A close-up of Joni Beinborn's piece, "RL Best of Sudden." All photos provided by Joni's Ponies Equine Art

AQHA and APHA exhibitor, Joni Beinborn, has been rapidly gaining popularity among the horse show crowd for her incredibly lifelike and expressive equine portraits. As the news of her talent began to spread like wildfire, Beinborn has acquired a slew of high profile equine clientele, that have kept her very busy for the past couple of months.

Recently, Beinborn has completed pieces for the private collections of Masterson Farms, Dan Yeager, Angela Fox, Mike Manners, the Ingstad and Stille families, Mark and Melissa Baus, and even the American Paint Horse Association.

“Zippos Sheik” For Masterson Farms

In 2010, Beinborn was selected to be the program cover artist for both the Summer and Fall APHA World Championship Shows. Her stunning pastel pieces entitled, “Spotlight” and “Fall Color,” not only appeared on the World Show programs, her art has also been featured on commemorative posters, speciality prints, stickers, coffee mugs, and luggage tags.

Currently, Beinborn’s medium of choice is pastel, a crayon shaped stick of powdered pigment that has been binded into a solid form. Although this technique allows her to capture different textures of fur and hair with an amazing realistic accuracy, it can pose a few creative complications.

“I use a really soft, almost velour paper,” Beinborn says. “It’s almost like drawing on velvet. You can’t really erase, but you can layer over it. Sometimes, I will draw an image and then transfer it using tracing paper onto the canvas.”

“Right now, I am totally doing pastels. I just love how it makes them look so soft, like you could almost pet them. I love the texture and color it allows. Before that, I was doing a lot of colored pencils, and it took a lot longer to finish a piece. Now, I can finish a good piece in a couple of weeks instead of a couple of months.”

“He’s Sterling” For Dan Yeager

While it might seem impossible to finish portraits of this quality in only a matter of weeks, Beinborn is a seasoned pro who has been doodling horses since her early childhood years. She even chose to major in art in college, but found a disparity between the type of work she wanted to do and the type of work that was viewed as more desirable by professors.

“I’ve been doing artwork forever,” she says. “I used to do it with my mom. When she was little, she used to paint, but then gave it up when she had kids. When I went to college and majored in art, I loved to make everything look realistic. They were more about all of the crazy, way out, abstract stuff. Because of that, I kind of had to keep my artwork in the closet.”

“I have been drawing horses all of my life. I started doodling horses when I was little and I guess I just never grew out of it.”

Now that Beinborn’s daughter Mallory has chosen to pursue a career in equine photography, Beinborn is finding that she has more source material than she knows what to do with. With commissioned equine portraits becoming increasingly popular, Beinborn says almost all of her time is devoted to completing works for private collections.

“My business is beginning to be more and more commissions, and that is what I want to do,” she says. “I’ve been having a lot of people start calling me after I did the Masterson’s two stallions, RL Best of Sudden and Zippos Sheik. They have actually commissioned a third piece that will be of Marilyn on the recent cover of The Chronicle. I told her that I’ve never drawn anyone as pretty as her, so I will try to do her justice! Horses are a lot easier to draw than people.”

“RL Best of Sudden” For Masterson Farms

Although Beinborn’s favorite subjects to draw are horses, she has had some requests for portraits of dogs, houses, and even a race car. The last piece Beinborn completed, just in time for the holiday season, was a stunning black and white portrait of “Hudson,” a canine belonging to Jason Martin of Highpoint Performance Horses.

“The one that I did for Jason of his dog was my last one to get ready for the holidays,” she says. “Then, the gentleman that owns Mr. Norfleet had me do a drawing of his stallion. After that, he asked if I would want to draw a picture of his race car. I actually met his pit crew on the side of the road in Wisconsin to deliver both drawings. Now, he has sent me a picture of an old house in Rome and asked if I could draw that for him. It’s great to have people keep coming back for more!”

“Hudson” For Jason Martin

Beinborn’s process for creating these masterpieces involves having a client send source material in the form of different photographs. After selecting the best angle from which to create the portrait, she begins a loose pastel sketch to outline the basic shapes. When she has a good idea of the subject’s placement on the canvas, she then begins the creative work of bringing the image to life.

“I usually get a couple of different sized photographs and then start to do a loose sketch with pastel. Then, I start to get in there to do all of the little, bitty details. I generally start with the eye, and move out from there in a circular pattern, and just hope everything fits together.”

“I start with the eye and then work my way down. If you make a mistake at this point, you haven’t done too much work that you can’t start over. If you don’t get the eye right, the rest doesn’t really matter. It sounds cliché, but the eye is really the window into the soul.”

“Angel in a Dog Coat.” For Angela Fox

When Beinborn and her daughter aren’t busy with their drawing and photography, they often travel to local open horse shows together, where they compete in events like western pleasure, horsemanship, and showmanship.

“During the summer, we have a little group that we get together with,” she says. “We have lots of fun and we try not to travel too far away from home, because this is the busy season.”

If Beinborn had to give any advice to the next generation of hopeful equine artists it would be this.

“Do what you love, and love what you do. The more you draw, the better you get. It takes a lot of practice. It’s also very important to be excited about what you are drawing. It makes it more fun.”

If you are interested in speaking with Joni Beinborn about commissioning a custom portrait of your four legged friend, you can visit her website, www.jonisponies.com or her Facebook. Also, be sure to visit the Image Gallery at Joni’s Ponies Equine Art to view some of her latest pieces.