From Equestrian Sport Productions and by Nancy Brannon
The painting on the program cover for this year’s Winter Equestrian Festival is titled “Grey at Work,” by artist Weatherly Stroh. The original piece is 24” x 24” oil on panel. The Winter Equestrian Festival runs January 6 – April 4 at the Palm Beach, Florida, International Equestrian Center.
Weatherly Melchers Stroh is an oil painter and sculptor specializing in animal and landscape paintings. Her artistic career brings together different aspects of her life – a girl on a horse farm in Metamora, Mich., an art student at Cranbook-Kingswood, and a nationally ranked horsewoman. A graduate from the University of Colorado with a bachelor’s degree in Fine Art and a master’s degree in Education, Weatherly ultimately turned her talent and focus from teaching to painting.
Weatherly’s art has been published in many magazines, including Sidelines Magazine, Wellington The Magazine, The Chronicle of the Horse, This Week in Tryon Horse Country, Southwest Art, Detroit Home, and The Equine Marketer. She has also been featured in Detroit Design magazine.
What sets Weatherly apart from other artists? “I am inspired by the natural world and have always loved being surrounded by animals. My clients say that I am able to really capture their animals on canvas, which is quite a compliment!” says Stroh.
In addition to horses, she paints zebras, cows, birds, like great blue herons and egrets, elephants, buffalo, and elk.
Stroh takes her camera with her everywhere she goes and uses her vast collection of photos as inspiration for her paintings. She’s been painting full time for around ten years, but has painted off and on her whole life. Her mom is a sculptor, specializing in bronze sculptures of horses; her great great uncle was a painter, and his father was a sculptor, so she has an artistic family “inheritance.”
Based in Wellington, Florida, she is surrounded by equine inspirations. She has a series of polo paintings, some jumpers, and a few dressage horses, along with horses just being themselves.
Her travels abroad have also increased her scope of inspiration. “I spent a fair amount of time in Italy – a year there in college, and then additional trips after college when I was in my 20s. I love it there!” Stroh said. Italy is the inspiration for her newsletter Ciao Tutti, which translates to “hello everyone.”
About ten years ago she traveled to Kenya and Tanzania, where she photographed wild game, which became the inspiration for her paintings of zebras. You will also find an African elephant in her collection of other animal paintings. Those include a variety of birds, too, especially herons and egrets.
Her cows collection comes from photos she made of various types of cows at the cattle farms in Ocala, Florida as well as in Kentucky and Michigan.
As an advocate for all animals, Stroh donates a portion of the proceeds from her paintings to various animal welfare organizations.
Most of Stroh’s works are 24 x 24 inches in oil and can be on canvas, on linen, or on aluminum. She says she prefers painting on linen. Most works are created in her studio in Wellington, although in Italy she has done plein air paintings, “which is much different from doing studio paintings from photographs,” she explained. She has done some watercolor wash painting, but her work is primarily in oils.
I asked Stroh if she has any real horses in her life, as she has a hunter/jumper background in riding. “I did have a nice Amateur horse that I showed, but is retired now. I also had a young horse, but that didn’t work out so I sold that one a couple of years go. So I’m horseless now. It is difficult to balance painting full time with keeping horses.”
See much more of Weatherly Stroh’s art at her website, www.weatherlystroh.com.
The painting on the program cover for this year’s Winter Equestrian Festival is titled “Grey at Work,” by artist Weatherly Stroh. The original piece is 24” x 24” oil on panel. The Winter Equestrian Festival runs January 6 – April 4 at the Palm Beach, Florida, International Equestrian Center.
Weatherly Melchers Stroh is an oil painter and sculptor specializing in animal and landscape paintings. Her artistic career brings together different aspects of her life – a girl on a horse farm in Metamora, Mich., an art student at Cranbook-Kingswood, and a nationally ranked horsewoman. A graduate from the University of Colorado with a bachelor’s degree in Fine Art and a master’s degree in Education, Weatherly ultimately turned her talent and focus from teaching to painting.
Weatherly’s art has been published in many magazines, including Sidelines Magazine, Wellington The Magazine, The Chronicle of the Horse, This Week in Tryon Horse Country, Southwest Art, Detroit Home, and The Equine Marketer. She has also been featured in Detroit Design magazine.
What sets Weatherly apart from other artists? “I am inspired by the natural world and have always loved being surrounded by animals. My clients say that I am able to really capture their animals on canvas, which is quite a compliment!” says Stroh.
In addition to horses, she paints zebras, cows, birds, like great blue herons and egrets, elephants, buffalo, and elk.
Stroh takes her camera with her everywhere she goes and uses her vast collection of photos as inspiration for her paintings. She’s been painting full time for around ten years, but has painted off and on her whole life. Her mom is a sculptor, specializing in bronze sculptures of horses; her great great uncle was a painter, and his father was a sculptor, so she has an artistic family “inheritance.”
Based in Wellington, Florida, she is surrounded by equine inspirations. She has a series of polo paintings, some jumpers, and a few dressage horses, along with horses just being themselves.
Her travels abroad have also increased her scope of inspiration. “I spent a fair amount of time in Italy – a year there in college, and then additional trips after college when I was in my 20s. I love it there!” Stroh said. Italy is the inspiration for her newsletter Ciao Tutti, which translates to “hello everyone.”
About ten years ago she traveled to Kenya and Tanzania, where she photographed wild game, which became the inspiration for her paintings of zebras. You will also find an African elephant in her collection of other animal paintings. Those include a variety of birds, too, especially herons and egrets.
Her cows collection comes from photos she made of various types of cows at the cattle farms in Ocala, Florida as well as in Kentucky and Michigan.
As an advocate for all animals, Stroh donates a portion of the proceeds from her paintings to various animal welfare organizations.
Most of Stroh’s works are 24 x 24 inches in oil and can be on canvas, on linen, or on aluminum. She says she prefers painting on linen. Most works are created in her studio in Wellington, although in Italy she has done plein air paintings, “which is much different from doing studio paintings from photographs,” she explained. She has done some watercolor wash painting, but her work is primarily in oils.
I asked Stroh if she has any real horses in her life, as she has a hunter/jumper background in riding. “I did have a nice Amateur horse that I showed, but is retired now. I also had a young horse, but that didn’t work out so I sold that one a couple of years go. So I’m horseless now. It is difficult to balance painting full time with keeping horses.”
See much more of Weatherly Stroh’s art at her website, www.weatherlystroh.com.
