Honoring the extraordinary history of the horse in all its nobility and strength, the annual Hold Your Horses! Exhibition & Sale returns to the Phippen Museum in Prescott, Arizona, for its ninth year. Taking place in the museum’s expansive Marley Gallery, the invitational show and sale highlights artwork from 50 of the top Western artists in the country known for their superb equine art. 
Barbara Meikle, Wise Guys, oil on canvas, 20 x 20”
Barbara Meikle, Almost Naptime, oil on canvas, 16 x 12”
Barbara Meikle is one of the many talented artists in this year’s show and sale. “Color and texture are two things that excite me about painting,” she says. “They help me transport my equine visions on canvas in an extraordinary way. The Hold Your Horses! Show at the Phippen is a great venue for my creative work—a chance to experiment, play and go wild with my palette.” Without a doubt, Meikle’s artwork is practically bursting with color as she captures the bright personalities of her subjects. “To infuse with light, create drama, write a story in pictures, this is always [my] objective.”
Sheila Cottrell, Trouble Ahead, oil, 24 x 24”Trouble Ahead by Sheila Cottrell depicts a stagecoach with a Wells Fargo chest below the seat. Sitting in the stagecoach is one outrider and two shotguns riding protection, along with four mules pulling. “I’ve always loved the Old West illustrators from the 1930s and tried to do the men in a similar style,” says Cottrell. “And I liked the humor of only one of the mules’ faces showing. I enjoy writing about Old West adventures and, even more, imagining and painting them.”
Nancee Jean Busse, Monastery Horses, acrylic, 24 x 24”
“As a painter [of] horses,” says Nancee Jean Busse, “I feel a bit of the spirit of my subject matter flow into me. If I’m painting a horse in a pastoral setting, I feel the calm and solid presence of that horse. If I’m painting a wild herd running, with the wind in their manes, I feel that, too—strong, free, sure-footed and full of life. The one constant is that horses are always, always beautiful. Grand, roguish, flighty, wild, stately, elegant, fierce, powerful, gentle, noble—the horse’s impact on humans’ lives is woven through our history and into our DNA.”
Nancee Jean Busse, If Wishes Were Horses, acrylic, 18 x 24”
A special opening reception and members’ preview for Hold Your Horses! is scheduled on Friday, August 5 at 5:30 p.m. On August 6, the Phippen Museum will hold a day of “Horsing Around” with specially designed equine programming. Artwork will remain on view through September 25. —
Hold Your Horses! Exhibition & Sale
August 6-September 25, 2022
Phippen Museum, 4701 AZ-89, Prescott, AZ 86301,
(928) 778-1385, www.phippenartmuseum.org
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