Ellen Emmet Rand Painted Presidents and Foxhunters

Details: Art; By Claudia Pfeiffer, George L. Ohrstrom, Jr. Curator of Art at the National Sporting Library & Museum

ellen emmet rand.mary foote.1907 Portrait of Ellen Emmet c. 1907 by Mary Foote (American, 1847-1938).Ellen Gertrude Emmet Rand (1876-1941) was among the first females in the United States to succeed as a professional portrait artist. She was a contemporary of Mary Foote who painted this portrait of Rand at her easel.

A superb portraitist, Rand is perhaps best known for painting Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s official presidential portrait in 1934, one of hundreds of portraits of politicians, captains of industry, socialites, artists, and scholars completed over her forty-year career...as well as foxhunters of note! You see, she was a foxhunter, too.

Sculptor Expresses Love of Animals Through Her Art

Details: Art; By Norman Fine

foxes.quade

“As a child, I enjoyed watching the antics of foxes in the surrounding countryside,” says sculptor Carrie Quade. “I rode my ponies and horses in the farmland surrounding my home and also had the opportunity to ride with a local foxhunting group. In all my observations of foxes, the behaviors and attitudes were distinctive.

“While much of my bronze sculpture expresses some of my favorite animal personalities, my curiosity for new subjects, sculpture mediums, and Three-D technology has given me new inspiration for creating and casting sculpture.”

Larry Wheeler at the Willcox

Details: Art; By Norman Fine

larry wheeler.crossing the creek

Cross Gate Gallery (Lexington) has curated a one-man exhibition of paintings by renowned sporting artist Larry Dodd Wheeler at the Willcox Hotel in Aiken, SC. The Opening Reception was held on Feb 24, 2017, and the paintings will hang through April 14.

The Willcox Hotel is a popular Aiken meeting place for horsepeople of many disciplines---foxhunting, eventing, racing, and polo---and Larry Wheeler's art should find an enthusiastic audience there. Members and hunting visitors from the Aiken Hounds (SC), Whiskey Road Foxhounds (SC), Why Worry Hounds (SC), and Belle Meade Hunt (GA) are seen at the Willcox throughout the season for cocktails and dinner and especially on Hunt Nights (Tuesdays).

Major Foxhunting Art Show Planned for 2018

Details: Art; By Norman Fine

booth malone.rush hour Rush Hour by Booth Malone

In concert with the Virginia Foxhound Club and the Museum of Hounds and Hunting, selected members of the American Academy of Equine Artists (AAEA) have been organized by Academy President Booth Malone to produce a body of artwork for a foxhunting art show.

The idea for the show was conceived by Mrs. Ned “Nina” Bonnie (KY) and Michael Tang (CA). Every MFHA-registered foxhunting club in Virginia will be represented in sculpture and/or in painting by one or more of North America’s leading contemporary sporting artists. The art show will be hung at Morven Park in Leesburg over the Virginia Foxhound Show weekend in May of 2018.

The art show will happily coincide with Hark Forward, the MFHA-sponsored international foxhunting celebration also scheduled for next season. This initiative is the creation of newly-elected MFHA President Tony Leahy, who wishes to recapture the enthusiasm of all North American foxhunters, as did the MFHA-Centennial celebration season ten years ago. Tony’s committee has already been hard at work laying plans for regional joint meets, foxhound performance trials, and field hunter competitions for the 2017/2018 season.