residence, tasked with creating paintings and sculptures of the ceremonial horses that will take part in this year’s celebrations. He grew up surrounded by horses—‘we had a policy at home where you had to ride before you could walk,’ he recalls—and that affinity opened the doors to his artistic career. He first took a project with the Household Cavalry (page 164), then ‘slowly’ added racehorses to his portfolio. ‘A lot of people liked how I captured horses and that spurred me on: 90% of the time when you photograph a horse, it’s very awkward —legs are in the wrong place, the expression isn’t right. It’s [about] knowing your horses… to really portray their character.’
Having been artist-in-residence for the Household Cavalry in 2017, last year, he was asked to reprise the role for the Jubilee year. ‘I thought it was an amazing opportunity to capture not only the horses, but all ceremonial horses on parades, so I approached the Royal Mews. Before I knew it, the Crown Equerry had put my work in front of The Queen and she approved the role.’ He then spoke to the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery ‘and they said yes, which was incredible. We coined the term “artist-inresidence during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee”—and it began’.
Since then, Mr Paske has travelled across the world to take the sketches and photographs that he will develop into artwork at his studio in Oxfordshire for an exhibition in December (www.freddypaske.com). With such an intense seven months ahead of him, it’s no surprise that, after the show, he plans to take ‘a bit of a pause’ before exploring wildlife art. Unless, that is, horses call to him again. CP