Anne Corless

I love working as an Equine Artist!

I enjoy creating artwork for exhibitions and from time to time I accept commissions.  To find out more about what is involved, please go to ‘Commissions’ on this website.

Above: I am putting last minute finishing touches to this five foot wide oil painting entitled ‘A tribute to Lancashire Constabulary Mounted Branch.’

The reference for this painting came from time spent with the Mounted Branch.  I hope that this painting shows the remarkable relationship between these animals and their riders and the bond that they all share as they go about their sometimes challenging duties.

Limited Edition Giclee prints of this oil painting are now available for sale (and can be ordered) at Derby House Wrightington in Lancashire. The total print run will be 250 prints.  The image size of each print measures 17″ x 11 1/4″.  Prints are available with a written title on the mount by request and at extra cost.  Part of the proceeds of each sale will be donated to the Lancashire Retired Police Horse Benevolent Fund.

To contact Derby House, please visit the website:  http://www.derbyhouse.co.uk/Wrightington.htm

I am honoured to have been invited to exhibit this oil painting at Lancashire Constabulary Headquarters where it is now on show.

In the column on the right: From time to time I create illustrations of equines at World Horse Welfare Penny Farm near Blackpool and sell prints in their shop to help raise funds for the charity.  The equines there really do come in all shapes and sizes!  I hope my artwork helps in a small way to support the fantastic work that is done there.

My love of horses is why I now enjoy creating artwork of them.  I look for movement, expression…something interesting to turn the artwork into something dramatic or emotive.  Behind it all are the memories of what it is like to have your own horse.  Back in my twenties, having finished my nursing training in the UK,  I returned to live in Nairobi (where we lived for 11 years) where I was then able to buy two horses.  Well, the first was given to me really; I just had to buy the tack!  That was my sweet old polo pony Nugget who I loved hacking out on.  A vet friend then talked me into buying a race horse off the Nairobi Race Track as she had come across a very handsome 16.1 chesnut Thoroughbred gelding who was a schoolmaster and was about to be retired at age 6 years.  The  ‘trial’ ride out with the jockeys at the race track training yard one morning was interesting and they all had a good laugh; I had no control at all and no brakes.  I just did what everyone else did!  I was extremely daunted but excited by the responsibility of taking on a race horse and day one with Oasis did not go well; in our nervousness  (both Oasis and  me) I somehow ended up sliding down his neck feet first (luckily) and hitting the ground with a thud.  Happily that was the only exciting event and he turned out to be the most wonderful  friend I could imagine. We had a lot of fun having a go at one day eventing….not a lot of success though! Being disqualified in the dressage (not making it round the corner and going over the rope) was how it started really….but we got a bit better than that in the end. The question everyone used to ask me was if I ever took him out at a full gallop….and the answer was no, a fast canter was enough for me and I was never sure enough of my skills as a rider or the ground to dare risk any more. He was too precious. When I left Kenya I sadly sold him on…but to a fantastic home; to a lovely lady who was the Japanese Ambassadors wife in Kenya at the time who already had a top dressage horse and wanted another one for showjumping. She was a superb rider, very kind and careful with Oasis and she loved him……nearly as much as I did.