The Becoming of the Horse: A Meditation on Form, Identity, and Flow

There are moments in the creative process where something unexpected, even spiritual, begins to take shape, not through deliberate design, but through surrender to the materials and the moment. "The Becoming of the Horse" is one such moment.

This painting emerged from a technique known as paint pouring, where pigments are allowed to flow, merge, collide, and settle in unpredictable ways. It’s a process that reflects life itself, messy, beautiful, and often beyond control. As I watched the colours spread across the 20" x 16" canvas in green, indigo, yellow, crimson, and white, I began to see a form rising from the chaos. It wasn’t precise, yet it was undeniable: the spirit of a horse, caught mid-stride, perhaps mid-thought.

But more than just an image of a horse, this work felt like an invitation, an invitation to reflect on the nature of identity, transformation, and becoming.

The Philosophy Behind the Image
We often think of life in terms of destinations: who we are, what we’ve achieved, where we’re going. But what if the essence of life lies not in being anything fixed, but in the act of becoming? This horse is not fully formed, and that’s precisely the point. It is emerging, just as we all are. It is motion captured in stillness, a symbol of the soul in process.

This idea resonates with ancient philosophical traditions. In Heraclitus’s famous words, “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” Identity, like the horse in this painting, is never static. It is shaped by experience, change, tension, and the unexpected. Like the fluid paints that created this image, we are drawn into patterns we didn’t choose, yet within them we discover parts of ourselves we didn’t know existed.

The Horse as Archetype
The horse has long been a powerful symbol across cultures. It represents strength, freedom, wildness, and grace. But in this piece, the horse is elusive, almost ghostlike—yet alive. It suggests that these qualities live within us, too, even if they’re not always clearly defined. They don’t have to be perfectly shaped to be real.
Perhaps what we are searching for in life is not clarity, but resonance. Not form, but flow.

Final Reflections
"The Becoming of the Horse" reminds me that art, like life, is most profound when it captures not what is finished, but what is unfolding. We are all in a constant state of becoming, molded by invisible forces, unexpected turns, and the dance between chaos and coherence.

May this painting invite you to honour your own becoming, to embrace the uncertainty, the in-between spaces, and the beauty that lies not in perfection, but in presence.