Pet Horse Is Award-Winning Painter

Cholla, a mustang-quarter horse mix, began painting about four years ago, using his teeth to hold a watercolor brush and stroke a sheet of paper.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on October 23 2008

Cholla’s artworks have been featured in dozens of galleries around the world, from San Francisco to Venice. He was awarded an honorable mention at the 3rd International Art Prize Arte Laguna, and has even made a special appearance on the Martha Stewart Show.

While his work may be beautiful, there’s something even more impressive about the painter: he just so happens to be a horse.

Cholla, a mustang-quarter horse mix, began painting about four years ago, using his teeth to hold a watercolor brush and stroke a sheet of paper. “It’s an innate ability he has,” Cholla’s owner, Renee Chambers told the Associated Press. “He wants to paint. It’s in him.”

Art critics around the world have been struck by the horse’s strange talent. “Cholla clearly grabs me and holds me as I watch him paint with the fire of Pollock and fixed gaze of Resnick,” said critic John Yimin, who runs a website dedicated to outsider art.

And Rosalba Giorcelli, a a gallery curator in Venice, was so taken with the horse’s paintings that she decided to give him his very own exhibition, scheduled for next spring.“The more we were learning about Cholla, the more we were thrilled and excited about offering a solo exhibit,” she said.

While some doubt the horse’s true talents, Chambers believes that her horse’s painting abilities show evidence of Cholla’s supreme intelligence. “I totally believe in the evolution’s creative energy,” she said. “If we can have it, why not an animal? Art is an expression of intelligence and Cholla’s highly intelligent.”

Filed under: Animals and Pets, Arts and Culture, Weird,

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