Looking Back and Moving Forwards: The Foundations of Our Model Horse Arts

By Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig

Our model horse arts have a long and honored history, dating all the way back to the mid-to-late 1960s when the first repaints were created. That’s about sixty years ago! At first, legs were moved with hot water, craft fur was used for hairing, and Testor’s enamel was used as paint. Later, Bic lighters and heat guns were used to melt the plastic into ever more ambitious positions, and mohair and oils and acrylic paints were used. We’ve come a long way, haven’t we? Indeed, today our artists dazzle us with miraculous creations that inspire us with their beauty, innovation, and accuracy. We’re so very lucky to have so many skilled artists creating within our art form! Yet all our arts are seated in the past, are founded on old bedrock created by iconic artists who laid the foundation all those years ago. They built our art form from the ground up with their many pioneering innovations and inspirations, culminating in the expectations we have today.

You see, in our earliest days, artists invented customizing on their own, creating their wonderful horses in relative isolation as there was no Internet, few live shows and even fewer magazines. Indeed, many early artists created their pieces in a vacuum, without any knowledge of what other artists were doing! This gave rise to unique styles and technologies as each artist more or less reinvented the proverbial wheel by their own devices. Determined and eager, these early artists paved the way on their own terms as they staked their creative claim through their gumption and know-how, establishing an entire art form in the process.

Who were some of these historic artists who influenced our arts? Well, in some of our earliest days in the 70s, it was Cheryl Abelson, Cindy Derousseau, Sherry Cook, and Jo Maness who helped set the pace of our burgeoning creativity. One of our most influential early artists, Nancy Strowger (Sarah King, Jason Ross), has left an indelible legacy with her innovative, detailed paintwork that set a standard that still rings true today. Of course, we have the legendary Julie Froelich still influencing our arts with her exquisite, cutting-edge customs inspiring us and sweeping the show placings since some of our earliest days.

Beth Peart was another early innovator, creating groundbreaking work that set the tone of what was to come and inspiring countless other artists to pick up tool and brush. D’Arry Jone Frank was a trailblazer who pushed our customizing arts to their limits at the time, creating herds of ground-breaking champions that raised the bar repeatedly. There was the brilliant work of Beverly Zimmer who literally rewrote our expectations overnight with her ingenious customs, creating many highly-influential pieces before shifting to fine art.

From very nearly the beginning, Chris Flint (Fordham, Cook, Nandell, and Lapp) stunned us with customs years ahead of the pack in their accuracy and heirloom quality, even writing a popular tome on customizing. We also had Elizabeth Bouras pioneering the art form and creating incredible customs that set new standards and captured our imaginations for decades, a beautiful, lasting legacy. Another historically critical artist, Carol Williams, blew us away with the technical accuracy and artistry of her highly ambitious customs, pieces that established new standards that still stand today, decades later.

It was Lynn Fraley who kicked our arts up a few notches with her highly refined skills and more anatomically correct customs that helped to define what our arts were to become, establishing a whole new standard in every way. Kathy Maestas, of the famous Double Diamond Ranch, became a household name in our community with her multitude of popular customs that won left and right, and inspiring so many others to take up our arts. We also savored the gorgeous work of Judy Renee Pope who created some of the most unique, creative, and well-researched customs we’ve ever enjoyed.

It was Michelle Grant who inspired us to adopt sculpted manes and tails and new points of quality through her meticulous and stunning landmark work, even by today’s standards. On that note, John Bellucci got us to infuse fiddly anatomical details like veining and intricate musculature that took our arts to the next level in realism, even pioneering customizing techniques that spread like wildfire. Then Karen Gerhardt stunned us with the scope of her beautiful artistry and the magic of her airbrush, literally helping to shift our expectations overnight.

Linda Leach of Dragonquest Studio became famous for her ambitious customs and very unique way of painting that just captured our hearts and imaginations like no other. And it was Lesli Kathman (Jeffries) who literally rewrote the standards for Stablemates customizing with her portfolio of extraordinary mini customs that are still highly sought after and competitive today. Thomas Bainbridge was another influential historical artist who defined our standards with his herds of breathtaking customs that remain inspiring reminders that real quality is timeless. Then it was Lynn Baum who popularized the unique thread technique for manes and tails that absolutely intrigued and inspired us.

Sue Rowe of Sojourner Studio has been with us from the very early days, stunning us with her incredible customs that introduced a more clinical, realistic style that still fools us as real horses in a photo. Ed Gonzales blessed us with a body of ambitious work that remains some of the very best historical work in our arts — and all with a twinkle in his eye and mischief on his mind. Laura Behning wowed us with her exquisite customs and phenomenal original sculptures that defined our arts for decades and established lasting new ideals. Then it was Laurie Jo Jensen who swooned our hearts with her unique style and singular vision that stand as some of our most beautiful and popular vintage customs.

Then there was Chameleon, the collaborative work of Linda Gresham (Watson-McCormick) and Karen Caldwell who inspired us with their exquisite customs imbued with a distinctive artistry still so appealing to this day. Barb Jones, with her smooth finishes and dreamy style, helped to redefine the nature of our customs into a much more refined finish. It was Laura Rockmaker (Rock-Smith) who whipped up so many standard-stretching customs that worked to define our arts for years with their quality, distinctiveness, and eye appeal. Another great, Deb Pruitt, staked out her claim to fame through the undeniable loveliness of her customs that helped us establish what quality really was back then.

And since 1987, I’ve been busily at work helping to build our arts into something we could all be proud of enjoying.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg! There are so many more historical artists to be inspired by! But what did they all have in common back then? Love and inspiration — lots of it! Love for the horse, love for art, and love for model horses married with their surging inspirations to turn their wild imaginations into reality through the magic of Breyer horses. What a brilliant alchemy! In doing so, they literally built the artistic framework of our creative ideals by which we still create today. Truly, echoes of their work can still be heard in our showrings as their legacy lives strong and undeniable in our clay and pigment. Through their dedication, pioneering spirit, and vision, our arts grew into something vibrant and diverse, ever evolving and exciting. Let their example live on in our artistic spirit then, inspiring today to reach ambitiously ever-forwards. 

It’s important to remember where we’ve come from to better understand where we’re going. Indeed, tracing the innovations through our timeline is both fascinating and often surprising. Having such a historical perspective also deepens our appreciation of our arts today by offering a more complete viewpoint. Truly, when we can more fully understand the full scope of our past efforts, our art form becomes a true revelation! To better understand the love and dedication of these historical artists then, we come to better understand our own. We find common ground and the very foundations of our vital community that have continued to evolve in the most exciting ways. Our today resonates with the past, and it still speaks to us if we listen. Indeed, we may have started from humble beginnings, but by gum, artist by artist, model by model, we built a vibrant art form over the decades that proudly and uniquely stands the test of time.

We stand on the shoulders of giants and we’re so blessed they chose our art form to realize their visions. Take a moment to appreciate their stunning contributions to better understand the full scope of our collective achievements. Most of all, let their art inspire new generations to take up the torch to lead us all into the future, their fresh genius informed by the past with eyes squarely secured on the horizon. We can’t wait to see what the next sixty years bring!

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I would like to thank all the artists and collectors who graciously provided so many photos for this article! Thank you so much artists, and to Ardith Carlton, Corky Visminas, Josie Uschi Genu, Paula O’Keefe, and Verna McCausland! Without you, we wouldn’t have such a smorgasbord of historic inspiration!

If you’d like to see many more wonderful vintage customs by our historic artists, visit the Model Horse Gallery at www.modelhorse.gallery.