And Why Artists Are Listening.
There’s a quiet moment that happens every year at the ranch.
It’s early—before the day has fully announced itself. The land is still holding the night, and the horses are already awake. Not restless. Not hurried. Just present. Fully inhabiting the moment they’re in.
Horses don’t perform. They don’t plan ahead. They don’t revisit the past.
They live now.
As photographers and artists, we spend a lifetime trying to return to that same place.
When you photograph horses, you quickly learn that control is an illusion. You can’t direct them into meaning. You can’t force authenticity.
The strongest images happen when you slow down enough to respond rather than react—when you let the moment come to you.
Photographing horses becomes less about technique and more about awareness: noticing a shift in weight, a turn of the head, the space between movements. It’s a practice in listening.
And that way of seeing carries directly into encaustic as encaustic can be a metaphor for life.
Encaustic is a medium that mirrors life itself.
Each layer of beeswax is fused to what came before it—nothing disappears. What’s underneath still exists, even when it’s partially obscured. Just like memory. Just like experience. Just like time.
You don’t always see everything in an encaustic image. In fact, it’s often what you don’t see that gives the work its power.
Encaustic teaches us that clarity doesn’t come from revealing everything. Sometimes it comes from restraint. From suggestion. From allowing space for the viewer to enter the work and bring their own story.
The process is sensual, forgiving, and playful. It invites curiosity instead of judgment. There’s no need for a fine art background—only a free spirit and an eye for beauty that speaks to you.
You can scrape back. You can add more. You can change your mind.
It’s a medium that understands unfolding.
Now place that philosophy alongside the power and presence of a horse.
A photograph made in awareness…
Transformed through wax, pigment, texture, and intuition…
Becomes something more than documentation.
It becomes a conversation—between what was seen, what was felt, and what remains unseen.
Working with horse imagery in encaustic often surprises people. The goal isn’t realism. It’s essence. The weight of a body. The intelligence in an eye. The quiet authority of an animal that doesn’t need to prove itself.
When photography and encaustic meet in this way, the result feels alive.
My Wyoming Ranch Workshop is built around this way of working—photographing from presence and creating from intuition.
You’ll spend time photographing horses in open landscapes and natural light, followed by guided encaustic studio sessions where those images are layered, altered, and transformed. The emphasis isn’t on perfection or outcomes, but on process—on trusting what unfolds.
If you’re craving a deeper relationship with your work, with your images, and with how you move through the creative process, you can explore the full workshop details here: https://photoencaustic.com/wyoming-ranch-equine-workshop/
Horses remind us how to be present.
Encaustic teaches us how to hold what unfolds.
Together, they create something quietly magical.
If any of this resonates with you, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments
Be well….be creative,
Clare
Learn how photographs, wax, and intuition come together.
View my photo encaustic classes, courses, and workshops.