To truly appreciate a piece of Brenna Kimbro’s art, you first have to back up, way up, taking in the full scope of the thing. Then you have to get up really close, cheek to jowl, observing the fine details that comprise the entire creation. Zoom out, panning from nose to tail; zoom in, picking up the dancing of hooves, the flare of a nostril. These paintings and sculptures, many of them larger than life, are the work of an artist who clearly has no reservations about taking up space.

“My tendency is to make things enormous,” Kimbro says. “I have my dream horse barn, with my studio on one side. It has a big roll door, and it’s easy to make things big in there. I often bring them into the house to keep the scale down.”

Big vision, big energy, big subject matter—primarily horses—and a deeply intuitive approach to art have been Kimbro’s touchstones from an early age. Adopted from an orphanage in South Korea when she was 18 months old, Kimbro grew up on a working cattle ranch in Union, Oregon, where she developed a deep affinity for horses.

Read the full article in the July/August 2023 issue.

Mountain King

Bronze
10’ by 10’ by 5’

“This piece is located at Triple Creek Ranch in Darby, Montana. There are large herds of Rocky Mountain elk that I watch from my home. I wanted to capture the majesty of a large, dominant bull elk looking into the distance.”

Zero Gravity

Bronze
32” by 10” by 42”

“This sculpture showcases the beauty and dynamism of a collected horse. With implied lines and a less-is-more-approach, this piece was cast from desert sagebrush from our ranch in Eastern Oregon.”