At three, Brooke Major picked up a paint brush and rode her first horse. Her path was set.
“My grandfather had riding stables and I fell in love with horses as a young child in Clayton, a small town in the North Georgia mountains,” Major remembers. She started riding frequently, and by six, she had her first pony and began jumping lessons in Buckhead, a suburb of Atlanta.
“As for painting, the passion started at the age of three when I drew on absolutely everything I could find, most of the time to my mom’s dismay. As I evolved, I fell in love with the Impressionists and Post Impressionists, especially the work of Monet and Van Gogh. I promised myself I would one day live in the landscapes they painted,” she says.
As a teenager competing in show jumping, Major discovered the Selle Francais horse and dreamed of growing up to be a horse breeder. “My current life has become the object of my childhood dreams,” she says.
Major’s mother was a flight attendant, permitting frequent international travel for the entire family. In 1997, enthralled by the architecture and French culture, Major began studying international relations at Schiller International University in Paris. While obtaining her degree, she also audited classes at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
“These studies,” she says, “taught me techniques of mediums and broadened my horizons on different schools of painting and architecture. I was allowed to have the freedom of expression to define my own path and create my own painting technique.”
Also in Paris, Major received her show jumping competition license at the Ecole Veterinaire de Maisons Alfort. This license allowed her to compete and look for jumper prospects at the famous horse shows in and around Paris and upper Normandy. She worked at the US embassy for two years before moving to Normandy in 2003.
“I moved to Normandy to live in the paintings of Monet, Millet and Pissarro. Normandy is the fertile breeding ground of France, and birthplace of Frances best riders. These resources have allowed me to ride with top European trainers for show jumping, and improve not only my riding skills, but an in-depth study of European bloodlines for sport,” she says.
Today, Major, her husband, and young son live near the D Day Omaha and Utah Beach landing beaches where her husband operates a dairy farm with 250 holstein cows. She, meanwhile, maintains the showjumping bloodstock of twelve horses who also live on the property. This year they are awaiting two foals by Cumano Z, with Air Jordan Z mares and six of the mares will be bred to top stallions.
Major always makes time for painting and keeps a studio in Clayton. “I feel like our best teachers are the master painters. I have studied artwork from my favorite eras: the Renaissance, Romanticism, especially Courbet and the Barbizon School, Impressionism and Post Impressionism. Caravaggio and da Vinci are my favorites of the Renaissance, Millet and Courbet of the Romantics. Monet and Pissarro exemplify the Impressionists, and Van Gogh Post Impressionism.
“Making my own interpretations of the masters’ works have helped find an understanding of light and shadow as well as a useful and attractive color palette,” says Major who initially painted vivid landscapes and portraits.
“During Covid, I did intense studies of Van Gogh, Monet and Millet using all black surfaces and implementing gold tones to interpret the reflections of light. The gold work has now led me to use 24k gold leaf on my paintings, inspired from the bas reliefs found in churches and gold backgrounds which enhance the symbols of abundance and adoration of Madonnas and religious paintings,” she says. Egyptian artwork and engravings attracted Major to use gold as well.
Major is further an admirer of architecture, especially medieval and gothic structures. “I love to have my own transportable bas reliefs found on these edifices. My favorite scenes are from Rouen where Monet captured the light and seasons on the facade of the Rouen cathedral. The cathedrals are so extravagant, so miraculous: I consider them man’s gift to God.
“Told by professors at the Fine Arts school in Paris that painting was ‘dead’, I decided to prove them wrong,” she says. “I began sculpting paint while a University student. Always using white as my primary ‘color,’ I made a Dadaist form of painting: abstract, yet figurative, sculpting, yet painting. White is a reflection of light, so it neither imposes colors nor defines colors.”
Major explains that her bas relief style developed over a twenty-year process. At first, she applied thick layers and began sculpting images into the paint. As her work progressed, she began to apply just a thin background layer and build up relief by sculpting thick layers in the paint to form bas relief.
She mixes titanium white oil paint with drying mediums that are non-yellowing. “It is very important to be careful with the choices of paint and tints of white for the aging process of the work,” she notes.
“I mix the paint with white spirits and a medium called liquin in a mixing bowl, similar to how you would mix cake batter with a hand mixer. I then use painting knives to apply and form or ‘sculpt’ the paint on canvas.”
The Brooklyn and Golden Gate bridges were among her first sculpted works, as well as the Mont Saint Michel abbey. “I had to study the horses and know them by heart to feel comfortable painting them. I felt the best way to do that was by breeding them and watching their every move at every stage of their lives,” she says.
“Painting has actually become a sort of sport for me. It has become an automatic to know exactly where the leg is at every cadence, how the hoof is angled when placed a certain way, the shoulder, flanks, croupe, etc. It is important to know the horses by heart and to depict them in a perfect manner.”
Many of Major’s horse subjects come from those she owns and breeds. “I like to paint them when they refuse for me to catch them,” she says. “Aggravating as it may seem, I like to watch them as they make fun of me and run circles around me as soon as they see a head collar and a lead. This is when they make the most abrupt movements that create most interest in painting them.”
Professional photography aids in depicting specific equestrian disciplines including polo, western and dressage. “The photos allow me to focus on disciplines and the way they are ridden. It actually helps me to ride better by studying others ride in many different ways,” she adds. Her influences for drawing horses are Gericault, the Vernet’s, Princeteau and Alfred de Dreux with Marcel Duchamp as her favorite artist of the twentieth century.
Major offers two sayings to fellow artists. The first is “The only mistake an artist can make in their art is to not make their art,” and the second is “The only ‘art world’ that exists is your own.’ Life is what you make of it,” she says, “and if you do what you love, it is already an art form in its own.”
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