Her technique is unusual, what de Fontaine calls wet on wet. The process begins with a detailed sketch of the horse on paper or canvas. Water is then applied to the material followed by wet acrylic paint, diluted to watercolor consistency.

 

“Once I have the technical aspects of the horse down, I can turn on my favorite music, close the door and let the emotional aspect of the horse emerge,” de Fontaine said. “The more water, the less I can control it so it gives space for something spiritual to happen on the canvas.”

 

De Fontaine attributes her deep understanding of horses to the fact that she was an only child growing up in rural Mountain View.

 

“Animals were my only friends, I gravitated toward them. When I didn’t know how to communicate my own emotions, I would paint or draw a horse in a way that conveyed what I felt,” de Fontaine said.

 

Both art and horses came natural – her grandparents were artists, her father a graphic artist, and her mother a horse enthusiast. Her mother taught her to ride and enrolled her in competitions throughout her childhood. She later went on to study fine art at UCSB and began honing her skills specifically as an equine artist.

 

“I would find myself at the crack of dawn at the Earl Warren horse shows,” de Fontaine said. “Halter classes were my favorite because the Arabians were really fired up by their trainers, and led around by very little tack, so their bodies and faces were really visible. I would snap lots of pictures and use them in my assignments.”

 

After graduation, de Fontaine traveled extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Canada and Central America studying the connection between people and horses before returning to Santa Barbara to marry her Belgian husband, Stephan. Her first solo show took place at a gallery in Santa Cruz, and received such positive response that de Fontaine continued to build her collection. For years her work hung in the Cody Gallery in Los Olivos, and currently is on display in Santa Ynez at the Roasted Bean and Outpost Trading Company.

 

One of de Fontaine’s newest admirers, Santa Ynez local Mary Archer, discovered her art at the Roasted Bean.

 

“I forgot that I went in for a cup of coffee. I just stood there staring at the paintings, taken aback by the beauty of her work. I was really surprised – normally horse art is either realistic-portrait or fanciful,” Archer said.

 

“But real horse people want to see an expression in their face that we’re accustomed to seeing everyday. We want to see a portrayal of the real spirit and power under their feet,” she said.

Archer breeds Friesians and, after purchasing a painting, realized she had met de Fontaine previously at the Equestrian Center, where Amity was riding her own Friesian, Elan. 

 

Archer went on to say, “Her work on Friesians is just amazing. I have horses and a pasture view out every window in my house; you’d think horse art would be a bit repetitious, but when I saw Amity’s work I thought: this is something I can look at everyday.”

 

De Fontaine’s art inspires this reaction even in non-horsey people. One of her Chicago clients has never owned a horse but now owns several of de Fontaine’s original paintings.

 

“She saw my art and immediately understood what I was trying to communicate and the feeling behind it,” de Fontaine said.

 

“Once I get going on a painting, I try not to dwell in the thinking process, but rather use pure expression. As the painting comes to a close, I always go back to the eye, the window to the soul, as they say. It’s where the painting happens.” de Fontaine explained.

 

This is why she prefers to work on grand scale -- life-sized, whenever possible.

Because of the size of her work and the water factor, her canvases lie flat on the ground in her Santa Ynez home-studio.

 

“It takes upper level yoga to paint like that,” de Fontaine said. “I once sketched an idea for a swing that would suspend me over the canvas, but haven’t gotten around to building it yet.”

 

This is due in part to her new life as a mother to Genevieve, 4, and Xavier, 3. Long periods of alone-time are hard to come by these days, but de Fontaine still finds time to ride and compete with Elan, the Friesian, and to help her children learn to ride their Shetland pony, Snickers, and large-mini, Pippin.  During the last dressage competition in Livermore she won three blue ribbons and the Reserve Champion award.  Riding, competing and painting -- for de Fontaine they are all connected in the continuum of creative inspiration. 

 

Amity de Fontaine’s collection, Art of Horses, can be viewed until November 1st at the Roasted Bean on Sagunto in Santa Ynez, or visit www.artofhorses.com.