My artwork is about and for the wild mustangs, in particular the Spring Creek Basin Mustangs and Disappointment Valley Sanctuary mustangs. I’ve been painting them since 1999 with my goal of bringing more awareness to the public for our nation’s wild mustangs, their great beauty, spirit and energy and their devotion to each other and their strong family units. My goal in painting them is to help protect them.

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From childhood with a bucket of crayons and fistful of drawing paper, artist Karen Keene Day evolved through the years painting varied subjects,always including horses, using watercolor, mixed media, zinc etchings, and for the last fourteen years acrylics on canvas as her mediums.

Since 1999 her passion for wild horses has taken precedence over all other subject matter.  Her dedication to painting the horses to help raise the public’s awareness of wild horses  has been her goal. From each sale she donates 3% of her commission to help the Spring Creek Wild horses in Disappointment Valley in Colorado.

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Her inspiration comes from twelve years of traveling to different wild horse management areas (HMA) in the USA, to look for the wild horses, to observe and photograph them. Her primary focus has been in with the Spring Creek Herd in the desert region of Disappointment Valley in Colorado, located between Durango and Norwood, CO.

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The Pryor Mountain Wild Horses on the border of Montana and Wyoming in 1999 propelled Day into her journey as a “voice” for them.  Sandwash Basin in Meeker, Little Bookcliffs, Ryan’s Gulch all in Colorado, and Marsh Tackies wild in Cumberland,GA. and St. Helena’s Island, S.C. are other HMA from which she has also drawn her painting sources and research.

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Noble, majestic, powerful, beautiful … it is these qualities of horses that Karen Keene Day sees, and through her paintings, reveals their spirituality in a Celebration of Life through color & movement. In their strong family units in the wild or alone, running free or standing still, Karen paints them with rich colors, free of tack and rider. Karen Keene Day’s paintings of horses in pastels, acrylics, and water-colors, have traveled across the United States and to Spain, to shows, businesses and clients’ homes. Her paintings have been featured in horse magazines Equine Image, Andalusian and Conquistador, including several covers on Andalusian magazine. Karen has been extensively covered by Equine Image, who also represented her at Equitana, an International Horse Show, in Louisville, Kentucky and Wildlife Art Magazine. The artist has given workshops, slide shows and presentations to business groups, artists’ associations and school children. Karen travels to photograph horses for her paintings, and to find inspiration. This has included trips to study the wild horses of the Pryor Mountains on the border of Wyoming and Montana, the Little Bookcliff Horses of DeBeque, Colorado and wild Marsh horses of the Carolina and Georgia Shores.  Disappointment Valley in Colorado, where the Spring Creek Wild Horses are, is now her main focus.  Karen generously gives 3% of her commission sales to the Cortez, Colorado branch of the National Mustang Association.