Cherished Artwork

In 1970, Sue Seese, Beth Dickinson, and I became pen pals thanks to Horse and Rider magazine. They had a youth page where they would list your name and address for free, and I did so twice. After forty seven years, I am still in touch with both women. (I have known them longer than I have known my husband!)

Sue's mother, Gladys Seese, was an amateur artist, and she used to paint horses for people. A local restaurant in Los Angeles (Sue lived in Reseda) hung her paintings as part of their decor and people could buy them, too. I visited Sue in the summer of 1975 and we ate at that restaurant. There were 10-15 paintings hanging around the place!

As a surprise, Gladys did three for me in the mid 1970s, and they still hang in my home.

This painting of Cee Hunt, a registered Quarter Horse and my 4-H and show mount, was the first one she did. She did it from a photograph I had sent Sue. (Gladys added the mountains, something that still makes me smile. There are hills in Indiana, but that's it!)

My beloved Amy was next. Like Cee's, it, too, was done from a photograph. This is my favorite of them all. (See the resemblance to Abby?)

Sue came out to visit me in the summer of 1976 and took a photo of me on Amy, bareback and barefoot. This painting arrived about a year later.

See that bay Breyer Jumping Horse on the shelf? That actually belonged to Sue! When she began showing live horses in the early 1980s, she gave me a few of her favorites as she got out of the model horse hobby.

 Since Craig and I got married, all of these paintings have hung in our homes with the exception of our first apartment. We were only in it for six months as Craig was finishing grad school and we were moving away, so we did not do much decorating.

These paintings are lovely mementos not only of horses that I loved, but of a friendship that I have cherished for nearly fifty years.