LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – As part of the Breeders\u2019 Cup, guest artists will be on hand, including one in the 1936 Room creating watercolor portraits of horses.<\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly don\u2019t know a time in my life when I didn\u2019t have art as a part of it,\u201d said Noa Artemisia Clare, who signs her work as Artemisia Clare.<\/p>\n
From oils to watercolors<\/p>\n
Clare, an oil painter for over a decade, changed mediums two months ago on the first day of Keeneland sales.<\/p>\n
She said she was going through a difficult time after learning her grandfather was dying.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like sand, just drifting. I didn\u2019t know where my place was. I didn\u2019t know where to go. So I said, well, if you feel this way, there are two things you know that you love. And that\u2019s horses, and that\u2019s art,\u201d Clare said. \u201cSo I picked up the watercolors that I had, and I pulled myself to the auction. I dragged myself there, and I sat down, and I said, look, you can\u2019t think the bad thoughts if you\u2019re painting every single hip number.\u201d<\/p>\n
After giving a painting to an auction winner, word spread about Clare\u2019s live painting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went from this, you know, oil painter who was in a not-so-good place to suddenly the watercolor girl who\u2019s spending every single waking moment just painting horses,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Guest artist at Breeders\u2019 Cup<\/p>\n
Known now as \u201cWatercolor Girl\u201d, Clare was invited to be a guest artist during the Breeders\u2019 Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be wandering around and running around with my little backpack, just painting away fast, documenting everything I can going out of the cup here,\u201d she said. \u201cI jokingly call myself a burnt-out amateur sometimes. But now I mostly call myself, I don\u2019t know, the happy amateur.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the Breeders\u2019 Cup, the Lexington-based artist plans to continue painting horses in watercolor. Clare says she is inspired by a musical, Sunday in the Park with George, to continue her passion. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s this one quote: anything you do, if it comes from you, then it will be new, and so I told myself, well, maybe I can make something. Maybe it can mean something. Maybe I\u2019ll hate it, but maybe someone else will love it,\u201d Clare explained. \u201cThe point is you just, you get out there, and you make it. And sometimes you go out, and nothing happens. Sometimes you go out, and you have a bad day. But sometimes you go out like I did and you have a day that changes your entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Examples of Artemisia Clare\u2019s work can be found on her website<\/a>. <\/p>\n
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