Michelle Wrighton Fine Art and Photography

Today was a rather auspicious day – its been a long time coming, but I am very excited to finally be setting up my studio gallery:)  I had planned to just move the boxes in, but got a little carried away and started unpacking everything.  I felt like a kid at Christmas unpacking all of my art supplies, books and art magazines – many of which I havn’t seen for well over 18 months!  My mind is racing with all the things that I want to paint and draw, I really don’t know where to start first – oils, acrylics, colour pencils or something in graphite.  I’d really like to have a go at some plein air oil paintings – all I have to do is step outside my studio for inspiration in every direction, from the beautiful landscape to the baby lambs and calves that are being born on all the farms around here – including ours, but thats a subject for another post, as I really need to catch up on posts that I meant to add last week but ran out of time to!

Following on from my last post with photos of the Clydesdales from the Dardanup Heritage Park Heavy Horse Show, I thought I would share some of the photos of the Team Australia Liberty Horse display performed by brother and sister team, Sam and Sasha Watson from Horses and Horsemen.

The performance shows the willingness, agility, intelligence and responsiveness of these magnificent animals and the incredible relationship that can be created between man and horse.  The display involved a number of different and often very difficult maneuvers, with the liberty horses following instruction and direction from voice and subtle body language cues.  What I found most amazing and awe inspiring was the willingness and enjoyment all the horses displayed, they were clearly enjoying the performance as much as the audience was, even the six month old weanlings were eager and willing to perform even with the noise and distraction of the large crowd and bright orange safety fences!

I was specifically taking photos for reference material for future paintings (and have already flagged a number of shots that are going to make a wonderful new series of paintings) but here are a few shots of the performance which I can *highly* recommend as a must see for anyone who loves horses!

Team Australia Liberty Horse display © 2010 South West Photography

Team Australia Liberty Horse Display © 2010 South West Photography

Team Australia Nine Horse Liberty Display © 2010 South West Photography

Team Australia Two by Two Liberty Horse Display © 2010 South West Photography

Liberty Horse Display © 2010 South West Photography

Roman Riding Liberty Horse display © 2010 South West Photography

Next post will include some photos from the tent pegging display by 10th Light Horse Bunbury Troop.

All images from the Liberty Horse display can be viewed on the Events section of my South West Photography website.

x Michelle

Michelle Wrighton: Animal, Wildlife & Landscape Fine Art & Photography

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There is nothing quite like the power and majesty of a Thoroughbred Race Horse, and this digital painting is the first in a series of Racing Paintings that I have planned (for both Standardbreds and Thoroughbred race horses).  Thanks to photographer Cathy Sheeter for the wonderful reference photo.

Ready to Run Race Horse painting by Michelle Wrighton

100% crop of Ready to Run detail

Greeting Cards, laminated, matted, canvas and framed prints of “Ready to Run” can be purchased from Redbubble

Digital Painting of an Eventer.

Eventer - Horse sport painting by Michelle Wrighton

Greeting cards, laminated, matted, canvas and framed prints of “Eventer” can be purchased from my Redbubble shop:

The Standardbred Pleasure and Performance Horse Association of WA held the annual Winter Gala at the Perth Horse and Pony Club grounds in Herdsman.  I am totally biased towards the breed (having two of my own) and I strongly believe that they are *the* most under-rated breed in the horse world.  Thankfully more people like those that turned out for this show are seeing the incredible possibilities with this versatile breed as pleasure and preformance horses.

And I have to say that the presentation of these Standardbreds is absolutely impeccable and puts alot of other ‘fancy’ breeds to shame!

Coloured Standardbred © South West Photography

Standardbred Breed Show © South West Photography

Standardbred Breed Show © South West Photography

Standardbred Breed Show © South West Photography

Standardbred Breed Show © South West Photography

Standardbred Breed Show © South West Photography

Standardbred Breed Show © South West Photography

Standardbred Breed Show © South West Photography

Part bred Standardbred © South West Photography

Standardbred Breed Show © South West Photography

Standardbred Breed Show © South West Photography

Standardbred Breed Show © South West Photography

Standardbred Dressage © South West Photography

All of the proof images for the In Hand, Ridden and the Dressage tests can be viewed and ordered online at South West Photography.

Wow what a long day!  Even with back up batteries and 6 x 4GB cards I ran out of memory beofre the end of the day…and I don’t know about the competitors who finished afer 7pm, but I certainly was exhausted by the time I left (lets just blame the heat shall we:)

As well as photographs from the day, I am pleased to also provide a video of the Show Jumping phase of the One Day Event.

