Name: Katie Upton
Title: Cover artist
Tell us about your love affair with horses: I have been drawing and painting horses since I was very young. I grew up with horses. I started riding when I was about 3. I have lived in Mission Canyon my whole life. I spent my childhood riding with my friends, exploring our backcountry. I probably wasn’t aware of it at the time, but I have studied horses as far back as I can remember. I think I kind of absorbed them.
When did painting them become your focus? When I first did some of my large-scale horse drawings in the late ‘80s, it felt really natural and honest. I finally could pull from all the absorbed knowledge of horses I had stored up. I could express, in a sense, who they are to me. All of my work is imaginary, except for my commissioned work, which are actual horses that I paint for clients.
What do you hope your work conveys? I hope my work expresses a total sense and spirit of the horse.