I thought I would update this post. I get asked about the project a lot. How I got the horse heads? How did I paint straight onto the skulls?
Well here goes the story.
I was asked by ‘Seven with Another’ to join other artists to create a special piece for their ‘4’ themed art exhibition.
I was teamed up with another artist and we got thinking. I had an idea of Four Horses of the Apocalypse. Then it rolled on from there.
Why not use real horse skulls and soften the overall piece by making them hobby horses? Why not.
The hardest part of the project was actually obtaining the skulls.
It took about 3 weeks of phoning and talking to people. You just can’t pick up a horse head from anywhere.
I found someone who supplies heads for Vet students. I had a long chat with him about the project and he decided it was ok to hand over 4 heads. These heads were either from a horse with a disease or just died of old age. It was important for myself and the other artist that the heads were not supplied from just anyone.
Then I had to find a taxidermist to clean the heads and hand me back the skulls. Again, it took a long time to find someone in Qld. Not many actually do this kind of thing here.
I drove for an hour and finally handed over the heads.
About 3 weeks later I headed back to pick them up. They were clean and ready for the artwork.
A base coat was first applied to seal the bone. Then acrylic paint was added to create the images. And finally a seal over the top to fix artwork.
Before and after shot of the horses ready for the Art Exhibition ‘Seven with Another’.
Some close ups.
After image courtesy of Justin Overell.