While reaching for our series The Horse In Art,I discovered a brilliant young British equestrian painter, Madeleine de St Pieree Bunbury. Her technique is the traditional “right size”… painting life from under natural light. She uses her own hand-ground paints and hand-stretched canvases. This cool video illustrates it all!
Painting Horses From Life
Madeleine was born on Mustique Island in 1995, was educated in Dorset, and trained in traditional portraiture for three years at Charles Cecil Studios in Florence. As an equestrian, Madeleine depicts horses with intricate detail and captures their individual spirits!
A Gal With An Ambitious Goal!
Because of Madeleine’s love of horses and travel she’s set a goal to paint 80 different breeds worldwide! So far, she’s painted…
The Welsh Cob -UK
The British Spotted Pony – UK
The Exmoor Pony- UK
Miniature Shetland – UK
Island Pony – St Vincent and The Grenadines
Paso Peruano – Argentina
Marwari – India
Nukra – India
Desi Stallion – Pakistan
Thoroughbred – UK
Irish Sports Horse – UK
Mustang – USA
A Unique American Experience!
“In 2022 I was asked to submit a painting for a “Western-themed exhibition in NY’s prestigious gallery, Palo Gallery, said Madeleine.
Each year I take a trip to Virginia to paint for clients out there, it might have been better to look for a Mustang further out west, but this is where I was, so this is where I began my search. Through the wonders of social media, I put out a message explaining what I was looking for a Mustang horse and received a huge number of responses, finally, I settled on one lovely lady called Shallon who runs a horse rescue center and riding stables not far from where I was staying in Middleburg.
The horse in question whose name I have now forgotten (isn’t that dreadful?) was a very old and trusty buckskin mare, she had a shaggy winter coat and a very placid demeanor, perfect for standing for a painting!
Not Without Challenges!
The first challenge was finding a large enough canvas, unfortunately, my usual suppliers in Belgium couldn’t ship to the USA in time, so I instead sourced two smaller canvases, and pushed together they made the perfect size, this then split the horse down the middle, which once painted and framed separately made a very interesting piece of art!
The second challenge was finding a horse holder to keep my model standing in the correct position throughout the process, fortunately being a riding school, there was a whole string of young enthusiastic horse girls who volunteered their time and services.
What I loved about this sweet Mustang mare most of all was her calm and composed temperament, nothing seemed to bother her as I was rushing around with canvases and easels, she just tolerated whatever situation she was in.
Each afternoon I would turn up at the barn and get the model tacked up, this was yet another challenge as I was painting her in western saddle and bridle, which I, being an English rider, am not accustomed to!
The painting process took a whole week of intensive painting. It is now framed and hanging in the Palo Gallery NY.”
Her current large project is the Great British Breeds, an exhibition of 18 of Britain’s most loved native and endangered horse and pony breeds, to be exhibited in the Royal Mews riding school at Buckingham Palace 2026, it will be raising funds for the King’s Trust and Endangered Breeds Trust. So far she has only painted 3 of the 18, so there’s a very long way to go! So far painted is: The Welsh Cob
The British Spotted Pony
The Exmoor Pony
“Currently, I am working on the Suffolk Punch, this is the largest horse and largest canvas I have ever painted!”
Madeleine will be returning to Middleburg Virginia in late September/early October for more commissions. Hopefully, we’ll be able to catch up with her there! In the meantime, visit Bunbury Equine Art.