The full length video is 55 minutes long and is available in both DVD and web format.  Each individual rider video is between 1 minute 30 seconds to 3 minutes long and are also available on DVD or web format.  All videos are recorded at 1080p HD, however they are only sold at 720p resolution for quality playback on most modern standard DVD players.

The full length video and individual rider videos maintain the ambient sound that was at the event, but background music only can also be provided.

This embedded youtube video is a compilation of the video taken showing some of the highlights.

And a few photos from the day.

Wallangara ODE - Dressage © South West Photography

Wallangara ODE - Dressage © South West Photography

Wallangara ODE - Dressage © South West Photography

Wallangara ODE - Dressage © South West Photography

Wallangara ODE - Dressage © South West Photography

Wallangara ODE - Show Jumping © South West Photography

Wallangara ODE - Show Jumping © South West Photography

Wallangara ODE - Show Jumping © South West Photography

Wallangara ODE - Cross Country © South West Photography

Wallangara ODE - Cross Country © South West Photography

Wallangara ODE - Cross Country © South West Photography

The full set of proofs from the day as well as the show jumping video can be viewed and purchased from South West Photography.

It was an honour to the be Official Photographer for the 2009 WA Paint Horse Championship Show held at the Murray Horse and Pony Club grounds in Coolup.  I must admit to feeling a bit sorry for the riders that compete in both the English and Western classes – the amount of gear that they need to drag along with them is incredible.  LOL and I wouldn’t like all the tack cleaning afterwards either!

There were some really stunning horses, and it was a really well organised event (especially conisdering the heat!)  The proofs from the show are available for viewing and purchase on South West Photography but here are a few of my favourites from the show.

Paint Horse Championship Show © South West Photography

Paint Horse Championship Show © South West Photography

Paint Horse Championship Show © South West Photography

Paint Horse Championship Show © South West Photography

Paint Horse Championship Show © South West Photography

Paint Horse Championship Show © South West Photography

Paint Horse Championship Show © South West Photography

Paint Horse Championship Show © South West Photography

Paint Horse Championship Show © South West Photography

Paint Horse Championship Show © South West Photography

Paint Horse Championship Show © South West Photography

Paint Horse Championship Show © South West Photography

Paint Horse Championship Show © South West Photography

All image proofs from the entire show are available for viewing and purchase on South West Photography.

The bright arena covering at the Peel Horse and Pony Club grounds and the dust that it created under the horses hooves was initially a bit of a challenge, but a little post processing cleared the dust away and I ended up with some shots that I am very pleased with.

The full set of proofs can be viewed at South West Photography but here are a few of my favourites from the day:

Showjumping © South West Photography

Showjumping © South West Photography

Showjumping © South West Photography

Showjumping © South West Photography

Showjumping © South West Photography

Showjumping © South West Photography

Showjumping © South West Photographyat South West Photography

Please visit South West Photography to view all proof images and to make print purchases for the Peel Horse and Pony CLub Showjumping day.

What a fantastic turn-out there was the the Summer Show Offs Horse Breed Show at Gosnells!  So many beautiful horses it was hard to know where to point my camera!

The full set of proofs can be viewed at South West Photography but here are a few of my favourites from the day:

Andalusian horse - © 2009 South West Photography

Andalusian © South West Photography

A bow for the paparazzi - © South West Photography

Black Andalusian © South West Photography

Bay portrait - © South West Photography

Clydesdale - © South West Photography

© South West Photography

© 2009 South West Photography

The full set of proofs for both the In Hand and Ridden competition at the Gosnells Summer Show Offs 2009 can be viewed and print purchase at South West Photography

It was a wonderful honour to be appointed as the official photographer for this years WA Palamino Associations Championship Show, and what a thrill to be able to photograph some very beautiful horse and ponies!

Palamino Stallion © 2009 South West Photography

Palamino Champion © 2009 South West Photography

Show Pony Photography © 2009 South West Photography

Palamino Quarterhorse © 2009 South West Photography

Golden beauty © 2009 South West Photography

Rosettes and Broadsash © 2009 South West Photography

Regal © 2009 South West Photography

Equine Beauty rewarded © 2009 South West Photography

Sleepy Welsh Palamino © 2009 South West Photography

Beautiful horse and garland © 2009 South West Photography

All images are available to view and purchase from the events section of my South West Photography website.