COWBOY ARTIST CREATES MONUMENT TO THE HOLSTEINER HORSE

Houston, Texas (June 3, 2000) --- Holsteiner breeders, Ed and Kelley Wallace of Wah'Kon-Tah Sporthorse International in Houston, Texas, have unveiled a 3/4 life size bronze of a Holsteiner mare and foal by cowboy artist J. Payne Lara. Lara, a bronze sculptor from the Houston area, hails from a long line of working cowboys who are also painters and sculptors, but he is the first to earn his living in the art world. In 1991, during his senior year in high school, he won Best of Show at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo earning a scholarship to the Cowboy Artists of America Museum in Kerrville, Texas. The now 28-year-old joined his first gallery at the age of 20 & emdash; becoming the youngest bronze sculptor in the marketplace. Every summer, Payne travels to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota where he absorbs the Lakota Sioux cultural heritage and gains inspiration for his work like The Cold Maker and The Elk Dreamer.

Ed Wallace, treasurer of the American Holsteiner Horse Association, is no stranger to Native American culture either as his mother is part Osage. In fact, the farm name, Wah'Kon-Tah is Osage for "the great mystery."

Payne Lara first met the Wallaces when he set up a display of some bronzes during a charity Chuck Wagon Cook-out held at Wah'Kon-Tah. The two began talking and soon decided to create a monument to the Holsteiner horse.

"It just worked out," said Wallace.

The chosen subject was the Holsteiner mare, Heidi IX, a grey daughter of Lambadero-Luebeck by Fasolt. This premium mare is an import bred in Germany by Klaus Martin Both. The model for the foal was supposed to have been Heidi's own daughter, Osage Princess & emdash; champion foal for the American Holsteiner Horse Association in 1999. However, Courageous & emdash; out of another mare named Jana II (bred by Jan Herbert Detjens) & emdash; had been injured and therefore was more convenient to measure for the bronze, since he was confined to a stall during his recovery.

This was Lara's first large commission.

"I was very fortunate. Most sculptors work their whole life and never have the opportunity to work this large."

It was decided to create the bronze in 3/4 size to keep it in proportion to the circular driveway and pool which surrounds the finished work. The bronze depicts the mare and foal fording a mountain stream & emdash; an effect that is heightened by a fountain flowing from rocks beneath the feet of the pair. Probably the most interesting detail to fans of the Holsteiner horse is the two brands & emdash; the mare sports the brand of the Holsteiner Verband in Germany, while her foal carries the brand of the American Holsteiner Horse Association.

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J. Payne Lara is currently represented by the Jackson-Kirkland Fine Arts Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico 

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