About
Ulla Strickland is a native of Germany and has lived in the U.S.
since 1993. Her two greatest passions manifested at the same time
when the then 3-year old grabbed a crayon and drew – who would
have guessed? – a horse. At least she claimed it was a horse. From
that moment on, every picture she drew contained at least one
horse-like creature. She started taking riding lessons at the age of
eleven and quickly discovered her love for dressage when she
knocked out a tooth while jumping. At the age of sixteen, her
parents – finally! – bought a horse. The handsome pitch-black
Trakehner gelding became her favorite model and it was clear
even then that her medium of choice would be graphite,
something that has never changed over the years. In her late
teens and during her college years, Ulla did quite a few portraits
of people, horses and pets for friends, family and some “outside”
clients.
At the age of 30, Ulla made her way from baroque Würzburg,
Germany to modern Atlanta, GA. After the culture shock wore off
and a year spent in the U.S. without horses (“the worst year of
my life”), she found her way back into the sport and has since
worked diligently on her “horse collection” which now includes a
Thoroughbred and two Arabians.
Ulla is mostly self-taught; her parents wisely discouraged an
education and career in the fine arts. However, she was part of a
select intensive study group at her high school under the tutelage
of well-known illustrator and art professor Sven-Roland Hooge.
There, she perfected her technique, using an average of four to
five different pencils to almost photographically depict different
materials and surface structures. After graduating from high
school, a half-hearted attempt to enter a local art college against
her parents’ wishes was rejected by school officials citing a lack
of talent and she chose a marketing career instead which she is
still pursuing today in her “day job”. However, she never
completely abandoned her second passion, the fine arts, either
and is now for the first time sharing her works with a broader
public.
since 1993. Her two greatest passions manifested at the same time
when the then 3-year old grabbed a crayon and drew – who would
have guessed? – a horse. At least she claimed it was a horse. From
that moment on, every picture she drew contained at least one
horse-like creature. She started taking riding lessons at the age of
eleven and quickly discovered her love for dressage when she
knocked out a tooth while jumping. At the age of sixteen, her
parents – finally! – bought a horse. The handsome pitch-black
Trakehner gelding became her favorite model and it was clear
even then that her medium of choice would be graphite,
something that has never changed over the years. In her late
teens and during her college years, Ulla did quite a few portraits
of people, horses and pets for friends, family and some “outside”
clients.
At the age of 30, Ulla made her way from baroque Würzburg,
Germany to modern Atlanta, GA. After the culture shock wore off
and a year spent in the U.S. without horses (“the worst year of
my life”), she found her way back into the sport and has since
worked diligently on her “horse collection” which now includes a
Thoroughbred and two Arabians.
Ulla is mostly self-taught; her parents wisely discouraged an
education and career in the fine arts. However, she was part of a
select intensive study group at her high school under the tutelage
of well-known illustrator and art professor Sven-Roland Hooge.
There, she perfected her technique, using an average of four to
five different pencils to almost photographically depict different
materials and surface structures. After graduating from high
school, a half-hearted attempt to enter a local art college against
her parents’ wishes was rejected by school officials citing a lack
of talent and she chose a marketing career instead which she is
still pursuing today in her “day job”. However, she never
completely abandoned her second passion, the fine arts, either
and is now for the first time sharing her works with a broader
public.
The artist with the youngest member
of her “collection”, the Arabian “CF
Royal Command”....
of her “collection”, the Arabian “CF
Royal Command”....
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.... and the Arabian “CF Chernobyll”.