After a day of photographing in the Hoover Dam area near Columbus Ohio we found these horses grazing a pasture about a mile from our house. I stopped the car to take some reference pictures, and these turned out to the most inspirational pictures I'd taken all day. This was painted on Arches 140# paper with Daniel Smith Watercolor. I blocked out the horses with masking fluid and masking tape to allow me to put down a thick dark background before working on the horses. Once that was done I was able to layer in the dirty white of the horses. The hard shadows to me make the painting all the more attractive. I don't know if these two horses grooming each other is some kind of commitment or just plain animal habit. I'd like to think the former. There was to me something almost intimate and touching about this scene, and I was delighted to be able to capture it on paper when I got home.