Self Directed - Sacha Phariss

Sacha Phariss is a self-taught artist who started painting professionally in 2014. She was born in Santa Cruz, California, in 1990 and moved to Mexico in 2004. She is fascinated with horses and began drawing them as a young child until the age of 16. She took a break from her art while focusing on missionary work with her family. At 24 years old, she did her first painting, successfully launching her career as a full-time artist with her personal brand, Phariss Horses. Her acrylic paintings are in private collections worldwide and are currently available for purchase online through her website, Phariss Horses, Etsy, Instagram, and Facebook.  Her art has also been sold at charity events, benefiting several horse rescues in the United States. The Art of the Horse, an online group of equine artists, features her artwork in the article entitled, " Sacha Phariss's Dazzling Paintings Brings You On A Journey of Self Empowerment and Discovery."

http://www.pharisshorses.com/

Currently, her medium of choice is acrylic paints, and she uses different media to create texture and a 3D feel in her art.  In 2016, Sacha completed her first 12 piece collection on wood entitled, "Horses in White," where her realistic horses are skillfully captured with various playful and imaginative backgrounds. "Horse Passion" is currently an eight (out of twelve) piece collection with different colour-themed acrylic pours and striking horse poses. "Horse Majesty" currently has ten (out of twelve) pieces with inspiring backgrounds and commanding themes, such as "Be Bold." The "Once Upon a Horse" series has two pieces at the moment, that transports you to a different world.  The pieces in Phariss Horses commands "the Art of the Imagination;" it helps to encourage the beholder to take action, be creative, and be true to your own spirit and passion. Sacha is a member of the Society of Arts, Ajijic, Mexico. She has given classes on acrylic pouring and is currently creating an educational video series. One of her goals in life is to live up to the meaning of her name, "helper of mankind," and she is blessed to be able to encourage people to create art and express themselves in a positive and uplifting manner.

Sacha is known for her abstract backgrounds to her horse portraits.

HORSES IN WHITE. These range from her Horses in White series which is a collection of paintings that all have white backgrounds with objects that she loves or that have a meaning to her. There are twelve paintings in this collection. All are painted in acrylic on gessoboard and measure 24 x 36 inches.

ONCE UPON A HORSE. The paintings in this series were designed to have a magical feel that will take you in to another time, place or world. This collection will consist of 12 paintings when completed. She has always loved fairy tales, medieval stories and that wonderful feeling of a happy ending. She would like to share these thoughts and feelings in this series. Some of the paintings are inspired by old poetry or stories that set the mood for the art. She truly loves creating this type of art. When I see this type of art it lets me dream of days long ago, times to come and give me great pleasure.

HORSE MAJESTY. The paintings below on the left are inspired by the majestic aspect of these beautiful animals, the collection Horse Majesty, celebrates their loveliness in imaginative settings. She loves trying to find the perfect background to make the horse pop out or give it a very unique and different look. This is definitely one of my favourite collections. The collection when completed will have 12 paintings.

HORSE PASSION. Being a very passionate person Sacha had to make a series of paintings called "Horse Passion" especially because horses are something she is passionate about. This is the same reason I did my Self Directed project on horses. She says that she is not horse crazy as unbelievable as that may sound, I just have an appreciation for beautiful things as well as art. When she was 13 years of age her family moved not just to a new city but a different county. She did not have any friends especially friends that spoke English. Her father bought her a horse which was one thing she had always wanted and that horse became my best friend. She was old and needed lots of help but no matter how much Sacha gave she always gave back more love and kindness than Sacha put in. Not every horse will be this way but for her at that time in life, she was like an angel. So what do horses mean to her? Love, faith, kindness and hope. She hopes this comes across in this set of paintings for others to see.

I particularly love her abstract coloured portraits! They remind me of the work I did for my second-year university project (three images pictured below). I would love to expand my range of realistic portraits to include abstract coloured drawings too.

Sacha Phariss' pink horse drawing.

OUT OF THE BLUE. This is my favourite piece by Phariss. I am currently saving up to buy a print. "Out Of The Blue" Why a blue horse? This colour of blue makes me feel happy for some unknown reason. Every time I see him it just makes me smile. The model I use for the reference I took pictures of when I was at a horse show once upon a time. I was instantly drawn to the horse and his beautiful eyes the horse was a red bay and I’ve painted him before in his actual colour but I just couldn’t resist having a blue one of him too. I have hundreds of reference photos I have taken of horses but out of all of them it’s very rare to find a horse with this much emotion in the face so visible in the pictures and I tried to capture what I saw. Giclee Prints Are all numbered and come with a certificate of authenticity.

Her Story : “Happy Birthday!” Ripping open with excitement my gifts from my 4th birthday there in front of me was a gift from a friend, a plastic, light, Bay Horse with her small colt. It was love at first sight! This began to direct my life passion and future goals! My family is from California and we have been serving as missionaries for the past 12+ years in Mexico. Our lives have been dedicated to serving and assisting families to apply Biblical principles to their lives for true success. My name, Sacha means helper of mankind, which is my life purpose to serve, assist, and make a difference in the lives of families. Since a young child, I begin to draw and then paint horses, as a self-taught artist. My love and passion for horses grew since my 4th birthday with drawing, dreaming, reading, and playing with now a collection of plastic horses. Within less than a year of being in Mexico, my father found for sale a beautiful white, but neglected and abused, Lipizzaner pregnant mare. Lovingly and tenderly I nursed Twilight back to health and she gave me a beautiful gift, Sapphire! Twilight’s health declined and her death was related to her past abuse and care. My heart was crushed with tears of sorrow that would not stop. I felt like my heart would explode from the pain of knowing that this could have been prevented. This experience taught me a greater love and compassion for abused animals, and to reach out to animals in need. My dream is to create realistic, inspired, meaningful, equine art. I enjoy creating the personality and spirit of each horse in my art, horse art is something I love not just crating it but having it to enjoy."