There is a white horse carved into the side of an ancient Hill Fort which overlooks Westbury in Wiltshire. It replaced a more abstract ancient one and sits on the entrance to MOD land which is left as a blank area on most maps. It seems this Wessex Downs area will always be associated with battle in some way.
Many might have already seen the horse, if not living close by or on a visit, through the work of Eric Ravilous who showed the horse and others in his many works. Used to seeing the horse straight on and from a distance, I used to feel Ravilious had stretched the horse when he depicted it, but of course, sitting up on the escarpment makes for a side-on view, distorting the limbs.
This is a haunt of my family weekends when I was small. There are many walks which saw us packing lunch (and unless it was high summer, a mac) and heading up to the escarpment on the edge of Salisbury Plain on the Wessex Downs. The while area behind on the high ground belongs to the Ministry of Defence and is farmed. I remember listening to a skylark as our sandaled feet swished past fields of ripened corn. We looked out at an unfolding landscape under massive blue skies and if we were lucky would see the odd tank. More often we would see tank tracks.
The boom of distant mortar fire and shells thunder across the flood plain across Westbury, and reached as far as the family home in Bradford-on-Avon, a good seven miles away. Needless to say, this is also an area where UFO's were spotted, but it is doubtless they were of the alien variety. There is little doubt the latest technology is tried out in these unmarked lands.
My visit was at the end of summer, beginning of Autumn. Many seasoned dog walkers were present and a vintage car rally was passing through. It was a nostalgia trip of more than one kind.
My take on the horse.
The grass still yellowed after the 2018 heatwave with wide skies all wild above, this is done in scrim, pastel and paint. I wanted the place to stay a little wild, as if the horse could break free at any moment and head off into the skies just as its modern counterparts of defense.
Mixed media on 250 gsm Snowdon. 38 X 40 cms.