“Pure as Love”
Pencil pastel, and watercolor
May 2021
As I’ve previously written, I’ve never worked with or owned horses and have no wish to do so. I do, however, find them inexplicably beautiful and moving…..as I do the bonds between them and the horsewomen I know. These two horses belong to and were originally photographed by Jeanette Ford, of Wildwood Farm, in Durham, NC. I started the painting/drawing as an exercise in using pastels to depict a black horse with no markings (not at all as simple as it sounds).
For once, I’ll be brief….and simply say that the title of this painting and the impetus behind it were taken from one of my longtime favorite songs by JuneTabor. It’s quite magical/transporting. Go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNJzekpyCD0
“We were traveling north to sing and play
For friends that we had never met
Been working hard and didn’t speak
The sky was grey and threatened wet
And I dreamed that I saw unicorns
Dreamed I saw them wild and white
their sudden beauty lit the world
Like a star will light a winter’s night
Pure as love with manes of milk
They danced and pranced and cried aloud
Bright as rainbows round the stars
Their eyes were soft and sad and proud
And I wept for the wild and dirty world
To which this beauty now was lost
And cursed the hungry mind of man
That feeds the future at such cost
My head was bowed, my eyes were closed
When in my ears their voices rang
And these few words lodged deep inside
And in my very soul they sang
’We never went away
You always knew that we were near
Remember how to look for us
You’ll see we were always here’
I raised my eyes to seek them out
The world was empty all around
The rain came tumbling from the sky
It drowned all dreams upon the ground
And when they asked me why I wept
Like one who for his dead love mourns
The only answer I could give
I dreamed that there were unicorns…
’We never went away
You always knew that we were near
Remember how to look for us
You’ll see we were always here’….”