East Coast Pony
East Coast Pony is an active project funded by a Category C creation grant for ArtsNB.
The Newfoundland Pony is a small, rugged breed descended from the ponies brought to Newfoundland in the early fifteenth century. The critically endangered breed is recognized as a heritage animal in Newfoundland and Labrador. East Coast Pony inspects the Newfoundland Pony in its historic landscape.
This summer, I traveled to Newfoundland to collect resource material in the form of field sketches and supplementary photographs. Working with local farms and the Newfoundland Pony Society, I visited different locations in the region to meet Newfoundland Ponies and learn about their dispositions and unique conformation before describing them in their historic landscape. I documented how the land and ponies have shaped one another over the centuries with pencil and watercolour. I spoke with pony owners across the province, learning about the Newfoundland Pony’s history and unique traits of the breed. I immersed myself in each space, reflecting on my connection with the ponies and our parallel histories as descendants of European settlers. I contemplated our sense of belonging in these places and questioned what role I can play to conserve the ponies and landscape.
Having returned to New Brunswick, I will now use my resource material to create a group of hardwood intaglio prints at Atelier Imago printmaking studio. These prints are made with a combination of printmaking techniques that result in simple images with intricate woodgrain patterns. The process of burning and carving Newfoundland-sourced hardwood to create these prints alludes to the horses’ historic purposes and to the destruction of wilderness for colonial industrialization. This part of the project will take place over the course of the fall and winter, resulting in a finished body of work by the spring of 2023.
This is a work in progress that I hope will expand my practice beyond New Brunswick by creating a body of work with subject matter that is relatable to a broader audience. These images will encourage the viewer to consider their own sense of place, their personal connections with horses, and how they can take action to support conservation.
On August 6th, I departed for a 12-day trip to Newfoundland to work on my East Coast Pony Project. I drove through the province collecting resource material in the form of life drawings, photo references, pony interactions, and personal accounts of the ponies and their history, as told by their owners. Here’s a peek at what I discovered along the way:
