Winnipeg based artist Tim Schouten has produced a series of one hundred small encaustic paintings based on images of horses. The series, titled In the Absence of Horses evolved out of a single initial image – a black horse rolling on it’s back after a long ride, hooves akimbo. The artist will exhibit half of the series in a show which opens on December 2nd, 2004 at the new Ken Segal Gallery in Osborne Village.

After living in urban centers all his life (he drove a taxi in Toronto for 14 years), Schouten moved to a rural setting five years ago, trading in a warehouse space in Winnipeg for a small acreage outside the city. Schouten developed a fascination with horses and with the historic relationship of man and horse.

So little a part of most people’s daily lives, horses retain an iconic and ubiquitous presence in the media. In many ways horses have all but disappeared from our culture except as emblematic entities inhabiting the contemporary psyche. Where are the horses really? Still used in cattle ranching and in policing – a holdover role, now almost purely symbolic, horses are largely relegated to sports and entertainment roles in Western societies. They are in the rodeo, in circuses, in horse shows, at the races, on television, in movies, in songs, in poems – and in art. From Homer to Remington to Bruce Nauman and Maurizio Cattelan’s The Ballad of Trotsky, a beautiful taxidermed horse slung from the ceiling, recently sold at Sotheby’s for $2 million. The Kentucky Derby is always front page news – think, “Smarty Jones, the little horse that could”. Tony Soprano loved a horse.

This body of work is deeply informed by the writings of the late American philosopher Vicki Hearne, who speculated on the moral life of domestic animals, their lives in concert with humans and her profound belief that pets possess courage, wisdom and intellect. The title, In the Absence of Horses, is taken from the title of a book and a poem by the late Ms Hearne. The poem touches on love and loss and the power of language and concludes with the line, “Here, in the grass, are horses.”

Schouten studied in the Studio Program at Art’s Sake Inc. in Toronto and worked as a cab driver during his school years and the early part of his career. Cab driver to cowboy! He has participated in solo and group shows in Toronto, Guelph, Calgary, Brandon and Winnipeg.