Horseplay

This original painting is based on a story about a strong, independent, First Nation woman named Jane Stelkia, and her horse named Dandy. Jane has always had that special ability to train wild horses, and Dandy was no exception. For years, Jane ran a ranch of more than five hundred acres on the Osoyoos Indian Band reserve in British Columbia's South Okanagan Valley. Her playground was the semi-arid ecosystem dominated by bunch grasses, sagebrush, rabbit-brush shrubs, and the occasional pine tree. During the Fall, the wind pollinated flowers of the sagebrush, and the yellow flowers of the rabbit brush shrubs would blossom turning this environment into a paradise.