This year’s Common Ground Country Fair poster features a pair of Belgian draft horses that send a subtle message.
The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association revealed on Tuesday that Katherine Noble Churchill’s oil-on-linen painting of two working horses had won its annual poster design contest. It will decorate T-shirts and advertisements for the annual fair, which the association announced will run Sept. 19-21 this year.
The two brown horses in the painting stand with their ears halfway back, meaning they are listening to their surroundings, according to Churchill. She started studying how to communicate with horses after seeing a presentation at the fair, and learned that they are very sensitive and in tune with their environment — something that isn’t always true of people, she said.
Churchill, who grew up riding horses in Dover-Foxcroft and now paints in Bar Harbor, has been studying painting for about 15 years. She said animals, particularly shown in landscapes, often feature in her work.
Her favorite part of the event’s vast programming for gardening, homesteading and environmentally sustainable living is horsemanship speaker Chris Lombard’s sessions on connecting and communicating with horses.
“Now and in the future, I hope to see people enjoying the continual process of learning to develop communication and athleticism in the horse for both riding and working on the farm,” she said in a press release.
Her painting interpreting these lessons was her second submission to the annual contest.