I started riding at 10 years-old when my parents signed me up for one of those horseback riding summer day camps at a local hunter-jumper farm just over the Ohio-Michigan line. The only knowledge I had about riding at the time came from watching The Saddle Club, so you can imagine my shock when I learned just how uneventful horseback riding was most of the time (compared to the chaos in the tv show that is!). Since then I’ve been blessed with owning 3 horses: Razzle, Bianca, and (since August 16, 2020) Lyra.
I’ve been riding and competing less and less because my horses have been getting older. So more recently I’ve been riding other people’s horses, feeling nostalgic with Razzle and Bianca, and daydreaming about my riding future with Lyra.
Since owning Razzle and Bianca, I’ve been fortunate enough to compete at incredible competitions like the Great Lakes Equestrian Festival, Kentucky Horse Park, and the World Equestrian Center in southern Ohio.
But when I would compete and ride in lessons (even still to this day), I would get so caught up in my head panicking and thinking the worst like:
I practice a lot of mindfulness at the barn in order to help keep my mind in the present to stop worrying about all the what-ifs from robbing the joy of being with my horses.
That mindfulness fuels inspiration for my paintings where I highlight:
I follow an old school oil painting technique called glazing. It’s a layering process of transparent oil paint that ultimately creates very complex and luminous colors not attainable by mixing colors on a palette.
It’s a process the “Old Masters” used in order to create such realistic skin tones where you could see delicate veins underneath the painted skin.
My goal for Lederman Art & Design is to create excellent fine art for all equestrians that not just cater to the upper class.
We all have horses in our lives because we share the same passion and need for relief from whatever struggle we’re going through.
I create paintings to honor that.
