From academic drawing to experimentation, our courses are based on observation of the horse as a support for plastic exploration, with the aim of leading artists towards autonomy. The project also aims to explore the richness and diversity of the equine world through drawing and the visual arts. In short, it’s a project of exchange between two artistic worlds.
Conceived and run by Barbara Ryckewaert, a visual artist, rider and doctoral student, it is open to anyone wishing to practise drawing in a setting conducive to exchanges and around a subject as rich as it is beautiful: the horse.
Initially trained in the visual arts and a graduate of the Angoulême art school and the Arts Décoratifs de Paris, Barbara initially devoted herself to artistic creation and the implementation of various artistic mediation projects. Her teaching experience in France has been with a variety of audiences (schoolchildren, young people in training, hobbyists, etc.) and her artistic work has been exhibited in various cultural venues (Paris, Nantes, the Basque Country, etc.).
Passionate about horses and horse riding since childhood, Barbara then turned her attention to horses, initially to train professionally in the education of horses and the teaching of horse riding (training with the Cavalgador organisation). That’s how she decided to move to Portugal in 2020, to be able to enjoy its beautiful equestrian traditions.
Since 2021, she has been studying for a doctorate in aesthetics and anthropology at the University of Paris 8, focusing on the visual relationship between horses and humans in Portugal.
This work, which is already well advanced, has enabled her to envisage new approaches to the horse and to the history of horse riding, and to link them in innovative ways in order to share her knowledge and discoveries with as many people as possible.
The aim of this project is also to question academic approaches to the world of art and the living world, and to think about and experiment with new avenues for dialogue between artistic and scientific disciplines.
