And on the third day of Christmas, our featured art is–Shannagh-Leigh Hartshorn! For the next 9 days I will be featuring a few of my favorite artists during the “12 Days Of Equine Artists”-an equine art take on the traditional 12 Days Of Christmas! Jump on your trusty steed and lets go on a ride through the realm of equine art! You can read about Day 1 and Day 2’s artists here and here.

Residing in Manchester, England, Shannagh-Leigh is a magnificent artist and animator. An experienced artist, Shannagh-Leigh has been working on her artistic journey since 2011 while in college, and started taking commissions in 2013. After graduating from Edge Hill University this year, Shannagh-Leigh has been creating her unbelievably life-like animal portraits full time. She also came up with the brilliant idea to have a sister group to Art Of The Horse Facebook group (not a member yet? Join free here!), called Art Of The Animals! All animal artists (no equine art please–share that on Art Of The Horse) and animal art lovers are welcomed and encouraged to join.

Although she is well rounded in a verity of mediums, Shannagh-Leigh currently specializing in three mediums (watercolor, color pencil and digital painting) and creates the perfect amount of exact detail along with that painterly feel that takes years of hard, dedicated work to perfect as Shannagh-Leigh has. A full length article and Q&A will be posted soon about this talented artist. Like her Facebook page, here.

“Finishing a traditional painting and holding that finished piece is a feeling that can’t be replicated digitally in my opinion. However the immense amount of tools and level of detail you can get in digital means it will always be a favourite of mine.”-Shannagh-Leigh Hartshorn