Alice Billings, Hug a Horse

Story and Photography by Kathryn R. Burke

[Ridgway Colorado, 2013] ALICE BILLLINGS IS THE HORSE LADY. Meeting her, talking with her, you sense this immediately. It’s not the scruffy hat, or the manure-bottomed boots, or even the bits of hay in her hair. It’s the look in her eye when she talks about her beloved horses. Then you look at her art and there is no doubt, all that emotion and feeling, color and line, just leaps from the canvas and captures your heart. As it surely has captured hers. Her work is joyous, vibrant, alive. It’s interactive. Makes you want to throw out your arms and just plain, hug a horse!

“I’ve loved horses all my life,” Alice says, “but I never had the opportunity to own one until I moved out here.” Now that the opportunity has arrived, she’s the owner of seven—Thunder, Scout, Dakota, Gus, Oreo, Ryah and Pockets— “of which three are rescues,” she says. “My great family.”

All are subject matter for her colorful, evocative paintings, many of them reminiscent of the Paris “salon” era popular with Picasso and Kandinsky.

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Photography
Top: Slideshow of some of Alice’s artwork
Above: Alice Billings  at home on her ranch with one of her paintings.  © Kathryn R. Burke