Bronze, moving across the painting, the horse pouring from lowered head into powerful haunch in streams of copper and ink

I wanted Bronze to feel like a sculpture that never cooled. The copper still glowing, the patina still forming, the drawing underneath never quite buried.

Look closely and the pencil lines are still there, turquoise beneath the rust. A horse born of earth.

Up close

Copper, patina
and flame

Where the pigment thins, the linen shows through, still bare, still breathing.

Detail of Bronze: deep patina blacks split open by a bloom of fiery orange, the linen weave showing through — The flame

Detail of Bronze: a field of molten copper scattered with turquoise flecks over the bare weave of the linen — The patina

Detail of Bronze: turquoise droplets flung across a rust wash, verdigris breaking through the copper — The verdigris

Original watercolour on linen canvas 50 × 120 cm Modern black floating frame Signed by the artist Certificate of authenticity Ready to hang

Detail of Bronze: the horse's eye, drawn with a turquoise pencil line that still shows beneath the copper wash

Detail of Bronze: the lowered head and muzzle, ink over a visible pencil underdrawing

Born of earth, made to soar

A horse cast
in living metal

Bronze is the first painting of a series I made in the style I was taught by my grandfather. While painting I imagined I was sitting in his studio as a kid. Silence, the smell of old curtains and paint, his presence behind me, looking over my shoulder.

Sinking in this moment I got tears in my eyes. This was the moment I realised I need this feeling to create a masterpiece. I need the connection with inner self, my inner child, to find my pure creativity, before I can make an artwork I'm proud of.

My story