Town and Country

Edith Lunt Small

Horses On Parade presents a great opportunity to see many diverse artistic styles on the same canvas (a horse). My modus over the years has been to portray in a simple straightforward manner, people, places and animals. This style is sometimes referred to as folk art. When I was asked by Mitchell Pierson Jr. Realtors and The Pike Co. Builders for ideas for their thoroughbreds I did approximately 8 sketches apiece. Mitchell Pierson wanted the town of Pittsford on one side of the horse and the city of Rochester on the other. His office is located in the Phoenix building in Pittsford. With the help of Bess Judson I painted a small recognizable section of the city on one side and Main Street in Pittsford on the other. Sky was painted over the top of the horse, buildings in the center and water on the bottom. The water relates to the importance of the Erie Canal and the Genesee River in local history which is symbolically represented by the convergence of the river and canal on the horse. The horse was painted brown and thalo blue rubbed on to give it a blue/black effect. The waterways are filled with the boats and barges normally seen in the summer including the mules that pulled the barges 100 years ago. The railroad bridge is included with boys swimming and jumping and ducks (out of scale) underneath. Horses being very important to the Pierson family, they are in the cityscape and the town of Pittsford. Jet Blue is in the cityscape.