Sally Moren kindly has donated this oil portrait of the late Iroquois Salt to the Hound Welfare Fund benefit auction.
One in a series of profiles showcasing artists who have donated their own work in support of the Hound Welfare Fund. The art featured here will be auctioned on March 20 at the HWF’s dinner and auction in Lexington, Kentucky. For information on how to bid–even if you can’t attend the auction in person–please contact coakford@aaa-alliedgroup.com.
SALLY MOREN grew up in Virginia, and although she lives in Norfolk, Massachusetts, these days, she’s never lost her connection with Virginia’s landscape and particularly its hunt country.
“I’m completely taken by horses and hounds in the field, which is why I paint them,” she said. “I grew up in Virginia in the country-ish and am haunted as an adult by the beauty of the country (which is fast disappearing), so it’s sort of an atavistic way for me to get back to my roots, I think! Plus, I’ve been a horse nut since I could talk. Horses and dogs have always been central to my well-being!”
Moren used to give her artwork regularly to an annual fundraiser hosted by her local hunt, the Norfolk, and when they stopped having the auction several years ago, she says, she missed the chance to give back to the sport that’s provided much inspiration for her work. The Hound Welfare Fund‘s annual art auction provided another opportunity.
“It really gives me great pleasure to contribute to the sport and its people, so it’s a joy for me,” she explained.
Moren only paints horses and dogs, both commissions and general scenes that reflect the sporting life. “Hunting is my main milieu,” she said, but added that she also creates works related to polo and driving.
Moren graduated from The College of William and Mary before getting her M.A. at Mills College, and her work has been featured in collections and publications from California to Virginia–including on the cover of The Chronicle of the Horse.
“Many times when I’m working on an idea for a larger painting, I’ll do a small study as a way to work out a kink or get inspired,” Moren wrote on her website.
Whether she’s busy painting or taking time away from the easel, Moren gets plenty of inspiration from her own animals.
She has a 24-year-old mare that she’s owned for 19 years, as well as two dogs. She also once had a foxhound, Velvet, whom she gave to a farm-owning farm after the hound developed allergies in Moren’s house.
Velvet was followed by Oakley, a beagle/basset mix. “I though he would be a hound in a small package,” she wrote to us via e-mail. “Well, 30 pounds of dynamite is more like it! He’s a beauty, though, and keeps me sane. Micah is my new Scottie, another rescue that I adopted Thanksgiving weekend. In fact, as I write this, he’s tearing up the leg of the stool I’m sitting on … Good thing they’re irresistibly cute!!”
Full Cry: A Hound Blog 