For the next 12 days starting on Christmas Day and ending on January 5th (the traditional “12 Days Of Christmas”) I will be featuring 12 equine artists. Over 80 artists entered in the contest to be featured on our Facebook group Art Of The Horse (which has over 3,400 members!). I used this handy tool to randomly pick 12 of the entrants to be featured on TFS. For day four, we are going to see the color in black in white with these soulful charcoal drawings by Janicia West!
Janicia West
Tennessee, USA
My name is Janicia West. I have had an avid love of horses for long as I can remember. I am very passionate about expressing that love through my artwork. My medium of choice is charcoal. I love the contrast that is provided by the charcoal.
My drawing began as a child. I loved wasting away hours not spent in the presence of horses by drawing them with my school pencils. It wasn’t until around age 30 that I became more serious about my drawing. Around that time, I met some friends who were artists. They introduced me to a few simple tools such as a blending stump, a kneaded eraser, and some graphite and charcoal pencils.
I began practicing with these tools and found my way with their help and critique. I continued drawing and began picking up commissions here and there. I have never been serious about selling my art, but have sold a little through the last couple of years.
I am a full-time mother of 3 young children and have to find time to seek out clients and fill orders. Most of my work has been found by word of mouth or through friends on Facebook. I have a Facebook page where my work can be seen at . I am open to commissions. Any profit from my work goes into a non-profit program that some friends and I have started which offers children and families the opportunity to work with horses as a way to develop more meaningful relationships.
I love to draw with my children. They all share in this passion for drawing as well. I am glad that they are getting the opportunity to express themselves in their artwork with more tools and skill than I had access to at their age.
I was born legally blind. Optic nerve atrophy was the diagnosis as so it was for my father and his before. Charcoal is easiest for me to work with as I do not see color clearly enough to work with. My artwork is my artwork. An expression from within. I draw what I see and my desire is to see with far more than my eyes. I hope that it brings joy to your life as well as it does mine.
Art Of The Horse 