Horse drawn

BY BARRY LICHTER

WHEN BREEDER Jim Malcolm burst out laughing at the sight of his painting, fledgling artist Alister Simpson was understandably taken aback.

It was one of his first commissions and he'd worked hard trying to capture the beautifully dappled grey sprinter Tudor Light for the Auckland Racing Club.

But Simpson had to sketch the bad-tempered mare from a safe distance and his wife, Mary, had even feared for her safety when she snapped some photos for him.

So when he anxiously unveiled the work, and Malcolm couldn't stop guffawing, Simpson wondered whether he should check to see he hadn't given his subject too many legs.

Malcolm, it turned out, was just so shocked by the uncanny likeness, and he treasured the painting so much, that when Simpson returned three months later to do a final varnish, he found it locked away for safe-keeping in a bedroom cupboard where the owner thought he'd protect it from the light.

Nearly 35 years later, Simpson's works hang in some of the most prestigious collections, in the palaces of royals and sheikhs, and his commissions take him to leading racetracks and stud farms around the world.

The boy who grew up in Remuera, a stone's throw from Ellerslie racecourse, and who, at the age of eight, saw the great Kindergarten win the 1942 Auckland Cup, is back this weekend as a guest of the Auckland Racing Club, which yesterday named a race in his honour.

These days living in Sydney with wife Mary, Simpson, 75, is home briefly for the launch of his book A Brush With Horses, a hand-picked selection of more than 100 of his favourite works.

And for even the untrained eye, it's easy to see why he is recognised as Australasia's leading equine artist and one of only two in the southern hemisphere to be invited into the prestigious American Academy of Equine Art.

But Simpson, whose paintings now command fees of up to $A25,000, could never have dreamed of such recognition when he sold his first painting in 1976 for $500.

"I used to give paintings away," said Simpson. "I'd done about a dozen before that – I remember [owner-trainer] Clyde Conway being rapt with one I gave him of his good jumper Smoke Ring."

When Simpson asked his next-door neighbour whether his friend Warren Sandman would be interested in buying one of his 1976 Auckland Cup winner, Perhaps, his career was away.

Given his eye for detail it's hardly surprising Simpson remembers everything about his visit to the stable of Perhaps's trainer Colin Jillings to draw sketches and take notes about the mare, and how he tested the patience of a then young apprentice named Bobby Vance.

For right from the start, Simpson spared no effort on the most minute detail – the way a horse cocked its head, pricked its ears, the length of it eyelashes – and all were noted.

In a foreword to the book by leading Sydney trainer Gai Waterhouse, she marvels at how Simpson transcends the ability of a camera by capturing the personality of his subjects.

"They are brought to life in his paintings with real expressions and awareness on their faces. Often it is a slightly cocked ear or the slight angle of a head that makes the finished paintings so good. They are joyous."

Simpson tries to make a couple of visits when researching his subjects, making pencil sketches on the spot and, if staying overnight in a motel, returning to do a watercolour sketch the same night while the colours are fresh in his mind.

Sometimes he gets a bit too close – like the day he was sketching top Australian Exceed And Excel in his box, and he looked up just in time to prevent the stallion from crushing him against the wall.

Veandercross, or "Vandy" as his Kiwi fans knew him, wasn't so intimidating – he just took a chunk out of his sketch pad.

Simpson had to be quick on his feet at Ellerslie when New Zealand Derby winner Wahid disappeared soon after the race and he had to talk his way into the swab box to sketch the horse before he was whisked home to New Plymouth.

Strong colours helped Bonecrusher and Nom Du Jeu earn places as favourites with Simpson.

"Bonecrusher was such a lovely rich colour – I could paint him from memory even now – and Nom Du Jeu is a beautiful colour and has great conformation."

Simpson learned from the best about the anatomy of horses, tagging along for five years in the 1980s with former leading northern vet John May on his travels round the stables, sketching gluteus maximus muscles which May would inspect.

But it's not just the accuracy of his classic horse portraits which readers of the book will notice – jockeys, owners, trainers and even racetrack officials are uncannily correct in his action paintings.

And that's hardly surprising considering the lengths Simpson goes to.

When he paints his annual commission of the Golden Slipper winner for the Sydney Turf Club he takes photographs at the barrier of every runner, to get the relationship of horse and jockey dead right.

In researching his painting of 2006 winner Miss Finland he says he must have replayed a video of the race hundreds of times to get the correct positioning of the horses. "And wide out you can see Craig Williams riding with his head down, as he does."

In Simpson's painting of Tie The Knot's 2000 Mercedes Classic win, the body position of jockey Shane Dye is so recognisable it's spooky.

While Grant Cooksley welcomed Simpson's request to visit during his research for a painting of 1986 NZ Derby winner Tidal Light, he found other jockeys less accommodating – "Shane Dye would have charged you for a sitting."

In the six or so weeks it takes for a $A15,000 painting Simpson is always focused on his work – even in his sleep.

"Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and think, gosh, I must alter that," – once it struck him that he had the mallet in the wrong hand for a polo player.

"I can do my best work in the middle of the night. You're fresh after a sleep. That's when the title for the book came to me too."

Simpson, who has regular commissions on feature races, gets plenty of work by word of mouth – when Sebring won the 2008 Golden Slipper, seven of his owners wanted paintings, all different – but on occasions he has chased commissions himself.

Keen to paint 1993 Slipper winner Bint Marscay, Simpson found it impossible to get at owner Sheikh Rashid bin Hamdan Al-Nahyan, so had some examples of his work delivered to his hotel room.

"I was woken at two or three in the morning by the sheikh's manager and told, no, he doesn't want a painting, he wants three. And he commissioned quite a big painting."

Simpson is working now on a 30 x 24-inch painting of AJC Derby winner Roman Emperor, which the club wants to include master trainer Bart Cummings – who with his distinctive eyebrows and hair won't be hard to capture. And next will be Gai Waterhouse's MacKinnon Stakes winner Thesio and a work for the STC to replace a damaged painting of Poetic Prince.

The artist has kept only a few of the more than 400 paintings he has completed in the last 34 years. "I've got a few that my wife won't let out of the house."

- © Fairfax NZ News